1. How does this work in conjunction with Strip Chip? 2. How do the additives effect the break-in time for chain? 3. What do you use on your commuter bike? Endurance seems nice but almost doubles the cost of the wax but less maintenance. 4. Does dirt stick more to the speed version? Guessing softer wax.
I use Silca Hot Melt for the initial lube on long tours, topped up by Super Secret Drip or, in the event of rain, Synergetic. Would the endurance additive help extend wax life in wet conditions?
I think this is an excellent question for those of us that live in wet'ish countries. As far as I can see, wet weather re-application is the achilles heel of chain waxing. Silca, please advise if the endurance chip improves things.
I ride mostly MTB. But the advantages of wax are huge. Stays cleaner longer, and is easier to clean. But of course there's a lot of mud and dirt involved. Does the endurance wax hold up better in really harsh conditions as well? How does it fair in cold conditions ~0 to 15 deg F (Fat Bike)? I am intrigued by this additive.
generally I find wax isn't that great in wet & muddy conditions, unfortunately. My 'solution' to this is to ride when & where the weather is nice most of the time and I still use wax on wet mtb days, it just needs reapplying fairly often under such conditions.
Assuming 250g Wax + 2x Endurance Chips give you 50x Chain-Waxings just like 500g of Wax, this saves you the following in the best case scenario: 80 USD per 100.000k and approximately 200x Times waxing within the 100.000k. For me that's accounts for saving 16,5 USD and waxing 9x less per year. While it's a saving, this probably isn't really noticeable for most people as long as they don't ride 300km in one go. That said, since you're actually saving a bit of money, waxing every 750k instead of every 300k is tempting for sure! It doesn't really make any sense for people that cant get the 750k out of one waxing because of wet weather conditions. Then you're re-waxing more often anyways without getting the benefits.
You put out this video as I was waxing my first chain with Silca and the Strip Chip. I would like to know how all those amazing products mix (strip chip, endurance and speed). And how to use them as normal person with one bag of wax blend 😊
Watching this after commuting to work on my Aethos with hot waxed chain, Silca mattone seat bag, tattico pump, wearing silca aero socks. I think I have a problem. Congrats Josh on the launch!
Just need a way to get the same options for the drip wax. For me it would be great to have the extra endurance available in the drip format. I've done the wax dip years ago and tried again recently, not for me. But the Silca drip wax is great.
@@rafaeldegiacomoaraujo8778 After seeing the small marginal differences between all the top 5 waxes my guess is same same, the difference is going to be marginal, to non existent, anyone of those brands will serve you well. God knows the tour de france might make teams create their own chemical department with highly secretive wax recipes, if it doesn't exist already. There's a whole world hidden from the public market sector. Ultimately it is interesting to see how things evolve, immersion waxing and it's benefits are incredible, the next changes might happen on the mechanical side, maybe we'll get tungsten carbide rollers , or fully sealed chain systems, the sky is the limit.
@@hartshorn95yep, it gets flung out at quite a rate. We'd need a Supa-Sticky Chip. I do think they'd benefit from a dust-resistant wax for long gravel rides
Good question. I’m only using Super Secret drip and I have to apply less than or around every 100miles before it gets noisy. Seems like all the wax just melts onto my chainring and pulley wheels out here in the summer desert dirt
I have a medium sized fleet of bikes to maintain (7 bikes for 3 riders in my family) and I've been kicking the wax idea around in my head for a while. Today was the day I pulled the trigger, it's a pretty big initial investment but hoping it does pay out over time. I have confidence in this approach, and looking forward to cleaner and longer lasting drivetrains!
If you maintain a proper regime to really clean the chain b4 waxing it, I dare say that your one pot of wax could last you practically indefinitely. Sound like a good saving if you ask me 😂😂
20 bikes here. Have switched 9 bikes (including 1 tandem) and it's just a matter of time until I get to the rest. My only regret? Not switching at LEAST 10 years ago!
Enticing title but unless the wax has electrons in it that power an electric motor :-) I can't see it being illegal. I use the Silca wax system and as much as I'd like to say that it makes me FASTER that'd be me daydreaming :-) However it makes the bike CLEANER, quieter and smoother shifting and adds some kilometres to the life of the drive train etc. but faster? Mmmm . . . not sure. On the other hand, I'll never go back to "lubes" of ANY kind. It really is THE way to go. After making the initial investment, it's a lifelong tweak that just keeps on giving :-) If you're sitting on the "wax fence" . . . just get off! LOL BTW, if you do go for it, I'd highly recommend watching Josh's UA-cam tutorials on getting the best from the Silca Wax system.
Hi Josh and team, looks pretty cool. A few questions come to mind: 1. Does endurance also improve wet conditions longevity? 2. Speed probably improves drivetrain wear as in ZFC world less wear means faster. Does endurance decrease this performance do you expect? 3. How would you combine -mainly endurance- with drip wax? 4. On how many added chips are the graphs based? Cheers!
1. Endurance improves wet longevity ~15% 2. Speed and wear are only linked up until the lubricant breaks down or squeezes out.. the ZFC test relubricates every 333km, so if SpeedChip takes application life to 200km, then you'll have 200km of lower friction/zero wear and then 100km of higher friction and wear.. Similarly, Endurance will test even better in ZFC testing as the 333km interval is relubing the chain well before the lubricant is breaking down. 3. You can apply drip wax over top of any of these. 4. Graphs are 1 chip per 250gm of wax
Outstanding! I don't wax, but these products really ring my bell. Love the technology. Kudos for all the R&D! If I someday choose to wax, I'll be using these products.
Why wait? Wax performs head and shoulders above everything else. You can make your own for really cheap and enjoy all the benefits. Wish I had switched over 20 years ago!
