Almost wishing I had not gone through the 'ancient' method with two processes to get my new chain clean and prepped for immersion so I could do this. But I have gone past this stage now. Just a boiling water with chain on stove for me next, about 100km to go (tomorrows ride around Vence ) before I do that for the first time. Quite the fun adventure! All 10/10 so far
I have two pretty new chains on rotation using Secret Chain Blend hot melt wax. With my mileage, that means I should be ready to buy some chain stripper and prep new chains in 4 years or so.
Perfect. My question if you can get more use out of it my running it through a coffee filter and at least get rid of of all the solids already answered.
Waxed chain convert now doing more gravel races. 50 miles in the last wet gravel ride my waxed chain was speaking to me (that metal-on-metal sound). My plan going forward mid-race is to oil with Synergetic and then (post race/ride) use Silca stripper and immersive wax to "reset" the chain back to it's happy waxed place. Good plan? Wondering how well Synergetic plays with a waxed chain. I'm guessing the wax will just repel the oil based lube - which will adhere to just where metal is exposed...
Hey Josh, thanks for all your info, I’m about to start using your products but I have a question; I weekly wash my bike and clean the drivetrain, so how should I keep my washing routine? Should I wash the bike first and follow yours steps as you’re showing in this video after? Thanks
How about the cassette and derailleur pully's. Should we remove those and submerge in the chain stripper solution to get rid of old grease and residue?
Hi Josh, you often refer to the Super Secret Drip Wax as an emulsion. Perhaps I am missing something but an emulsion is a homogenous mixture (within a certain scale range) of two immiscible liquid phases. As I understand from the information provided, the Super Secret Drip Wax is a suspension of solid wax particles in a water (liquid) medium - it's neither a colloidal emulsion nor a colloidal sol (since it separates in a finite period as you have pointed out and I have experienced personally). I should think it is most accurate to refer to the product as a suspension, not an emulsion.
Josh, the (camera) focus is on the Hirobel - I hope that was not intentional. When doing the focus yourself, aim for something on the table, or put a teddy bear doll on the chair
I'll pick on Michelle for that one! She was running the camera and I think we just forgot to refocus it before we got started, it's a Fuji XT4 so the screen is so tiny it all looks great when you're filming!
Phew, glad I'm not the only one to notice this... your face is out of focus in every single video and it drives me a bit nuts ha ha! The focus always seems to be on the bike in the background. Either a camera with face/eye detect or more careful pre-focus before shooting should help 🙂
Thanks for the personal experience from your own bikes. If your cassette and drivetrain is really dirty from gravel residue and/or mud what's the best way to use the stripper? I find I need to first use degreaser to clean the cassette, jockey wheels and chainring(s), and then use a hose to rinse off with water. After this, can I go directly to apply the stripper as in the video? Thanks
Can the chain stripper be used in a Park Tool chain cleaner as my chain is over 12’ long on a recumbent trike which I don’t take off unless I need to change it due to elongation?
@Silca how do you recommend getting the old, kinda built up wax off of derailleur pulleys? Cassettes? Ok to pour the boiling water over the teeth of each being careful not to get the hot water down inside the freehub or on any bearing surfaces?
Boiling water or just scrape it off. It's pretty impervious to most degreasers and the only good way to dissolve it is Naptha or similar solvent, but I hate to use such nasty stuff when you can just mechanically scrape it off.
You can always check silcavelo.eu to see if it's in stock.. I know it sold out very quickly and we are scrambling to get more to our EU warehouse as well as our EU distributors so I'd hope to have it available most everywhere in the next 2 weeks.
You can just brush the cogs and rings with a toothbrush or auto cleaning brush during this step if they are covered in grease or oil. Stripper is very powerful at removing this contamination. Once your chain is waxed, you just need to knock the old wax off with a dry brush or occassionally can use boiling water on the cogs/rings similar to what we recommend for the chain as there is so little actual contamination on them and you are really just removing old wax.
When dripping the wax lube on the chain, are you not supposed to do it on the inside of the chain? I.e. the side which is in contact with the cassette and chain ring? In the video you appear to put the lube on the outside of the chain?
No, you do it as we show, crosschain it, and then apply the lube right before the chain transitions onto the cassette.. this little lateral articulation of the chain acts like a pump to pump the lube into the inside of the chain, and then the rotational articulations onto and off of the cog and then the pulleys helps distribute it around internally. You will lose less lube this way, and also achieve better penetration.
