Sounds like a pickle for you then
Early/Mid-2024 thru today. Two round-trip journeys to Iceland (where durability was put to test) and one round-trip to Spain for Traka.
If this is a genuine thing, it should be relatively easy to bound the failure mode. For example, x number of hours at y temp.
Yep, again without wanting to use the exact quote, the failure mode was identified as 10+hrs at very low ambient temp. I live in Australia which means this is 100% hit for Europe or US. Iceland from mainland US prob ok? I’m flying to France soon so will put in another bottle of Silca which I bought more recently (along with Smoove as a backup) and see if the formula has been changed to address this. Again would be much easier if Silca just did some comms on this.
I mean sure it’s annoying but hardly the biggest challenge we face. My main point for posting was to put up a PSA - seems to be mainly an issue for us in Australia travelling to Europe and the US.
For what it’s worth I’ve traveled from Aus to EU and back with CeramicSpeed UFO drip no problemos.
I wonder how cold it gets in the cargo bay. Do you have a device that can save temperature data over time? I am thinking perhaps prior to checking in your luggage that contains a bottle of the Silca drip lube, turn on your bike computer, start an activity and then place it in the same luggage (turn off all the beeping before doing so that you don’t freak the airport security folks out ).
Good intel Jase. Back in early 2024 Ceramic Speed were looking into whether this was going to be a problem for them as well, so it sounds like their product is ok. I haven’t used CS before but it has to be better than my current backup of Smoove which leaves quite a mess after a few applications.
Interesting question. Not below freezing according to goggle. I just reread the email from early 2024 and it also contained the following insight “prolonged cold at low pressure in airplane hold”.
Do you have a number for the ‘very low’ ambient?
My understanding is that most cargo holds are still kept above freezing (imagine what this would do to other liquids, like toiletries and wine, if this wasn’t the case.) As such, I have very high confidence that my garage sees colder temps for even longer periods than what is being discussed here - with no impact to the drip wax.
Apologies, but I remain skeptical.
To clarify, this was a full regular bottle with the applicator nozzle and I packed it in my bike bag, which was in the cargo section of the plane(s).
See my post above on temp and low pressure. Fair to remain sceptical but I don’t see why I would just make this up
Same here, multiple trips across Asia with CS UFO All Conditions, with zero issues when used…
I don’t think temperature in an airplane’s freight room qualifies as very low, unless something is seriously wrong. It’s more like 5 degrees Centigrade. So while you may have a point re issues with keeping Super Secret in a garage in winter (which is more likely than having it in checked luggage) air travel should not be a problem.
If your experience is from a single flight and the change in usability is really down to very low temperatures in the cargo compartment, you should probably be happy to have landed safely….
Ya’ll must have received different CS drip than what they sent me (all condition, purchased in 2024.) The stuff I received has 0 durability, is essentially useless. Maybe flying with it makes it better and that is what I have been missing this whole time?
It’s quite a long chain - but in summary Silca got quite a few complaints in 2023 about this and identified long haul (10+ hours) in airplane hold as well as winter international sea freight as being causes. Very low temp for a prolonged period and/or low temp at low pressure in airplane hold seem to be the identified failure modes. This is known by at least some involved in the Silca supply chain because that it where I got the source email with all the intel from.
I haven’t relied on it for very long so I can’t really comment on that. My trips have been 1-2 weeks and I bring 2 immersion-waxed chains. The CS UFO is just to extend the immersion-waxed chains beyond my usual re-immersion period. Now that I have an endurance chip in my pot I am not likely to need the drip-wax much at all.
The CS UFO drip wax lasts on average, about 200+ kms for me, in the dry. Slightly a little under than when I was using MSW immersion waxes, so I’d assume that that’s a pretty solid figure. The end figure is somewhat variable, especially if I was riding through rain, etc, but 200+ is about the average I’ve come to expect from it.
The caveat here is that all my chains are immersion waxed and the CS drip wax is mostly used as a top-up/interim measure until I can get the chains re-waxed, so I’m assuming that the “base coat” wax is helping to somewhat lengthen the per-application lifespan a little.
I hate to be that guy, but given that all that’s been reported here is hearsay and that some here have flown with Silca Super Secret without issue, it’s hard take the claims as facts without verifiable evidence. Moreover since Silca doesn’t say anything about this on their site, the need for evidence just increases. The claims might be true, but this is the internet in 2025. There are a lot of claims of all sorts that have no supporting evidence.
Taking in cabin baggage not option due to flight restriction
That’s where decanting some drip wax into an eye drop bottle or similar is a great move. No issue taking that in hand baggage, and can be carried on the bike more easily too if doing multi-day bikepacking type ride.
Great idea - thanks