Congratulations for pushing the envelope and improving on great products ! I have a routine with my Campy drivetrain. Silca hot wax new chain. Use Silca SS drip wax until the chain has reached 40-50% wear on my digital chain checker. My last chain went 10,000 miles with this method. Very happy with the results. Anything I could do better without removing the chain? Thanks, Dave
I’ve been looking to maybe getting into hot waxing my chains… I’m more of a recreational weekend rider so I’m leaning towards the most long lasting endurance variant. My question would be: if 4 chips go into 1 500g bag, does all of that fit into the wax melting pot you sell? Or should one use 2x 250g + 2chips? Also presumably, the added wax affects how long one batch lasts. On the SILCA website it says one 500g bag is good for 40-50 applications. How many applications should one expect to get out of a 500g bag plus 4 chips?
Endurance chip shows a marginal improvement in wet weather durability (~15-20%), but not enough that we are calling it a wet weather formula.. that's still a major engineering challenge that our team are working on.
Josh, Interesting graph. I think it is interesting that you use 'Hours of Use', while most of us use 'miles ridden' between waxing of our chains. I track my maintenance of the bike/chain with an app 'maintrack', but perhaps there is room for a Silca app/Strava plugin that 'estimates' when a chain needs waxing or top up, based on use and bike type. With this you could also add recommendations as to 'the blend' for each riders optimum riding. V2 of the app would take the weather into account too.
An app that looks at your strava routes and soil dryness and geology and whether you were drafting behind others to compute total dirt load and.... or just re wax when it gets noisy.
We use hours in our testing as the test consists of segments that mimic road and mtn gearing and torque. We've grown to like this as when we're only talking in km or riding, the MTB folks write in and say 'I only got 80km per waxing, not 300' and when you look at it, while those distances are nowhere similar, they are pretty similar in terms of time on the bike. Not sure if it will stick long term, but certainly seems like it might be a nice way to standardize language across disciplines. As for the app, it's something we're looking at for sure, and have been playing with internally. The one thing we worry about is the potential over reliance on the app leading to potential chain damage from underwaxing.. sort of similar to how people using GPS are way more likely to miss a turn if the GPS is off by just 50m as the focus on the tech causes them to doubt their instincts and downplay other factors that they might otherwise have noticed.
Distance for machines (and for people) is a proxy for duration and intensity of use (or effort). Anytime you model phenomena you should pare away as many proxies as possible. Your body really has no idea how far you went. But it does have a pretty good idea of how hard you went. And how hard you went is much more closely tracked by the duration of your effort than by the distance traveled. Same for your chain. I suspect an even better measurement for determining wax replacement is joules (as long as environmental factors are ignored).
If you have cadence sensor, your logging app should have something like a strokes count for counting pedal strokes. Chain usage is more accurate with counting pedal strokes than distance since freewheeling technically doesn't wear your chains more than when pedaling. Although chain ring size affects how many times pedal strokes it takes for a chain to complete a cycle (1 rotation), it is still the closest metric for chain wear.
I'm definitely going for a race chain with speed additive and one or two training chains with endurance additive. One question: how is compatibility with the strip chip?
Josh you are killing me. I have Hot Wax X in my Silca chain waxer. How does that fit into the pantheon of waxes and what would the recipe for a 40 k TT be?
Can't wait for the ZFC review on these. Waiting for that before committing! Currently an avid 250-350km chain change on SS hot melt (clean dry rides only).
Sounds like one will need multiple pots for "speed"-oriented waxing and "endurance"-oriented waxing? I have not tried this yet but perhaps the solidified wax can be extracted from the pot and an alternate mix could be put into the pot to allow for multiple wax mixes using the same pot. I know with the instant pot I could easily and cleanly extract the solidified wax from the semi=polished stainless pot. Not sure if that can be done with the less polished Silca wax pot?
Agree, looks like the UFO pot design needs a swappable bowl design now. Either that or a candle mold accessory--after dipping one mix, pour the leftover wax out so you can just swap out regular, speed and endurance candles as needed.
How do the wattage/endurance numbers compare to the old Hot Wax X blend with Graphene? Also can these chips be used with Hot Wax X? I know it's discontinued but I have a stash of Hot Wax X.
I'm really interested in this, but it raises a few questions. Can we mix and match chains with different wax treatments, and is it possible to purchase additional pots for the wax melting system? For instance, I could see myself using one treatment for a race chain and another for a daily training chain with different blends of waxes. However, since I currently have only one pot, would Silca offer the option to purchase additional pots, rather than whole systems? Additionally, what about the scenario where I want to use the same chain but switch to a different wax blend? Would this be similar to previous guidance, where it’s acceptable to simply dip the chain into the pot with the desired wax blend for that specific application? Considering the need to manage multiple bikes and chains (track, road, gravel), having the flexibility to switch between wax treatments would be incredibly useful.
It's good to get some validation that longevity is directly related to wax formulation. I'd been coming to that conclusion slowly myself, but there is so little high quality discussion about these topics that it's hard to come to a conclusion. I'm still confused about how the platelets actually improve the situation, though. Decreasing friction of the metal, or hardening the metal sounds fine, but I can't convince myself that it will do *anything* in the presence of adequate lubrication. I would be grateful to have a in depth discussion of how that actually works in practice.
Multi size particle coatings have shown in general to improve coating quality and it does apply to the tribological sphere as well (lubrication). Dry lubricant particles just stick to the metal surface to create a low friction surface and in most cases, fill up the surface "pores" of the material, increasing surface area, pressure and as a result, it decreases friction further.
That chart you flashed near the end showed a max of 2 EnduranceChips/500g, but the results showed 2 chips/250g? Also, I'm currently using MSW (hey, it's already in the crockpot & I hate to waste). Will this improve the efficiency/longevity of MSW, or is mixing & matching not recommended?
It sounds to me I need to add 1/2 an endurance ship to my 250ml wax to get longer life for my wet winter commutes here in the PNW. Is that right, Josh?
Interesting! Can you actually add both, a SpeedChip and an EnduranceChip to enhance both at the same time, endurance and speed? Or would they rather cancel out and give you no advantage at all?
Likely cancel it out since the wax bases are made from different mixes with different end goals: one is a pure extremely low friction silicone wax while the other one is likely a softer mix of silicone wax and very high weight polyethylene wax.
