Bikeistan

When we were kids we had a nerdy neighbor who was constantly in his parents’ garage mucking about with his old, steel, road bike (with fenders). He’d hand built a truing stand out of a pair of old Masi forks and it seemed he was always building new wheels, replacing spokes on old ones, or re-gluing sew ups.

One of the things that tripped us out most was when he would “wax” his chain. He’d use a small camp stove to heat up an old Folgers can filled with wax. We could smell it from across the street. Once the wax was totally liquid he’d lower his chain into it using a bent coat hanger. After removing the chain from its hot waxy bath he would hang it from the open garage door to dry. Being nosy neighbor kids we asked him, “Why do you put wax on your chain.” 

He said paraffin was the best chain lube there was. We didn’t argue, however, we also never tried it.

The reason we mention this is that Wend Waxworks (part of the Wax Research family of companies that includes popular surf wax Sticky Bumps) has launched the first ever “rub-on” wax based chain lube. 

That’s right. No camp stoves, no, bent hangers, and no old coffee cans, just a clean, twist up deodorant style applicator. Here’s what Wend is saying about it:

Wax‐On is quiet, quick, and clean. It is no secret that the most efficient chain lubrication method to date is immersing a chain into a vat of molten paraffin. However, this method is time consuming, temporary, and dangerous. WEND Waxworks set out to create a lube that would perform equal to or better than hot waxing and that would be easy to apply. After two years of development, the R&D at WEND has come up with Wax‐On. Wax‐On is a sophisticated paraffin based formula that includes proprietary friction reducers as well as proven lubricants such as Zinc and Teflon. The application is a cinch as the user simply rubs the wax onto the chains rollers, resulting in a race ready chain in seconds. Overall user satisfaction is high due to the ease of use, product cleanliness, and lubrication performance. We are confident once you make the change to WEND you will never look back.

We haven’t tried it yet, but the people we trust say it’s been working amazingly well. If you’d like to try some, click the link for more info. The Wend Chain Wax Kit retails for $30 and includes Wax-On, Wax-Off, and a micro fiber towel for making it all happen.

[Link: Wend Waxworks]

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