I bought the Super Secret/degreaser bundle this weekend and it should be here in the next day or two. Between this video, the one explaining the buildup process of Super Secret, and the side-by-side demontration of the degeaser vs. the strip chip with the coffee filter method of reclaiming some degreaser I think I've got a handle on what i need to do. Question: will the degreaser effectively remove the T-9 I put on for temporary lubrication while I rode the bike to get it set up?
It should work on the T-9 but might need to do it twice in the stripper and then rinse it well with water. You will be able to feel on the metal of the chain with your fingers if you got all of it off.
Yes, which is why you want to rinse it all very well. Dripping on top will help more of it get inside the chain rather than on the outside of the chain where it can then drip down onto these same surfaces had you applied it in any other position on the chain. Again, the most ideal is removing the chain, but when that's not an option, this is your second best method.
Hey Josh! Thanks for all your informative info. I’ve been using Synerg-e on my full power e-mtb with good results (I think) Depending on where I ride and weather I pretty much clean and reapply way to frequently. I was thinking on buying a pre-wax chain and too of with super secret maybe even do a hot melt treatment if wear remains in check. my first chain lasted about 90 days 360mi 120hr. Will I definitely see better wear and performance even on an e-mtb with wax?
You probably double or triple the life of the chain with a hot wax program. The SynergE, is the highest pressure rated lubricant ever sold for bike chain, but even at that, it will allow contaminates into the chain and depending on where you live and ride, those contaminates can be as hard and abrasive as sand paper. The wax keeps all of that out, so as long as you are re-waxing before the wax breaks down, the chain can last an extremely long time. Theoretically, if you hot waxed before every ride, the chain could last thousands of km, even on e-mtb.
@@SILCAVelo I follow. Im thinking about getting a pre wax chain, keep it clean and re-lube with super secret drip until it reach a .05 wear. I really don’t see my self getting into the initial degreasing and hot wax melt process, but definitely can trust a hot wax after a while on that particular scenario. Thanks for answering
You can always find SILCA at our European website with products delivered from Rotterdam (unless it's sold out!!): silcavelo.eu/collections/chain-lube-wax
@@SILCAVelo Ungh Silcavelo EU site is completely down! That's not good. If you've rolled it down and folded the functionality into the main site, redirect it. If your EU subsidiary is gone, make it clear. On the other hand Bike Components (Landkreis Aachen), Bike-Discount (Bonn), Bike24 (Dresden) have your products stocked but aren't listed on your website. Hunting for your products needn't be a challenge. I also hate hunting for or figuring out shipping and customs costs and when it's not clear whether products will ship from further abroad or from within EU, and whether the customs VAT is prepaid by the seller. If you make me jump through hoops to figure it out rather than stating it in a place that can be found seconds, odds are i won't deal with you again. I once ordered something from Korea, it was shipped by DHL, and the experience was harrowing, like i knew i'd pay VAT, that's fine, but DHL insisted on running it through customs for me in my stead (else they would ship back the package and the shipping fee would be void, no option to handle it myself), which had a service fee attached to it, which scaled with the number of items in a really absurd way, and they also sent the invoice late and chased it with a late fee which they themselves caused. I don't want to go through this again. I order a fair bit from China but they have their own shipping service and they do pre-pay and pre-declare VAT for customs, so it's a really nice and smooth experience.
Totally depends on the conditions but if you look at ZFC data, he is re-lubricating every 300km with each lube and while wax gets a bad rap for degrading in the wet, it still shows significantly reduced wear in the wet blocks compared to other options. I'd say you can expect it to be quiet for 100km of wet road riding and 50-60km of wet offroad, but the data show us that even after that it's still likely lubricating better than wet lubes even if it seems like it's not.
Use a special detergent made for microfiber cloths. Use HOT water and only wash microfiber cloths. Dry on low or no heat and do not use dryer sheets. May still show stains but cloths will be returned to normal.
If I use it in one of those clamshell chain scrubbers, rough guess on how many bikes/chains I could use it on at once without replacing the cleaner? 2? 7? Haha
A lot of folks use those and then pour the solvent back into the bottle through a coffee filter. You can get a cheap plastic pour over coffee kit and try it, it works surprisingly well and could potentially double the life of the stripper in terms of chains per ounce.
Thanks for the videos. I have a relatively new bike (about 300 miles on the chain). I know this is not the ideal candidate for stripping. If I want to try stripping and waxing, should I clean the chain (and drive train) with ultimate brake and drive train cleaner before stripping? thanks!