Do you guys happen to have an average tare weight for the Silca wax pot? I have a pot full of wax that I've been using. Not really sure how to determine how many grams of wax I have in it since I neglected to weigh my Crockpotinator 4000 when i got it 🤔
if you turn the pot on and wait for a few minutes you'll be able to pop the whole block of wax out of the pot and then weigh it. (a thin outer layer of wax melts first to allow the whole thing to come free of the pot)
My 2c and also some questions ... Looks very interesting ... I think it would be better if these new additives were sold in pellet form so we could measure out the mix amount needed more precisely for the amount that fits into the put we use. I suppose one could grind them up somehow, but that would end up being a bit messy I think. How does this replace / mesh with Hot Wax X (or more to the point, how does Super Secret blend work with Hot Wax X). I still have about 1.25 tins of that left and notice its not being sold anymore on the Silca website. Can I top up Hot Wax X with Super Secret Blend as needed in my melting pot... will these additives still work if I do that? Up to now I have been using super secret drip every 80-100 miles and doing a full clean (just using boiling water) and Hot Wax X re-immersion every 700-800 miles and things seem to be running fairly well.
Just Curious - I have a wax pot that I just add to when the wax level gets low. I like to keep enough in there that I can submerge up to 4 chains at a time. I like the idea of the Endurance chip, but how often would I have to add another one? Two to four of them every time I add a (500g) bag of Secret blend? One chip every (X?) number of chains? Just about to add another bag. Probably 300 g left in the pot.
Very nice Josh (and team)! A couple questions: I wax with super secret and follow up with super secret drip to get 250-400 miles on my chain between waxings, what is the effect on the speed and endurance chips if using the drip between waxings? Will there be a forthcoming super secret speed drip or endurance drip in the near future? How long is the speedchip or endurancechip good for in the wax mix (does it need to have additional added over time?). Finally, if one adds equal amounts of the speedchip and endurancechip to the wax, is that just reformulating to what the original super secret wax beads contain?
Saddleback UK state "May be used in conjunction with StripChip on new factory chains" but I have asked Silca to confirm this. I would err on the side of caution until we have absolute confirmation from Silca.
I just started using your silka pot and secret wax blend on my bikes this year. Most all my riding is on trail which at times creates a very contaminated chain. I'm thinking the endurance chips would serve me well. I normally wipe chain down and drip wax after a ride. What would be you recommendations? Also when should I be washing chain with hot water and dip again? Thanks👍🏻
My EnduranceChip was in my mailbox this afternoon. I'm heating up my Silca Wax system right now. The only thing I'm confused about is that the instructions on the packaging say to use the chip in 300-500 grams of wax. You say in the video that your figures are based on 250 gr of wax. Is there a reason I should use more than the 250 gr, or the half bag I already have in the pot?
Ok, having only a few days a go took delivery of my Silca Waxing system, 500g bag of Wax blend chips and a pack of 6 strip chips, I can now purchase some endurance chips and get up to 350 miles out of one waxing session before I have to re-wax? This sounds good to me. Less time having to wax (Although I haven't even done the 1st one yet haha) and less SRAM powerlocks to potentially have to buy. But, as others have asked, what's the deal with a pot of wax that has had a strip chip already added to it. Can you put 250g of Wax blend in, a strip chip AND Two Endurance chips? OR, do you have to forego the strip chip and use the liquid chain stripper in advance of a hot wax with endurance chip. Saddleback UK says " May be used in conjunction with StripChip on new factory chains" however, I would like absolute confirmation from Silca on this to ensure no mishaps happen.
What happens after the dip in efficiency? After 20 hours usage of the normally waxed chain? I don't care about a drop from 97 to 95 percent efficiency. But I don't want to go under 90 percent.
The dip in efficiency comes from all of the wax being abraded off of the metal and squeezed out of the areas it is needed. At this point you need to re-wax, or add a top off lubricant like SILCA SuperSecret.
You can add SpeedChip to HotWax X which will not really make it faster but will reduce the break in time. We have discontinued HotWax X in favor of this new strategy of allowing customers to custom formulate for specific situations. 4 SpeedChip+2Endurance Chip into one bag of SecretBlend will give you performance almost identical to HotWax X, but at a fraction of the price per waxing.
Team Silca is on a roll! Question, any comments on how these additives might change wax performance or longevity in hot or wet conditions? And if/how they might change interactions with super secret drip wax when used to extend chain use between immersions?
The SpeedChip is mainly made from synthetic silicone waxes. You trade lifetime for additional lubricity in this case. EnduranceChip is likely made from a mix of a softer silicone wax base that has extreme lifetime, but is likely combined with a harder high polyethelyne wax content to increase hardness and toughness simultaneously, because a durable wax that just accumulates dirt isn't all that great if you plan to use drip wax afterwards. This is likely why they're marketed as high concentration additives: using them as pure wax bases would either make for an extremely short lived wax, or one that had extreme longevity, but worse lubrication. Note that this is part speculation and part inference from what I know about waxes and general lubrication.
in college my coaches and aids spoke about timed exertion instead of the normal "milage" i like the graph in hours ref that example. ur chain lasts hundreds of thousands of miles! but on 8 hours of use per waxxing.
Have you tested for sandy conditions, e.g. dunes, beaches. From what I can see this chip should definitely extend the lifespan on road/gravel, but I'm not sold to order an endurance chip for my MTB
Endurance chip improves both sand and water performance by ~15% compared to SecretBlend alone, which is already one of the top waxes ever tested by ZFC.
@@SILCAVelo Thanks, I've been using silca wax product this year for about 100hrs on light MTB, it is definitely the best product for the conditions that I am riding (except a few times that I ended up in rain which completely removed wax rather fast). One video theme that I would like to see is "how noisy should the chain be on different wax wear levels", I didn't really find it properly explained on the internet and ended up overusing drip wax.
