Friction shifting rules.
2 Likes
I can never remember which valve type is called schrader and which is presta.
4 Likes
there’s a reason the pre-waxed chains from Silca/etc are like $190
cleaning all the factory lube off is definitely a process, no ultrasonic cleaner here, just a lot of shaking chains inside various bottles filled with solvents
Isn’t the factory lube also wax?
No. It’s some kind of insidious oil based lubricant. If it were just wax, you could dump it straight into the wax.
I also once though I’d just run the factory lube for a while and then clean and wax. Absolutely don’t do that. It’s doubly bad.
My buddy raves about Speed x lube. So I did what he said, took my chain off. Washed it in solvent. Let is dry off. Washed it in soapy water and dried it off. Put a drop of this lube on every 5th link. Man it feels amazing, which probably just tells me my chain is always dirty. I usually use rock n road.
Decided to ween myself off coffee pre my next poopbarn so started by having half a spoon of instant, instead of my normal full strength filter or expresso. I started to feel really really shit. A bit anxious, tired, brain-muddled. I didn’t actually relate it to the coffee. Got home that night and noticed that the label on the instant coffee said DECAF. I had gone cold turkey…
4 Likes
Someone told me once that the stuff on the chains out of the box is not a lube, just a preservative.
PResta for PRos, schrader for schmucks, or something.
2 Likes
I believe it.
The old heads I know say its more of a viscous packing oil than a lube which sounds right enough to me.
I like new bike tech, if I were working on bikes in a shop I’d like the challenge. For personal bikes, hard no
i know that my old industry veteran boss said most sram chains (mostly in reference to 7-9s, but not necessarily limited to) are packed in cosmoline. i don’t have more info but i know that’s specifically a corrosion inhibitor. it may well do some lubricating as well but i don’t think that’s it’s main use case.
i also know that car brake rotors come packed in something along those lines- they certainly aren’t stainless and i know that you need to clean then before installing.
1 Like
Oh god, cleaning cosmoline off a Mauser 98s was a day-long affair.
Use a trigger warning next time.
1 Like
I have never cleaned the chain on my commuter.
4 Likes
word for big valve is bigger
word for little valve is smaller
1 Like
Is that why mine is running slow?
1 Like
My bike had been in the shop for a week
Feels bad
Tldr: wax kool aid
I finally got the right chemicals and can strip the lube off new chains without a lot of faff or mess. It took a bit to get to this galaxybrain state though and I definitely wouldn’t want to do it for others without charging a premium price.
The thing people don’t get about this waxing procedure is, it’s much easier than all the longer term work spent cleaning drive train filth plus dealing with the psychic drain of chain filth day in day out. Just knowing that if you touch your drivetrain, it’s clean is a form of kindness to the mind.
Getting chain deep cleaning + wax figured out is comparable to learning to fix flats, ie it seems onerous from a normie or outsider perspective but it’s actually unremarkably doable.
3 Likes
Plz share so I can do this for no reason