Saturday, January 16, 2010

wax my chain

If you’re looking for an alternative method for cleaning your bicycle chain and you just happen to have some extra paraffin wax lying around because you’ve been making candles at home, try melting some of that wax and dipping your chain in it. The wax is hot and sticky so it binds to all the old grease and grit particles. The wax starts out clear and ends up black so it must be cleaning something off of the chain. Most of the excess wax drips off the chain when you pull it out of the hot-wax-bath but whatever remains will cool quickly and then it can be worked off by shimmying the chain around or ridden off fairly quickly – within several miles. Don’t forget to re-oil your chain when you’re done.

And while you’ve got your bike disassembled you might as well clean and re-grease you bottom bracket, too. I’d never done this before. It’s pretty fun when your friend has all the right tools.

Totally Eighties is totally clean and happy.

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