I've been using Secret Chain Blend for two years. I would say it lives up to the claims of keeping the drivetrain clean, reducing chain wear, and it's pretty easy to re-wax using the new Silca chain waxing system. But, it never lasts more than 100 dry road miles before the chain gets really noisy. In fact, I only get 2-3 quiet rides (about 50-60 miles) before the chain gets noticeably noisy, and then it gets worse from there. It's noisy enough that it's very irritating. For this reason I'm thinking of giving up on waxing and going to Silca Synergetic instead. The drive train will get dirty and sticky, I'll have it clean it pretty often, there will be more wear, but I'm hoping it would run a lot quieter. This is the wax "chip" that I'd really like to see -- an EnduranceQuiet Chip that has additives to make the chain quieter, if that is possible. This is on a 1x12 Sram AXS road drivetrain. You could argue the wide 1x chain angles makes it louder, but it's loud even when the chain is straight front-to-back. And, when I've run 1x12 MTB drivetrains with wet lube, they're utterly quiet. I've carefully prepped SRAM road chains the old way (with mineral spirits), and the new way (with Silca Chain Stripper) and I get the same results -- still noisy.
12 speed drivetrains are definitely noisier than previous generations due to the extremely tight tolerances, and SRAM 12sp is definitely noisier than Shimano. You can try topping it off with SuperSecret to help quiet it down, as the hot melt is still doing it's thing inside the chain, but the super tight tolerances of these modern drivetrains remove the outer wax very quickly resulting in the noise you are hearing. We recommend putting a drop of SuperSecret on each roller while backpedalling, and then cycling through the gears.. this will leave a very thin wax coating on the outside of the chain as well as the cogs which will quiet things down. Also, be sure to use the chrome plated SRAM chains and not the rainbow or other colors as our testing shows that those coatings result in reduced lubrication longevity. Synergetic will keep things quieter for longer due to the viscoelastic sound damping effects of the oil, but remember, this is a bit of a trap where you think the lubricant is doing just fine long after it's been contaminated to the point that it's acting as a grinding paste, so with Synergetic and all other wet lubes, you need to be fully cleaning the chain and relubricating well before you think you need to.
If I already have the Silca pot with Secret Wax in it that is hard now and am about to redo my chain. Do I heat it up and pour out some or cut some out before. Have only done a couple new chains in it without the strip chip so don't want to just throw it away.
You can scoop some of the original wax out when it is hot with a plastic cup or similar to make room for SpeedChip if you like, or just keep using it until the level goes down and then add it in.
Does the endurance chip help with water and mud? For example if it's a muddy year at Unbound and I'm riding the 200 would two endurance chips added to my pot get me through the entire event without needing to throw some Synergetic on some where during the 2nd half?
I'm willing to bet it does. The EnduranceChip is likely a blend of softer silicone wax with polyethylene wax and some paraffin wax to give it lots of lifetime at the cost of lubrication and maybe chain durability.
How does the chain wear look like when you use those chips? Like, for example, say the chain lasts 5k km with the normal Secret Blend, would it last 10k km with Endurance chips added and 2k km with the Speed chips, or would it stay around the same way or even the other way around? Assuming you use the recommended rewaxing intervals, like 100 km with 2 speed chips/250g, 350 km without any chips and 560 km with 2 endurance chips, always in dry conditions?
With the 'normal' Secret Blend, your chain should be lasting 15K km when properly maintained... I remove the chain and rewax every 400 km but also wipe the chain with a microfiber cloth after every ride, wet or dry all year round.
Chain wear will be roughly the same as long as you are adjusting your application frequency to your blend as you noted.. so with Speed you will be doing more rewaxing and with Endurance you are doing less, but the wear rate will be more or less equal.
@@SILCAVelo I am only interested in chain wear for a commuter, car replacement bike. Is it reasonable to assume that if you continue to wax at 300km intervals after adding the endurance product to Silca Secret wax, that chain life will increase over Silca Secret wax when applied alone?
so basically i need to add at least 2 chips (lets say endurance) per bag of wax or max 4 chips for full length? so i basically have to pay 4x35 euros extra per bag to extend the life to maybe double. so if i dont need the endurance of 700km in one go i just go with 2x 500g secret because its 100euros while if i extend it to the maximum of 750 i have to pay 50 (1x secret blend) and 4x 35. dont know makes no sense for me. i pay triple price to rewax less often but give up efficiency.
thanks for the price info, I didn't know it cost that much, . how many kilometers does one portion of wax that you pay €35-50 last? I use pure wax without additives and I do it with a hot process on the bike without removing the chain and it costs me 6 minutes per bike since the wax is free.
@@makantahi3731 your secret blend transforms into secret blend 2.0 so the whole 250g of wax are permanently transformed into a slightly longer lasting wax. If you want 750km per waxing it costs you 50+35+35+35+35 and you get around 40-50 chains worth of wax. So roughly 750km (if it really is that good) times 40 equals 30.000km But bare in mind the raw wax costs 50€ (sometimes less at certain retailers) and you get 16.000km out of 1 bag. 32.000km = 100€ or s bit less 30.000km = 190€ So if you dont need 750km in one go you pay double the price for less rewaxing.
What does the endurance chip do for super wet muddy or gritty riding? My experience with the original has been a road ride in solid rain and the wax is gone gone..
Rex is letting you decide how much additive you want in your base wax.. so they are taking you along the speed-endurance continuum by changing the percentage of their 'black diamond' additive relative to a base wax. Here, we are allowing you to tweak both the additive percentage and the base wax formulation, so it sort of three dimensionalizes the optimization.. you can actually be faster and longer lasting if you add 2 speed and 1 endurance, or you can be way faster with 2 speed only, or way longer lasting with 2 endurance. From our testing we have extended the continuum on both sides giving you a greater performance range, with our range extending more than 0.4% faster than their 'fastest' formula to up to 50% longer lasting than their 'endurance' blend if, and then everything in between.
Do these additives require higher heat like Strip Chip, or is the application process and temperature the same as Secret Chain Blend (without Strip Chip)?
still using the drip on, no space or time for wax pot, have a routine I want Josh to comment on : on KMC DLC chain, I use a little bio-degreasser then boiling water to clean the chain a few times a year, isopropyl 90% before drip to get the last bits of water out, and the rest of the time I simply putt on the drip-on secret sauce, sometimes I flash cure it with an hair dryer to do a double application.
