Should I consider throwing silca’s endurance chips into my pure-paraffin pot?
So far I’ve always been waxing the chains in my household using simple, high-grade paraffine, thinking it’s an economic alternative for our casual cycling adventures with low performance goals. I’m happy, just sometimes wondering: would adding endurance chips would make the waxed chains last a little longer?
Looking forward to your experiences and opinions! cheers.
I think the resounding consensus is that the endurance chips are well worth it.
However if you go this route I’d suggest going all-in and blending Silca’s hot wax with the endurance chip instead of dropping it into your plain paraffin. Due to the chemistry of these products I’m not sure the results will be quite what you expect just dropping the endurance chip into paraffin. This is certainly more expensive initially than your supply of plain paraffin but for casual cycling one bag and a chip could last you years.
Or like I and another member mentioned in the other thread, try some Squirt hot melt wax. Should last even longer than the traditional waxes (incl endurance chip).
How long have you been doing this? My understanding is Molybdenum or Tungsten Bisulfide is the actual lubricant, the wax is just the carrier. I’m curious what paraffin-only will do, but it should not provide that much lubrication.
Actually if you look at Zero Friction Cycling’s tests, you’ll find that plain candle wax did quite well in his testing. That means the wax itself does provide lubrication. And paraffin is a hydrocarbon and is quite often a petroleum distillate. What a lot of the name brand chain waxes offer is a mixture of waxes and other components (like tungsten disulfide or molybdenum disulfide) to make the wax stay attached to the chain better, increase the life of the wax, further reduce friction, etc.
I’ve had a second pot of plain paraffin for years. I use it on my trainer bike and my kids bikes. It’s a bit more flakey and needs replacing more often than the MSW but I ride the trainer bike more than any other and I replace the chains every couple of years when they’re only borderline “worn” on length testing.
I wouldn’t stick a chip in there though. May as well just buy the good stuff…
The wax is the primary lubricant: many waxes and paraffin* exhibit a lamellar structure and form slip planes under shear stress. Once formed the planes continue to slide on each other. In my experience some true waxes do this especially well, presumably because they are esters with a planar molecular structure due to phenol groups; carnauba being a standout.
Additives improve performance especially at very high pressures, resisting squeeze out.
*Paraffin is not a true wax. Waxes Structure | Functions | Biochemistry | Examples
I chose Rex black diamond for the longevity (based on Zero Friction Cycles test) - it runs far longer than the straight paraffin (<0.5% oil) I used prior. To me it is worth it, but it is not the 10X better that it is more expensive. For the same money you could also buy another chain (or 2) and have fewer wax sessions (why didn’t I do that?).
Wow, I majored in chemistry and I’m not sure I really understand this! This is a really interesting explanation, thank you.