The chain stripper is for preparing a chain for wax or wax-based lubricant. Meaning it strips of oil and grease. To clean waxed chains, or chains lubricated with wax-based lubricant, you only use microfiber or/and hot water
I'm not sure how well this really works with a new chain or how much better the ultrasonic (or soaking over night at each stage) three step method really is, it seems a bit too good to be true (when you show the three step method, every step seems to be so very important, and then in the end you really must wash the second stage off with alcohol the remove the rest of the degreaser and not make the chain wet) I'm not saying your lying to us but some perspective would help a bit. I'm pretty sure you didn't invent a completely new chemical compound that is just so perfect for degreasing a chain. So I'm not sure how much I can really trust you when you say anything. Again I'm not saying that I believe you purposefully mislead us, but I'm just a bit confused.
The simplest way to think of it is that we solved it by going into a class of chemicals which are a bit exotic both in nature and in price to make this possible, we are also using very high percentages of these products compared to anything before. Judging from the reviews of those who've received the initial run it would seem that we hit the mark, but of course you will have to try for yourself.
Now I want to get the stripper to poor into a jar for off the bike cleaning just to go that extra mile. The more I got wax the faster and easier it gets.
Almost wishing I had not gone through the 'ancient' method with two processes to get my new chain clean and prepped for immersion so I could do this. But I have gone past this stage now. Just a boiling water with chain on stove for me next, about 100km to go (tomorrows ride around Vence ) before I do that for the first time. Quite the fun adventure! All 10/10 so far
I have two pretty new chains on rotation using Secret Chain Blend hot melt wax. With my mileage, that means I should be ready to buy some chain stripper and prep new chains in 4 years or so.
For an agitator, I use a valve stem nut from a presta valve. It's perfect!
Great suggestion, we all have a ton of those laying about and nothing to do with them!!
What about the cassette and chainrings (oh, and derailleur pulleys)? They always contain residual lubricant and dirt.
Perfect. My question if you can get more use out of it my running it through a coffee filter and at least get rid of of all the solids already answered.
Waxed chain convert now doing more gravel races. 50 miles in the last wet gravel ride my waxed chain was speaking to me (that metal-on-metal sound). My plan going forward mid-race is to oil with Synergetic and then (post race/ride) use Silca stripper and immersive wax to "reset" the chain back to it's happy waxed place. Good plan? Wondering how well Synergetic plays with a waxed chain. I'm guessing the wax will just repel the oil based lube - which will adhere to just where metal is exposed...
Hey Josh, thanks for all your info, I’m about to start using your products but I have a question; I weekly wash my bike and clean the drivetrain, so how should I keep my washing routine? Should I wash the bike first and follow yours steps as you’re showing in this video after? Thanks
How about the cassette and derailleur pully's. Should we remove those and submerge in the chain stripper solution to get rid of old grease and residue?
Hi Josh, you often refer to the Super Secret Drip Wax as an emulsion. Perhaps I am missing something but an emulsion is a homogenous mixture (within a certain scale range) of two immiscible liquid phases. As I understand from the information provided, the Super Secret Drip Wax is a suspension of solid wax particles in a water (liquid) medium - it's neither a colloidal emulsion nor a colloidal sol (since it separates in a finite period as you have pointed out and I have experienced personally). I should think it is most accurate to refer to the product as a suspension, not an emulsion.
Josh thought that dimples help with aerodynamics on bike wheels. Why would you think he has any understanding of chemistry LOL
If using from the 4oz bottle, does the stripper also require about 1oz per chain? Or how does it work with this application method?
Josh, the (camera) focus is on the Hirobel - I hope that was not intentional. When doing the focus yourself, aim for something on the table, or put a teddy bear doll on the chair
I'll pick on Michelle for that one! She was running the camera and I think we just forgot to refocus it before we got started, it's a Fuji XT4 so the screen is so tiny it all looks great when you're filming!
Phew, glad I'm not the only one to notice this... your face is out of focus in every single video and it drives me a bit nuts ha ha! The focus always seems to be on the bike in the background. Either a camera with face/eye detect or more careful pre-focus before shooting should help 🙂
Thanks for the personal experience from your own bikes. If your cassette and drivetrain is really dirty from gravel residue and/or mud what's the best way to use the stripper? I find I need to first use degreaser to clean the cassette, jockey wheels and chainring(s), and then use a hose to rinse off with water. After this, can I go directly to apply the stripper as in the video? Thanks
What are your thoughts of steam cleaning the chain?
Can the chain stripper be used in a Park Tool chain cleaner as my chain is over 12’ long on a recumbent trike which I don’t take off unless I need to change it due to elongation?
