Chain Waxing, if you're not doing it, you should !

I have been using wax on my bikes chains for a long time now. 

It has great advantages, does not attract dirt, it is much simpler to clean (no need to degrease or use petrol/chemical degreasers), it is eco-friendly and also makes your drivetrain run smoother (faster) and for longer.

What I have been using so far, is a form of emulsified wax, or liquid wax in a bottle.

I have used Squirt lube and quite like it, with two minor issues.

1- It needs a lot of application, it wears out fast, so you need to apply it often. It is not a big issue, as opposite to what happens when you use oils, you don't need a full clean/degrase before re-applying. Just wipe down with a cloth (or old t-shirt in my case) and you are good to go.

Drawback, is it gets a bit expensive if you are doing a lot of hours on the bike.

2 - The wax (GUNK) buildup that happens on the rear pulley wheels. As this is an emulsified wax, it is always very soft, so you see a few drips here in there of black dots (wax mixed with road grime). 

When you put an outdoor bike on a trainer, you see the black wax dots that dripped on the floor.

It is easy to clean though, just a rag and you're done. It is not oily or greasy, so it comes out very well.

In any case, I am moving to the NEXT STEP of drivetrain nerdiness, CHAIN WAXING !!!

I saw a deal on AbsoluteBlack's GraphenWax at 50% off, so pre-ordered it.

Very nice box, with what look like chocolate squares. The wax is mixed with graphene and other stuff to make it faster, and is mentioned to be very pliable.

(Other considerations where Molten Speed Wax and Silca's secret wax, but this was on a discount). 

Now, how to use this ?

Armed with the knowledge of youtube (absolute black has it's own videos, as does Silca) and this great guide with all you need to know:

https://cyclingtips.com/2020/08/how-to-wax-a-chain-an-endless-faq/

I purchased a cheap slow cooker, and an infrared thermometer (aliexpress).

As my chain was already using Squirt, no need to go through extensive degreasing (to remove factory lube). In any case, the same applies. Stick the chain in a bottle with degreaser, shake shake shake, leave it there half an hour, shake shake shake, done.

You can then let it dry, or pass it through denatured alcohol, otherwise known as methylated spirits to get it ready for waxing.

In my case, I just did the same as for re-waxing, boiled water, pour it over chain, wax melts, comes out with gunk. Scrub a bit with soap with needed (I used dish washing soap and a small brush). Rinse again with hot water, done.

Get an old spoke, bend it like a hanger and here is a clean chain ready to get waxed.

2 liter crockpot ! Cheapest thing I could find. Set it to '2' or "medium".

Wax takes a bit of time to melt, this is a SLOW COOKER remember ?

Initially I was planning to use a rice cooker, but it is not a good idea. It warms up too fast and that can burn the wax a bit, making it less smooooth.

AbsoluteBlack mentions the wax melts at about 70 degrees, but they recommend waxing the chain from 90 to 100 degress, so that it gets properly into the chain.

This is where the AliExpress thermometer comes in !!Dip you chain in, and move it around. Leave it for a couple of minutes, stir again.

After that you are done. Take chain out and hang to dry. You can remove excess from the sides as that is not needed (otherwise it will flake off in the first use, so no biggy anyway).

Hang it to dry above the pot, so it drips back into the pot, and you can use the same wax for a loooonnnnggggggg time. I weighted it to get about 5 grams of wax on the chain. The box has 340grams of wax, and the waxing interval is about 1000km ( or 600 if you ride in wet mucky conditions).

So, a box of wax should be good for 40 to 68.0000kms.

Ok... not that much, as you always need enough so that the chain is completely submerged, but you get the point.

Here is the chain waxed and ready to go on the bike !!

At this point it is stiff as a board, but you just need to run it through your fingers or a round pipe to break the wax and ready to go.

First run on the indoor trainer, I saw some very small flaking on the bike chain stay. Other than that, super smooth, super clean and very dry.

I did the complete Tour of Sufferlandria on it (post coming soon) and it went flawlessly.

Chain performance was super smooth. I tried to get an idea of the claimed friction improvements and watt savings ( up to 7Watts they mention), but that is within tolerances of powermeters, so it is hard to prove.

In any case, I ran the bike and compared the data from the crank powermeter and the KICKR powermeter (at the hub) and it seemed like the difference between them was smaller than usual.

Usually crank reads a bit higher, about 10W (depends on cadence and load), but now it seemed to be more around a 5W difference.

Again, this can be caused by almost anything from temperature variations, to battery level on the 4iiii powermeter to wear on the trainer bearings, so take that with a pinch of salt.

I can for sure claim it was not any worse than with Squirt.

Regarding cost, it is a very cost effective solution if you factor in all the details.

The slow cooker costed 22€ (It is good for at least the 2 years warranty period).

GraphenWax is 30€ (Tour de france winning lube, so this is a premium product, still not that expensive).
Thermometer 7€.
So, 60€ gets you lube and appliances for 40.000km's, and you always have a nice clean and fast drivetrain.

Durability claims that you get at least double the life out of a chain than using oils.
You don't need to waste money and the environment on degreasers and toxic chemicals.

More time riding your bike, less time cleaning it.

The whole process was super easy, and the results are amazing. Super super clean, no need to worry about getting a calf tattoo, or getting your car dirty if you put the bike in.

If you are not waxing your chain, you should !

The Sufferfest - Knighthood Quest

 Having everything cancelled, I needed a challenge to get me motivated.

I have been considering doing a Knighthood Quest for The Sufferfest for a while now...

For those that are unfamiliar with it, you can achieve Knighthood in Sufferlandria by completing 10 workouts back to back (from a list of valid workouts). 