@SILCAVelo Hey Josh, what's the longevity of the endurance chip like in poor riding conditions. I'm based in Ireland, I'm a waxing convert for my race bike which sees use in spring and summer when we get some reasonable weather and thus decent riding conditions which doesn't require constant treatment in hot wax. I use a drip wax in winter here because of constant wet conditions and roads which are covered in a film of wet mud. Drip wax is most convenient in that situation because the bike gets absolutely filthy on every ride in autumn and winter, trying to strip, dry and wax chains quickly in cold conditions is easier said than done. It would be great if an immersive wax could last a couple of very wet/dirty rides before needing to completely strip the chain (hot water) and re-immerse in hot wax. This would be the holy grail wax!
@@rafaeldegiacomoaraujo8778 tried last winter with two chains. Not sufficient really. Plus I've found quick links to go slack after being removed 4 or 5 times meaning additional expense of replacing. quick links regularly
You can use both as the cost/benefits of each are not completely offsetting.. so 1 speed chip is ~0.4% more efficient and costs you ~20% application longevity, while 1 endurance chip costs 0.2% efficiency, and can increase application life ~60-75%, so adding one of each nets ~0.2% efficiency and maybe 50% longevity improvement.
Good catch. That may be a mistake based on the speed chip graphic. Seems like the graphic artist copied and pasted and then forgot to duplicate the chips for the 500g section
@@_gregvalencia Probably, but it made me thing for like 10 minutes. It did not help, that I read Minimum amount of chips instead of Maximum to begin with 🤣
Great launch. Can I just ask - If I have 250g Secret Chain Blend plus two endurance chips, approximately have many chain treatments (dips) will that get me? I expect about ten. Is that right?
Oh, way more than that! That combo is probably nets 30-40 waxings before the level gets too low to fully submerge the chain, and then you can top it off to utilize the rest. A safe calculation is that you will consumer ~10gm of wax per waxing depending on what chain you have and how long it is.
1. How does this work in conjunction with Strip Chip?
2. How do the additives effect the break-in time for chain?
3. What do you use on your commuter bike? Endurance seems nice but almost doubles the cost of the wax but less maintenance.
4. Does dirt stick more to the speed version? Guessing softer wax.
@@justinofboulder 😅🤣😂🙃
@@justinofboulder I just use leftover french fries oil
I use Silca Hot Melt for the initial lube on long tours, topped up by Super Secret Drip or, in the event of rain, Synergetic. Would the endurance additive help extend wax life in wet conditions?
I think this is an excellent question for those of us that live in wet'ish countries. As far as I can see, wet weather re-application is the achilles heel of chain waxing. Silca, please advise if the endurance chip improves things.
Thank you so much for giving us, consumers, the ability to modulate the wax for our own preference. This is how a company should be run. ❤
I ride mostly MTB. But the advantages of wax are huge. Stays cleaner longer, and is easier to clean. But of course there's a lot of mud and dirt involved. Does the endurance wax hold up better in really harsh conditions as well? How does it fair in cold conditions ~0 to 15 deg F (Fat Bike)? I am intrigued by this additive.
generally I find wax isn't that great in wet & muddy conditions, unfortunately. My 'solution' to this is to ride when & where the weather is nice most of the time and I still use wax on wet mtb days, it just needs reapplying fairly often under such conditions.
Assuming 250g Wax + 2x Endurance Chips give you 50x Chain-Waxings just like 500g of Wax, this saves you the following in the best case scenario: 80 USD per 100.000k and approximately 200x Times waxing within the 100.000k.
For me that's accounts for saving 16,5 USD and waxing 9x less per year. While it's a saving, this probably isn't really noticeable for most people as long as they don't ride 300km in one go.
That said, since you're actually saving a bit of money, waxing every 750k instead of every 300k is tempting for sure! It doesn't really make any sense for people that cant get the 750k out of one waxing because of wet weather conditions. Then you're re-waxing more often anyways without getting the benefits.
You put out this video as I was waxing my first chain with Silca and the Strip Chip. I would like to know how all those amazing products mix (strip chip, endurance and speed). And how to use them as normal person with one bag of wax blend 😊
Watching this after commuting to work on my Aethos with hot waxed chain, Silca mattone seat bag, tattico pump, wearing silca aero socks. I think I have a problem. Congrats Josh on the launch!
Were you wearing the T shirt too ?
Are you me?
Gay
Commuting on an Aethos is a problem I wish I could have.
keep working to keep buying!even buying while you ride to work to buy the things you watch on your way to work!
Just need a way to get the same options for the drip wax.
For me it would be great to have the extra endurance available in the drip format. I've done the wax dip years ago and tried again recently, not for me. But the Silca drip wax is great.
And now we wait for ZFC's results
I want to see how this compares to Rex wax
@@rafaeldegiacomoaraujo8778
After seeing the small marginal differences between all the top 5 waxes my guess is same same, the difference is going to be marginal, to non existent, anyone of those brands will serve you well.
God knows the tour de france might make teams create their own chemical department with highly secretive wax recipes, if it doesn't exist already. There's a whole world hidden from the public market sector.
Ultimately it is interesting to see how things evolve, immersion waxing and it's benefits are incredible, the next changes might happen on the mechanical side, maybe we'll get tungsten carbide rollers , or fully sealed chain systems, the sky is the limit.
@@rafaeldegiacomoaraujo8778 Particularly when your main interest is wear reduction regardless of waxing frequency.
As a scientist, I love the nerdery of constantly researching and improving your products 🤓
Wondering when lumberjack competition folks will be asking Josh for sponsorship for the chainsaw portion of their matches.😂
Chainsaw chain is a different construction to bike and is fed with oil constantly during operation
@@hartshorn95yep, it gets flung out at quite a rate. We'd need a Supa-Sticky Chip. I do think they'd benefit from a dust-resistant wax for long gravel rides
Does the endurance chip make the wax last longer for people who live it hot climates?
Yep, 106 today, wax holds up, but I'd be curious to learn about high temp testing. In fact even for the Speed version.