Hello,
And what about if I clean my chain with medium temperature water before reapply the super secret chain lube?
Thanks a lot!
@Silca how do you recommend getting the old, kinda built up wax off of derailleur pulleys? Cassettes? Ok to pour the boiling water over the teeth of each being careful not to get the hot water down inside the freehub or on any bearing surfaces?
Boiling water or just scrape it off. It's pretty impervious to most degreasers and the only good way to dissolve it is Naptha or similar solvent, but I hate to use such nasty stuff when you can just mechanically scrape it off.
When is the chain stripper coming to european stores? Bike discount has all the other new products just not the stripper.
You can always check silcavelo.eu to see if it's in stock.. I know it sold out very quickly and we are scrambling to get more to our EU warehouse as well as our EU distributors so I'd hope to have it available most everywhere in the next 2 weeks.
Will this work on a chain with maybe 400 miles on it at most.
Thanks, very timely!
This s awesome been looking for a way to use the stripper without taking off the chain but how would you clean the cassette?
You can just brush the cogs and rings with a toothbrush or auto cleaning brush during this step if they are covered in grease or oil. Stripper is very powerful at removing this contamination. Once your chain is waxed, you just need to knock the old wax off with a dry brush or occassionally can use boiling water on the cogs/rings similar to what we recommend for the chain as there is so little actual contamination on them and you are really just removing old wax.
When dripping the wax lube on the chain, are you not supposed to do it on the inside of the chain? I.e. the side which is in contact with the cassette and chain ring? In the video you appear to put the lube on the outside of the chain?
No, you do it as we show, crosschain it, and then apply the lube right before the chain transitions onto the cassette.. this little lateral articulation of the chain acts like a pump to pump the lube into the inside of the chain, and then the rotational articulations onto and off of the cog and then the pulleys helps distribute it around internally. You will lose less lube this way, and also achieve better penetration.
So with the chain stripper, I don’t need to use a scrubber (ie old toothbrush/brush) on the chain after applying the stripper??
Thank you!
I bought the Super Secret/degreaser bundle this weekend and it should be here in the next day or two. Between this video, the one explaining the buildup process of Super Secret, and the side-by-side demontration of the degeaser vs. the strip chip with the coffee filter method of reclaiming some degreaser I think I've got a handle on what i need to do.
Question: will the degreaser effectively remove the T-9 I put on for temporary lubrication while I rode the bike to get it set up?
It should work on the T-9 but might need to do it twice in the stripper and then rinse it well with water. You will be able to feel on the metal of the chain with your fingers if you got all of it off.
@@SILCAVelo Thanks! I looked it up online and a bunch of people said mineral spirits followed by acetone.
Is there a risk dripping highly effective degreaser directly above rear hub bearings, freehubs, pulleys and derailleur pivots?
Yes, which is why you want to rinse it all very well. Dripping on top will help more of it get inside the chain rather than on the outside of the chain where it can then drip down onto these same surfaces had you applied it in any other position on the chain. Again, the most ideal is removing the chain, but when that's not an option, this is your second best method.
If one has already bought the large version of the stripper how easy is it to just drop that on? Or can we just use any dropper nozzle?
Large stripper has a drip nozzle cap, so that will work for you.
Thanks !
Hey Josh! Thanks for all your informative info. I’ve been using Synerg-e on my full power e-mtb with good results (I think) Depending on where I ride and weather I pretty much clean and reapply way to frequently. I was thinking on buying a pre-wax chain and too of with super secret maybe even do a hot melt treatment if wear remains in check. my first chain lasted about 90 days 360mi 120hr. Will I definitely see better wear and performance even on an e-mtb with wax?
You probably double or triple the life of the chain with a hot wax program. The SynergE, is the highest pressure rated lubricant ever sold for bike chain, but even at that, it will allow contaminates into the chain and depending on where you live and ride, those contaminates can be as hard and abrasive as sand paper. The wax keeps all of that out, so as long as you are re-waxing before the wax breaks down, the chain can last an extremely long time. Theoretically, if you hot waxed before every ride, the chain could last thousands of km, even on e-mtb.
@@SILCAVelo I follow. Im thinking about getting a pre wax chain, keep it clean and re-lube with super secret drip until it reach a .05 wear. I really don’t see my self getting into the initial degreasing and hot wax melt process, but definitely can trust a hot wax after a while on that particular scenario. Thanks for answering
Hey man, when are we to see this anywhere in Europe?
