Cleaning of chain and all components

On Friday, July 19, 2019 at 7:42:12 AM UTC-7, Theodore Heise wrote:
On Fri, 19 Jul 2019 09:36:23 +1000,
James wrote:
On 19/7/19 9:02 am, jbeattie wrote:
On Thursday, July 18, 2019 at 3:32:37 PM UTC-7, John B. wrote:

The other advantage of a wax based lube, or at least my
experience, has been, that it doesn't seem to wash off in the
rain.

Meh. Everything washes off in the rain. It's just a matter of
time. Parffin flakes off and doesn't give you an corrosion
protection. I just use the Lou method -- rise, lather repeat.
I'm not going to be hanging out in the garage melting wax,
particularly since most of my chains have single-use
quick-links.

For neat paraffin wax, I agree and it was my experience that
the chain would rust after a wet ride. So I added oil to the
wax. The result is good corrosion resistance and a relatively
clean and smooth running chain.

I agree with Jay and James. I do use straight canning wax, and
find that it comes right off if I ride in anything more than a
sprinkle. I just don't ride in the rain much, and when I do get
caught out will right after drop the chain into my hot wax cooker
and drive off the water.

If I ride in the rain long enough, the chain will start squeaking.
I carry a small bottle of lube to use if the squeaking gets too
obnoxious.

If you keep riding in the rain, the water works as a lubricant. The real noise starts when it dries out. Some rather wimpy lubes like TriFlow along with a lax cleaning regimen (allowing some build up of gunk) produce a pretty good protective layer that holds up in the rain. I did a 4.5 hour ride a few weeks ago and ended up doing the first 3 hours in unexpected rain on a racing bike with no fenders. The last hour and a half was in sunshine, and my goopy TriFlo treated chain stayed pretty quiet the whole time. Other noise sources are dry pulleys and cleats, but my bike stayed pretty quiet on that ride. Squeaking pulleys and cleats drive me crazy. The longest ride I've done in continuous rain was about 95 miles, with a 14.5 mile climb straddling the mid-point, and by the time I got home, I don't think there was grease or oil anywhere on that bike -- and I was too frozen to care.

-- Jay Beattie.