Good question. I’m only using Super Secret drip and I have to apply less than or around every 100miles before it gets noisy. Seems like all the wax just melts onto my chainring and pulley wheels out here in the summer desert dirt
Silca's wax melting point is around 72 celsius. Not sure many drivetrains get that hot. You should be fine
I have a medium sized fleet of bikes to maintain (7 bikes for 3 riders in my family) and I've been kicking the wax idea around in my head for a while. Today was the day I pulled the trigger, it's a pretty big initial investment but hoping it does pay out over time. I have confidence in this approach, and looking forward to cleaner and longer lasting drivetrains!
The drip wax makes it a no brainer. I have several thousand km on my Enduro MTB and the chain still doesn't really register any wear. Huge $$$ savings
If you maintain a proper regime to really clean the chain b4 waxing it, I dare say that your one pot of wax could last you practically indefinitely. Sound like a good saving if you ask me 😂😂
20 bikes here. Have switched 9 bikes (including 1 tandem) and it's just a matter of time until I get to the rest. My only regret? Not switching at LEAST 10 years ago!
I love your products and am proud to use Silca in my Wax Service for my customers.
Thanks for cranking chain wax nerdiness one more notch in the right direction!
Thanks for this! Live my SILCA waxing system and love SILCA!!
Enticing title but unless the wax has electrons in it that power an electric motor :-) I can't see it being illegal. I use the Silca wax system and as much as I'd like to say that it makes me FASTER that'd be me daydreaming :-) However it makes the bike CLEANER, quieter and smoother shifting and adds some kilometres to the life of the drive train etc. but faster? Mmmm . . . not sure.
On the other hand, I'll never go back to "lubes" of ANY kind. It really is THE way to go. After making the initial investment, it's a lifelong tweak that just keeps on giving :-) If you're sitting on the "wax fence" . . . just get off! LOL BTW, if you do go for it, I'd highly recommend watching Josh's UA-cam tutorials on getting the best from the Silca Wax system.
I'm sure the UCI will find something illegal about it.
Hi Josh and team, looks pretty cool. A few questions come to mind:
1. Does endurance also improve wet conditions longevity?
2. Speed probably improves drivetrain wear as in ZFC world less wear means faster. Does endurance decrease this performance do you expect?
3. How would you combine -mainly endurance- with drip wax?
4. On how many added chips are the graphs based?
Cheers!
1. Endurance improves wet longevity ~15%
2. Speed and wear are only linked up until the lubricant breaks down or squeezes out.. the ZFC test relubricates every 333km, so if SpeedChip takes application life to 200km, then you'll have 200km of lower friction/zero wear and then 100km of higher friction and wear.. Similarly, Endurance will test even better in ZFC testing as the 333km interval is relubing the chain well before the lubricant is breaking down.
3. You can apply drip wax over top of any of these.
4. Graphs are 1 chip per 250gm of wax
@@SILCAVelo Thanks. Sounds very promising, not just for our atheletes. Cool!
Outstanding! I don't wax, but these products really ring my bell. Love the technology. Kudos for all the R&D! If I someday choose to wax, I'll be using these products.
Why wait? Wax performs head and shoulders above everything else. You can make your own for really cheap and enjoy all the benefits. Wish I had switched over 20 years ago!
Congratulations for pushing the envelope and improving on great products !
I have a routine with my Campy drivetrain. Silca hot wax new chain. Use Silca SS drip wax until the chain has reached 40-50% wear on my digital chain checker. My last chain went 10,000 miles with this method. Very happy with the results. Anything I could do better without removing the chain?
Thanks, Dave
Can you use the endurance with the strip chip at the same time?
I’ve been looking to maybe getting into hot waxing my chains… I’m more of a recreational weekend rider so I’m leaning towards the most long lasting endurance variant.
My question would be: if 4 chips go into 1 500g bag, does all of that fit into the wax melting pot you sell?
Or should one use 2x 250g + 2chips?
Also presumably, the added wax affects how long one batch lasts. On the SILCA website it says one 500g bag is good for 40-50 applications. How many applications should one expect to get out of a 500g bag plus 4 chips?
How would the endurance chip with secret chain blend hot wax hold up in a longer event when its exposed to wet conditions?
Endurance chip shows a marginal improvement in wet weather durability (~15-20%), but not enough that we are calling it a wet weather formula.. that's still a major engineering challenge that our team are working on.
@@SILCAVelo Yeahh, balancing treatment longevity, lubrication and dirt adherence must be extremely difficult :D
Josh, Interesting graph. I think it is interesting that you use 'Hours of Use', while most of us use 'miles ridden' between waxing of our chains. I track my maintenance of the bike/chain with an app 'maintrack', but perhaps there is room for a Silca app/Strava plugin that 'estimates' when a chain needs waxing or top up, based on use and bike type. With this you could also add recommendations as to 'the blend' for each riders optimum riding. V2 of the app would take the weather into account too.
That's an app for everything
An app that looks at your strava routes and soil dryness and geology and whether you were drafting behind others to compute total dirt load and.... or just re wax when it gets noisy.
We use hours in our testing as the test consists of segments that mimic road and mtn gearing and torque. We've grown to like this as when we're only talking in km or riding, the MTB folks write in and say 'I only got 80km per waxing, not 300' and when you look at it, while those distances are nowhere similar, they are pretty similar in terms of time on the bike. Not sure if it will stick long term, but certainly seems like it might be a nice way to standardize language across disciplines.
As for the app, it's something we're looking at for sure, and have been playing with internally. The one thing we worry about is the potential over reliance on the app leading to potential chain damage from underwaxing.. sort of similar to how people using GPS are way more likely to miss a turn if the GPS is off by just 50m as the focus on the tech causes them to doubt their instincts and downplay other factors that they might otherwise have noticed.
Distance for machines (and for people) is a proxy for duration and intensity of use (or effort). Anytime you model phenomena you should pare away as many proxies as possible. Your body really has no idea how far you went. But it does have a pretty good idea of how hard you went. And how hard you went is much more closely tracked by the duration of your effort than by the distance traveled. Same for your chain. I suspect an even better measurement for determining wax replacement is joules (as long as environmental factors are ignored).