You can always find SILCA at our European website with products delivered from Rotterdam (unless it's sold out!!): silcavelo.eu/collections/chain-lube-wax
@@SILCAVelo Thank you! I was not aware of your EU website! Thank you!
@@SILCAVelo Ungh Silcavelo EU site is completely down! That's not good. If you've rolled it down and folded the functionality into the main site, redirect it. If your EU subsidiary is gone, make it clear.
On the other hand Bike Components (Landkreis Aachen), Bike-Discount (Bonn), Bike24 (Dresden) have your products stocked but aren't listed on your website. Hunting for your products needn't be a challenge. I also hate hunting for or figuring out shipping and customs costs and when it's not clear whether products will ship from further abroad or from within EU, and whether the customs VAT is prepaid by the seller. If you make me jump through hoops to figure it out rather than stating it in a place that can be found seconds, odds are i won't deal with you again.
I once ordered something from Korea, it was shipped by DHL, and the experience was harrowing, like i knew i'd pay VAT, that's fine, but DHL insisted on running it through customs for me in my stead (else they would ship back the package and the shipping fee would be void, no option to handle it myself), which had a service fee attached to it, which scaled with the number of items in a really absurd way, and they also sent the invoice late and chased it with a late fee which they themselves caused. I don't want to go through this again. I order a fair bit from China but they have their own shipping service and they do pre-pay and pre-declare VAT for customs, so it's a really nice and smooth experience.
Josh, should I be worried to ride my waxed chain in the rain? How long can I ride in the rain before the wax is affected by the water?
Totally depends on the conditions but if you look at ZFC data, he is re-lubricating every 300km with each lube and while wax gets a bad rap for degrading in the wet, it still shows significantly reduced wear in the wet blocks compared to other options. I'd say you can expect it to be quiet for 100km of wet road riding and 50-60km of wet offroad, but the data show us that even after that it's still likely lubricating better than wet lubes even if it seems like it's not.
I assume this is for chains not previously waxed, is that correct?
stripper is for the oil/grease - stuff that usually comes on the chain from manufacturer
Shake it, shake it, shake it like a polaroid picture.
@Silca i want to order your hot wax product. i am from the Philippines. do you have dealer in our country?
How do you wash your microfiber cloths between uses?
Use a special detergent made for microfiber cloths. Use HOT water and only wash microfiber cloths. Dry on low or no heat and do not use dryer sheets. May still show stains but cloths will be returned to normal.
If I use it in one of those clamshell chain scrubbers, rough guess on how many bikes/chains I could use it on at once without replacing the cleaner? 2? 7? Haha
A lot of folks use those and then pour the solvent back into the bottle through a coffee filter. You can get a cheap plastic pour over coffee kit and try it, it works surprisingly well and could potentially double the life of the stripper in terms of chains per ounce.
Thanks for the videos. I have a relatively new bike (about 300 miles on the chain). I know this is not the ideal candidate for stripping. If I want to try stripping and waxing, should I clean the chain (and drive train) with ultimate brake and drive train cleaner before stripping? thanks!
Can you use Silca chainstripper on other lubricants f.x. Smoove?( #askgcntech)
The chain stripper is for preparing a chain for wax or wax-based lubricant. Meaning it strips of oil and grease. To clean waxed chains, or chains lubricated with wax-based lubricant, you only use microfiber or/and hot water
I'm not sure how well this really works with a new chain or how much better the ultrasonic (or soaking over night at each stage) three step method really is, it seems a bit too good to be true (when you show the three step method, every step seems to be so very important, and then in the end you really must wash the second stage off with alcohol the remove the rest of the degreaser and not make the chain wet) I'm not saying your lying to us but some perspective would help a bit. I'm pretty sure you didn't invent a completely new chemical compound that is just so perfect for degreasing a chain. So I'm not sure how much I can really trust you when you say anything. Again I'm not saying that I believe you purposefully mislead us, but I'm just a bit confused.
The simplest way to think of it is that we solved it by going into a class of chemicals which are a bit exotic both in nature and in price to make this possible, we are also using very high percentages of these products compared to anything before. Judging from the reviews of those who've received the initial run it would seem that we hit the mark, but of course you will have to try for yourself.
So don’t store it in the garage. Store in room temperature? secret sauce lube. Thx
Now I want to get the stripper to poor into a jar for off the bike cleaning just to go that extra mile. The more I got wax the faster and easier it gets.
Josh takes lubrication seriously 🤔
Hasn't this guy heard of connecting links? Even with 6, 7 and 8 speed chains....
All that hassle because he couldnt be bothered to break the chain....