Why you should wax your chain
This year, I became a Silca Ambassador — a brand I have always adored due to their ability to make everyday cycling products extraordinary. They are modern innovators with old-world craftsmanship, and through their pursuit of perfection, Silca’s growing range of products elevates your entire cycling experience.
Our values are synergetic: Silca is focused on the future of cycling performance and function, yet never lose sight of their roots, which stem back to Milan1917. Being a third-generation roadie, I respect cycling’s history, yet I hold the modern marginal gains mindset in my pursuit of progression.
My grandad used Silca pumps back in the day. Now I am honoured to carry the baton (If you have seen or used a Silca pump, you will know there is no finer way to blow air).
Although they are famed for toolmaking, one of Silca’s most significant products to date is Super Secret Holt Melt Wax and chain lubricant.
My grandad, rocking a Silca Impero frame pump that is catching the light on his seat tube.
“Silca Hot Melt is currently the fastest known immersive wax on the market”
I am so impressed by the results of Silca’s Hot Melt Wax that I felt compelled to share my experience and help you find some gains this season.
I have been toying with chain waxes and high-performance lubricants for several years. Nothing comes close to the combination of immersing your chain in Silca’s Hot Melt Wax and topping it up with Super Secret Chain Lube — which can save an additional 5 watts compared to a standard drip lube.
Some of you might be thinking, “Only 5 watts? Is that really worth the effort?”
Or, if you are a master of marginal gains, “Brilliant, sign me up!”
Whatever your outlook, I have discovered the benefits of chain waxing go far beyond fighting friction. Treating your drivetrain with Silca Super Secret can also increase the life of your drivetrain TEN TIMES — saving you time and money.
Let’s put that into perspective. I ride Campagnolo Super Record 11-Speed. A chain costs £55, and a Super Record rear cassette costs about £300. Just think how much money I am saving by getting 10x more life out of them?
Also,11-speed Super Record is no longer in production… I have a couple of spare cassettes, chains and chainrings. So, thanks to Silca, I am set for another few years of smooth riding (hopefully, Campagnolo will be wireless in time for my upgrade).
Whatever groupset you ride, waxing will improve its performance and preserve your pride and joy.
Before diving deeper into immersive chain waxing, it’s important to understand why drivetrain maintenance is crucial. Your chain is the hardest-working component on your bike. It transfers power from your pedals to the rear wheel. A poorly maintained chain results in a loss of efficiency and increased drivetrain wear. Also, a worn-out chain will begin to miss-shift and skip about on your cassette. Therefore, your drivetrain deserves your full attention.
Are you spending far too much time cleaning and relubricating your chain each week?
Or, are you not spending enough time, and your drivetrain sounds like a cement mixer…?
A waxed chain takes care of itself. Just give it a wipe and top it up with Silca’s Super Secret Chain lube now and then to extend the time between Hot Wax submerges.
Do it once and well — no more wasting time, energy, and money.
Let’s talk about those 5 watts (for those who care about speed). If, like me, you force 15hrs of quality training into an already busy life and invest valuable time, money and effort into your nutrition, recovery, sleep, equipment, maintenance, kit, etc. Why would you willingly throw away 5 watts when you are committing all of your time and effort to create speed, power, fitness, and health in the first place?
When you have taken care of your fundamentals, marginal gains become essential to keep finding progress:
Fundamentals (Maximal Gains)
Human Performance
Training & Competing
Nutrition & Hydration
Rest & Recovery
Cycling Performance
Mechanical & Biomechanical
Aerodynamics & Friction
For example, having a clean and lubricated drivetrain is fundamental — as it gives you a significant gain compared to a dirty, rusty one. Further reducing friction outside of “normal realms” with Silca’s Hot Melt Wax is a marginal gain that takes your drivetrain from acceptable to world-class.
(While the friction-reducing benefits are relatively marginal, extending the life of your drivetrain by 10x is a pretty maximal gain for your wallet and your time.)
However many hours a week you invest into cycling, whether it’s 15hrs or 3hrs — life is too short to settle for second best. That’s why marginal gains matter and why waxing your chain is an excellent investment in your cycling. You owe it to yourself.
My experience with wax
Chain waxing is one of the easiest and most cost-effective ways to save watts (there are some very expensive ways to save far fewer watts…). Immersing a sterile chain in hot wax used to be quite a niche. However, due to the lofty friction-reducing stats and more user-friendly techniques, it’s becoming far more mainstream and accessible.
I first dabbled in chain waxing back in 2016. My friend Liam (a highly capable time trialist) said he’d wax my chain for £20. I was targeting an event, Manchester to London (360km), and was looking for every efficiency I could find.