If you have cadence sensor, your logging app should have something like a strokes count for counting pedal strokes. Chain usage is more accurate with counting pedal strokes than distance since freewheeling technically doesn't wear your chains more than when pedaling.
Although chain ring size affects how many times pedal strokes it takes for a chain to complete a cycle (1 rotation), it is still the closest metric for chain wear.
Can't wait to try it.
What are your thought on using wax for fat biking? Would any of these additives help? Thanks.
Love the continued innovation!
I'm definitely going for a race chain with speed additive and one or two training chains with endurance additive. One question: how is compatibility with the strip chip?
Cool development! So now I move to two crock-pots of hot wax for all my bikes: training & Gravel + Racing & TT 😀
Josh you are killing me. I have Hot Wax X in my Silca chain waxer. How does that fit into the pantheon of waxes and what would the recipe for a 40 k TT be?
I agree! When you pay a premium price for the X wax and then They don’t include it in the formula, feels like a hip 😢.
Can't wait for the ZFC review on these. Waiting for that before committing! Currently an avid 250-350km chain change on SS hot melt (clean dry rides only).
Sounds like one will need multiple pots for "speed"-oriented waxing and "endurance"-oriented waxing? I have not tried this yet but perhaps the solidified wax can be extracted from the pot and an alternate mix could be put into the pot to allow for multiple wax mixes using the same pot. I know with the instant pot I could easily and cleanly extract the solidified wax from the semi=polished stainless pot. Not sure if that can be done with the less polished Silca wax pot?
Agree, looks like the UFO pot design needs a swappable bowl design now. Either that or a candle mold accessory--after dipping one mix, pour the leftover wax out so you can just swap out regular, speed and endurance candles as needed.
Amazing how things are changing in this industry!
Thanks for the great products Josh! Will these additives also be available in the super secret wax drip or only for immersion?
How do the wattage/endurance numbers compare to the old Hot Wax X blend with Graphene?
Also can these chips be used with Hot Wax X? I know it's discontinued but I have a stash of Hot Wax X.
I'm really interested in this, but it raises a few questions. Can we mix and match chains with different wax treatments, and is it possible to purchase additional pots for the wax melting system? For instance, I could see myself using one treatment for a race chain and another for a daily training chain with different blends of waxes. However, since I currently have only one pot, would Silca offer the option to purchase additional pots, rather than whole systems?
Additionally, what about the scenario where I want to use the same chain but switch to a different wax blend? Would this be similar to previous guidance, where it’s acceptable to simply dip the chain into the pot with the desired wax blend for that specific application?
Considering the need to manage multiple bikes and chains (track, road, gravel), having the flexibility to switch between wax treatments would be incredibly useful.
It's good to get some validation that longevity is directly related to wax formulation. I'd been coming to that conclusion slowly myself, but there is so little high quality discussion about these topics that it's hard to come to a conclusion. I'm still confused about how the platelets actually improve the situation, though. Decreasing friction of the metal, or hardening the metal sounds fine, but I can't convince myself that it will do *anything* in the presence of adequate lubrication. I would be grateful to have a in depth discussion of how that actually works in practice.
Multi size particle coatings have shown in general to improve coating quality and it does apply to the tribological sphere as well (lubrication).
Dry lubricant particles just stick to the metal surface to create a low friction surface and in most cases, fill up the surface "pores" of the material, increasing surface area, pressure and as a result, it decreases friction further.
That chart you flashed near the end showed a max of 2 EnduranceChips/500g, but the results showed 2 chips/250g? Also, I'm currently using MSW (hey, it's already in the crockpot & I hate to waste). Will this improve the efficiency/longevity of MSW, or is mixing & matching not recommended?
It sounds to me I need to add 1/2 an endurance ship to my 250ml wax to get longer life for my wet winter commutes here in the PNW. Is that right, Josh?
Interesting! Can you actually add both, a SpeedChip and an EnduranceChip to enhance both at the same time, endurance and speed? Or would they rather cancel out and give you no advantage at all?
Likely cancel it out since the wax bases are made from different mixes with different end goals: one is a pure extremely low friction silicone wax while the other one is likely a softer mix of silicone wax and very high weight polyethylene wax.
Do you guys happen to have an average tare weight for the Silca wax pot? I have a pot full of wax that I've been using. Not really sure how to determine how many grams of wax I have in it since I neglected to weigh my Crockpotinator 4000 when i got it 🤔
if you turn the pot on and wait for a few minutes you'll be able to pop the whole block of wax out of the pot and then weigh it. (a thin outer layer of wax melts first to allow the whole thing to come free of the pot)
My 2c and also some questions ...
Looks very interesting ... I think it would be better if these new additives were sold in pellet form so we could measure out the mix amount needed more precisely for the amount that fits into the put we use. I suppose one could grind them up somehow, but that would end up being a bit messy I think.
How does this replace / mesh with Hot Wax X (or more to the point, how does Super Secret blend work with Hot Wax X). I still have about 1.25 tins of that left and notice its not being sold anymore on the Silca website. Can I top up Hot Wax X with Super Secret Blend as needed in my melting pot... will these additives still work if I do that? Up to now I have been using super secret drip every 80-100 miles and doing a full clean (just using boiling water) and Hot Wax X re-immersion every 700-800 miles and things seem to be running fairly well.
So cool! What if I chuck 1 of each into a pot?
Just Curious - I have a wax pot that I just add to when the wax level gets low. I like to keep enough in there that I can submerge up to 4 chains at a time. I like the idea of the Endurance chip, but how often would I have to add another one? Two to four of them every time I add a (500g) bag of Secret blend? One chip every (X?) number of chains? Just about to add another bag. Probably 300 g left in the pot.
Can you put one Speed chip and one endurance chip and get the added distance without the efficiency loss?
No
Very nice Josh (and team)!
