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When was the last time you got black fingers on your chain? On the last ride? The last breakdown? During transport or a wheel change? There are plenty of opportunities, because in no time at all the oily, glistening link chain becomes a black rope that you'd better not get too close to. Oil plus dust, sand and forest soil is the magic formula for a thick sludge that sticks everything together. Wax as a lubricant promises a remedy. Because wax does not attract dirt. But does wax lubricate well? And can it withstand the loads in the chain? Josh Poertner, owner of Silca and former head of development at Zipp, promises outstanding lubrication thanks to the slippery nano-particles in his hot and liquid wax: tiny tungsten disulphide particles are supposed to attach themselves to the pins of the chain. The material is one of the most slippery substances ever invented. It is joined by the classic PTFE (Teflon) in powder form.
We prepare a larger batch of chains for the practical test. The main effort here is the pedantic degreasing of the entire drive. Once this is done, the test bikes are ready shortly afterwards with sparkling clean gears. The hot waxing process itself is quite quick. Several testers set out to explore the nature of wax in the wild.
You can find out all about our testers' impressions of Silca chain wax compared to chain oils from BIKE 12/2021 in the test report. You can download it as a PDF below the article. The test report costs 1.99 euros.
Why not free of charge? Because quality journalism has a price. In return, we guarantee independence and objectivity. This applies in particular to the tests in BIKE. We don't pay for them, but the opposite is the case: we charge for them, namely tens of thousands of euros every year.