Manchester to London 2016 was a wet edition that drew my attention to wax's dirt and water-repelling properties. Listening to the grinding sounds of rival drive trains while mine was purring away gave me an extra morale boost. Nothing is more demoralising than a noisy chain mocking you with wasted watts.
My takeaway: a waxed chain provides an excellent barrier from contamination rather than collecting it. Therefore, your chain remains efficient. If you ride off-road, the benefits could become even more significant.
I signed up for Manchester to London again in 2017 and took the fastest time, despite a headwind for 95% of the 360+km… I used Muc Off’s “Nanochain”, a pre-treated chain developed for Brad Wiggins's Hour Record.
Brad also rode Manchester to London in 2017. His respect was a greater achievement than my result:
The ‘Nanochain’ was the fastest in the market back then, as it was ‘optimally worn-in’ and treated with nanotube lubricant. The Nanochain undoubtedly helped with my effort. However, for a 360km bike race… the treatment was pretty much “single-use” (a lot of money for one ride). Nowadays, with a home waxing setup, you can treat and retreat your chains yourself — with the world's greatest chain treatment. It’s game-changing.
Of course, you can also buy a pre-treated Silca Hot Melt Wax chain — if you don’t have the time or inclination to wax it yourself and still want the fastest drivetrain possible. This is also a great way to try Silca’s formula without investing in all the waxing equipment — and when it wins you over (it undoubtedly will), you can take the leap and tool up for your chain’s next service.
I returned to wax for the 2022 edition of Manchester to London and retook the fastest time. Although I have experimented with many different non-wax lubes, none has compared to the benefits and ride experience of wax — and none compares to Silca.
“With the release from CeramicSpeed of UFO Drip v2 and its comparison to key competitors, this showed that Silca Hot Melt was around 1w faster than the decade-long king Molten Speed Wax. It’s more expensive due to cost of WS2 vs moly, but if you need that watt, Silca Hot Melt is currently the fastest-known immersive wax on the market”
What makes Silca’s Hot Melt Wax so special?
It’s enriched with nano-scale tungsten disulfide (you can see it glistening in the shot above). Secret Chain Blend not only acts as a lubricant but also modifies the surface of the chain, filling the micro imperfections of the metal with highly lubricious and wear-resistant tungsten disulfide particles.
I have used Tungsten chain lubricants in drip form (my longstanding readers might recall my previous partnership with Tru-Tension). However, Silca has taken tungsten to the next level with an immersive wax application.
Secret Chain Blend is also the only hot wax lubricant with a specifically matched and complimentary drip wax that extends the duration between hot wax applications, gets faster over time, extends drivetrain life by up to 10x, and guarantees the quietest running drivetrain possible.
When you reinstall your chain after waxing, everything feels still and crunchy, and then something magical happens as the excess wax flakes off — your drivetrain speeds up, and everything becomes fluid.
Despite feeling fast, there is still a bit of chain chatter. However, after a few rides, your drivetrain becomes almost silent once you apply the first Super Secret Chain Lube coat.
I like to wear-in my chain on the turbo trainer before heading on the road, so it’s primed.
Once you experience the Silca treatment, there is no going back…
Chain waxing 101 — The process
Sterilising the chain
Firstly, you need to sterilise your chain. There are two home methods — the “jar method”, where you fill a jar with degreaser, drop your chain in, and shake until clean, and the “ultrasonic cleaner” method, where you drop your chain into a sonic cleaner and let it take care of business.
Old baby milk bottles make excellent cleaning containers, as there is no risk of them smashing, like a glass jar.
Professional ultrasonic cleaners are costly and large. If you don’t have the space/budget for one, I have found an excellent compromise for home mechanics: use a combination of the jar method and a small ultrasonic jewellery cleaner (about £30). I use a jar to shake off the worst dirt and grime, then run it through a handful of cycles in the ultrasonic jewellery cleaner with Silca Bio Degreaser until it’s spotless.
A quality degreaser will make your life even easier. I have used many degreasers and chain cleaners over the years, which have all been incredibly toxic — they irritate your skin, can be dangerous to breathe, corrode your components, and must be disposed of responsibly. So, when Silca launched Bio Degreaser, I got more excited than perhaps anyone should over an inanimate liquid. But it is a brilliant solution to all of my degreasing problems. I highly recommend it for at-home drivetrain cleaning.
Once you have degreased your chain (you’ll know it’s ready when you wipe it with a microfibre cloth, and it remains unmarked), it’s time to sterilise it. Fill a clean jar with acetone, drop the chain in, and shake. When you remove the chain, wipe it with a clean microfibre cloth and hang it to dry.