More info on the link below.
https://thesufferfest.com/pages/knights-of-sufferlandria

Going through the rules for the challenge number one alone got me thinking I MUST DO IT.

In addition to this, there is no Knight from my country, so I have the opportunity to have the forever glory of being the first Knight with Portuguese nationality. 

There are some training plans for it, and other sources of information, where you gradually built from 3 back to back workouts, to 5, than 7, etc ...

I did not do any of that, as I though that if I do 7 workouts back to back, I might as well do the remaining 3 and get it over with !

I also did not pay much attention to preparation, as I had previously done 24+ Hour rides in real life.

(In hindsight it was not a good idea).

I was just searching for a time slot to do it. Hence opportunity shows itself, as the family was out for a day.

I finished off work at 6 p.m., turned on the trainer, grabbed whatever food was available from the kitchen, got dressed (double bib strategy), chamois cream, shoes and started at 6:13 p.m.

I setup the bike next to the bedroom windows, with a big a$$ fan in front, the bathroom close by to fill up water bottles between videos, and the bed tempting me to quit and go for some ZZzzzZZ at every step.

Workout list was :

Attacker

There is no try

Power station

A very dark place

The omnium

The wretched

The best thing in the world

Revolver

Do as your told

G.o.a.t.

From the rules, you are allowed a max 10 minute break between videos (less is fine), so I kind of planned to do a break every other video to fill up bottles and get it done faster. (Another bad idea).

First two videos went fine, so fine that I just filled up bottles and got going with #3, less than 1 minute break. I eat on the bike, on warmups and cool-downs, so no time wasted there.

Another small break (the computer is away from the bike, so I need to get out to change videos) and on with A.V.D.P., so far so good, I was in a good mood, even posted a picture of my ridding buddy that collapsed during AVDP.

4 videos done, 3:40 passed, all was good*ish.

I was getting an issue with the saddle (it's a new*ish saddle -another not so good idea), so I got use of the 10 minute break to get it a little bit further back, taking care to mark the current position in case I didn't like it and wanted to revert to where it was.

Set up an 8 minute timer, to have time to go to the PC and get the video starting.

Bottles re-fill and done.

Onwards with The OMNIUM, man what a fun workout !!! It was my first time doing it, and it is amazing ! Maybe got a bit carried away with it ... But it was fun !

It was also the "halfway" mark, as it was video number 5 out of 10.

And it all went downhill from here ...

I was getting sick of only eating sweet stuff ( Bananas, nougat bars, sweet isotonic drink ...) so used the break to go to the kitchen and grab some expired (no mold, all good) hot dog buns (just the bun, nothing in it). 

It was the best expired hot dog bun with nothing in it I ever had !!

Back at it with a happier stomach, as the bun seemed to soak up the sugar that was making me a bit nauseous. The Wretched exactly illustrated how I was feeling, but the worst was yet to come.

From this moment on, I was making full use of the 10 minutes to lie down, as I was completely cooked.

My cadence was stuck at around 80 rpm, even when trying to ramp it up to meet the workout targets, it was a struggle to get over 90.

My heart rate was high for the power produced. I was riding at reduced intensity, but heart rate was the same as when doing the workout at 100%.

I was also beginning to zone out from time to time, like pedaling in my sleep or out-of-body experience. ERG mode kept me in check for the workout, but my mind was wondering back to a very dark place (and not the workout this time).

It was also after 1 a.m. at this point, so a lot could be going on.

I was feeling a big bonk, so grabbed a bag of marshmallows. There was some concern about the sugar making me nauseous again, but I needed the energy.

After devouring it, I swear that the marshmallow cartoon guy was talking to me, and saying come on, go to sleep, the bed is right there ! I was really considering "why am I doing this", "what have I done to deserve this" and other similar toughts.

Posted the progress on the Sufferlandria Facebook group and got some encouragement from fellow Sufferlandrians, it was a real good moral booster for the last 3 workouts.

Every workout I was only trying to reach the half-way point, than thinking it is almost done, less than half to go.

Taking full advantage of the allowed 10 minutes every chance I got(8 minute buzzer not to overdo it).

The feeling was like pedaling in quick sand (not that I have ever pedaled in quick sand, but it felt like I think it would be to do it).

It was REALLY hard, I was feeling dehydrated, but drinking would make me a bit nauseous, so I had to balance it to drinking/eating the max I could hold in the stomach.

Heart rate was still high, like the target at 100% but intensity was reduced... I checked with my headunit (I was also recording the ride with my headunit using the power-meter as source of data instead of the Wahoo Kickr trainer connected to The Sufferfest App).

The two sources of power are usually in line, but I noticed that my trainer decided it would increase the ERG target and under-report power... Geeeezzzz, thanks KICKR ! As it was not hard enough...

(Or perhaps GvA took control of it ...)

Not sure if it was due to the trainer heating considerably, the powermeter data was showing higher power than the trainer, and my legs were definitely feeling it.

The last videos I lowered the intensity factor a bit on the app to align things (and survive), I dropped it another 5% or so.

When I finally reached the point of 9 down 1 to go, I got resuscitated. It is like the feeling of being able to see the finish line. I got right at it (did not use the full break) and was excited that I was going to make it !!!

G.O.A.T. is one of my favorite videos as well, so all good. 

Counting down the minutes to it ending, with 15 minutes remaining, it was like seeing the "last 5km" sign on a race !!! 

It was finally over! It was a lot of fun, until it wasn't.

Grabbed a towel (I was feeling chills from bonking), and captured a completely empty/broken face moment for posterity. Shared the workouts and went to take a hot bath.

It was now 3 a.m. I am eating leftover lasagna.

Saved the workout, combined them into a single Strava activity, filled in the form to get the quest validated from the Minions, and now all is left is to wait to see if it is recognized as worthy.