Once it’s dry, give it a good shake — a loud rattle is the sign of a clean chain. Now it’s ready to immerse in hot wax.
Waxing the chain
I received a slow cooker for my birthday a few years ago. I made ragu, soups, and sauces for about a month, and then the novelty wore off. They are useless at cooking but make fantastic chain waxing devices. It turned out to be a brilliant gift.
If you don’t already have one, a crockpot is an excellent investment in your bike maintenance and performance. You can pick one up for well under £50 these days.
Turn the slow cooker on, pour the wax beads in and let them melt completely.
Then, hang your chain from an old spoke or piece of wire and use it to dip your chain into the pool of melted wax. Swish your chain around the pot using your spoke tool to penetrate the hot wax and tungsten disulphide deep into the chain links.
Once your chain has enjoyed a nice warm bath and is completely coated in silky Silca goodness, turn the crockpot off and let the formula cool.
Removing the chain
Once a thin layer of wax sets on the surface, it’s time to remove your chain.
My boy distracted me during my first attempt, and the wax set completely — I couldn’t pull the chain out! If you make this mistake, turn your pot back on and reheat the wax. It’s no big deal.
If you remove the chain too soon, the hot wax will drip off your chain, and you will waste precious wax that could otherwise remain in your crockpot for future waxes — but again, this is no big deal.
Once you have removed the chain, hang it to dry above your crockpot, and nothing will go to waste. A jewellery or utensil hanger is ideal — or fashion something with your own resourcefulness.
Prep your bike for your freshly waxed chain
It’s a good idea to clean your bike and drivetrain while your chain is drying. I can’t think of anything worse than refitting a pristine, newly waxed chain onto grimy sprockets. Also, cleaning those hard-to-reach places without a chain installed on your bike is far easier. The excess chain wax will coat your clean sprockets, jockey wheels and chainrings — maximising performance and minimising contamination. Once everything is coated and worn in, it will take care of itself and repel grit and grime. But you’ve got to start on the front foot.
Reinstalling the chain
I use a split link rather than connecting pins. It’s faster, simpler and easy to unlink for your chain’s next trip to the Silca Spa.
I mount my bike to my turbo trainer to thread the chain back over my gears and through my derailleurs — so I can hop on to wear-in the fresh wax and spin off the excess. My turbo is on a rubber floor mat, so brushing up the small flakes left behind is easy.
After a few long rides, top up your chain with Silca Super Secret Chain lube, and you will experience the full sensation of ultra-smooth, super-silent Silca drivetrain superiority.
Conclusion
Silca’s Super Secret Hot Melt Wax and accompanying Lube is the fastest and worst-kept secret in cycling.
It’s also no secret that I am a Silca Ambassador — and I became a Silca Ambassador because I back their products 100%, not because of a big sponsorship deal. I am writing this review independently because I am impressed with my experience.
Yes, I have represented and promoted other bike care products and chain lubricants in the past, and I stand by what I shared about them at that moment in time. However, the best lubricant, pre-treated chain, or wax a few years ago is irrelevant today.
I am a renowned bike snob. However, that doesn't mean I turn my nose up at other people, bikes, components, etc. Instead, it means that I focus all of my energy on becoming a better person and cyclist than I was yesterday — and I hope that I can share my learning along the way.
“There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.”
If you share the mindset of continuous self-improvement, marginal gains, relentless self-learning, challenge the status quo, and never settle for the second best — I know how satisfying you will find the process of giving your machine the Silca treatment.
Many third-party, non-biased truth seekers have done a much better job of reporting on the numbers behind Silca’s Super Secret Chain treatments — such as Zero Friction Cycling (seriously worth checking out this page — there is also lots of data about which chains are faster, which is why I have switched from a KMC chain back to a Campagnolo Record ). I have also left some videos below for you to explore.
Immersive waxing does seem a bit “full-on”, but I hope I have broken down the challenge and demonstrated how if you set some time aside and invest in some basic equipment (that will last for years), it’s pretty straightforward. Also, by “doing once and doing well”, you’ll save time on bike maintenance, and your drivetrain components will last much longer — thanks to giving them some Silca TLC.
If I still haven’t won you over, or you have too many barriers to home chain waxing, you will still find excellent results by degreasing your chain with a chain cleaning tool and then applying Silca’s Super Secret Chain Lube. This will still outperform other drip lubes.
Thanks for reading. Please comment below if you have any questions or want to share your experiences.
G