A couple questions:
I wax with super secret and follow up with super secret drip to get 250-400 miles on my chain between waxings, what is the effect on the speed and endurance chips if using the drip between waxings?
Will there be a forthcoming super secret speed drip or endurance drip in the near future?
How long is the speedchip or endurancechip good for in the wax mix (does it need to have additional added over time?).
Finally, if one adds equal amounts of the speedchip and endurancechip to the wax, is that just reformulating to what the original super secret wax beads contain?
If these additives have a measurable impact then the strip chip must also do something - what does it do to the numbers?
It's probably negligible since it's formulated exactly for an average bike chain amount of factory grease.
How would the speed and endurance chips work with regular paraffin wax??
As others have mentioned, how does this work with strip chip? Especially for those of us with one pot of wax!
Saddleback UK state "May be used in conjunction with StripChip on new factory chains" but I have asked Silca to confirm this. I would err on the side of caution until we have absolute confirmation from Silca.
Gotta use those for my trip through europe next month
Can we use one of each chip for any benefits?
Why is there no no additional additives in the Endurance chip?
the question we need Silca Josh to answer how does this product compare to Rex Black Diamond
I just started using your silka pot and secret wax blend on my bikes this year. Most all my riding is on trail which at times creates a very contaminated chain. I'm thinking the endurance chips would serve me well. I normally wipe chain down and drip wax after a ride. What would be you recommendations? Also when should I be washing chain with hot water and dip again? Thanks👍🏻
My EnduranceChip was in my mailbox this afternoon. I'm heating up my Silca Wax system right now. The only thing I'm confused about is that the instructions on the packaging say to use the chip in 300-500 grams of wax. You say in the video that your figures are based on 250 gr of wax. Is there a reason I should use more than the 250 gr, or the half bag I already have in the pot?
What is cheaper in the long run if you only care about longevity?
Original blend or added endurance wax?
Ok, having only a few days a go took delivery of my Silca Waxing system, 500g bag of Wax blend chips and a pack of 6 strip chips, I can now purchase some endurance chips and get up to 350 miles out of one waxing session before I have to re-wax? This sounds good to me. Less time having to wax (Although I haven't even done the 1st one yet haha) and less SRAM powerlocks to potentially have to buy.
But, as others have asked, what's the deal with a pot of wax that has had a strip chip already added to it. Can you put 250g of Wax blend in, a strip chip AND Two Endurance chips? OR, do you have to forego the strip chip and use the liquid chain stripper in advance of a hot wax with endurance chip.
Saddleback UK says " May be used in conjunction with StripChip on new factory chains" however, I would like absolute confirmation from Silca on this to ensure no mishaps happen.
What happens after the dip in efficiency? After 20 hours usage of the normally waxed chain? I don't care about a drop from 97 to 95 percent efficiency. But I don't want to go under 90 percent.
The dip in efficiency comes from all of the wax being abraded off of the metal and squeezed out of the areas it is needed. At this point you need to re-wax, or add a top off lubricant like SILCA SuperSecret.
Josh, can you please provide usage suggestions for these products to those of us using Hot Wax X?
You can add SpeedChip to HotWax X which will not really make it faster but will reduce the break in time. We have discontinued HotWax X in favor of this new strategy of allowing customers to custom formulate for specific situations. 4 SpeedChip+2Endurance Chip into one bag of SecretBlend will give you performance almost identical to HotWax X, but at a fraction of the price per waxing.
give us a speed and/or endurance bag ready to go!
Team Silca is on a roll! Question, any comments on how these additives might change wax performance or longevity in hot or wet conditions? And if/how they might change interactions with super secret drip wax when used to extend chain use between immersions?
The SpeedChip is mainly made from synthetic silicone waxes. You trade lifetime for additional lubricity in this case.
EnduranceChip is likely made from a mix of a softer silicone wax base that has extreme lifetime, but is likely combined with a harder high polyethelyne wax content to increase hardness and toughness simultaneously, because a durable wax that just accumulates dirt isn't all that great if you plan to use drip wax afterwards.
This is likely why they're marketed as high concentration additives: using them as pure wax bases would either make for an extremely short lived wax, or one that had extreme longevity, but worse lubrication.
Note that this is part speculation and part inference from what I know about waxes and general lubrication.
When will Silca offer a larger wax melter?
When the Chinese company that manufacturers the rebranded spa waxing pot they use (cost: 15 dollars) makes a bigger machine.
Congratulations Josh. Great stuff.
in college my coaches and aids spoke about timed exertion instead of the normal "milage" i like the graph in hours ref that example. ur chain lasts hundreds of thousands of miles! but on 8 hours of use per waxxing.
So … if i put _both_ in I go both faster _and_ longer? ;-)
Have you tested for sandy conditions, e.g. dunes, beaches. From what I can see this chip should definitely extend the lifespan on road/gravel, but I'm not sold to order an endurance chip for my MTB
Endurance chip improves both sand and water performance by ~15% compared to SecretBlend alone, which is already one of the top waxes ever tested by ZFC.
@@SILCAVelo Thanks, I've been using silca wax product this year for about 100hrs on light MTB, it is definitely the best product for the conditions that I am riding (except a few times that I ended up in rain which completely removed wax rather fast). One video theme that I would like to see is "how noisy should the chain be on different wax wear levels", I didn't really find it properly explained on the internet and ended up overusing drip wax.
Does the endurance dopechip improve rainy ride longevity?
2 endurance chips max per bag, but then there is a recipe of 2 chips per 250g (or 1/2 bag) of wax. so is it 2 or 4 max per bag?
What happens if I do a 50/50 mix of both chips with no base wax?
Great! The endurance chip seems also great for everyday riding/training. Can I add the chips to “used” wax ou should be only be added to new wax?
You can add to used wax, no problems!
Do these additives also work with Hot Wax X?
1.8w faster? u know its gonna get sold out immediately! Noice 👌👌
What happened to the nanene Hot Wax X. Is that still the fastest?
AMAZING!
Love it!
Cant wait to try it!
COngrats team!
I've been using Secret Chain Blend for two years. I would say it lives up to the claims of keeping the drivetrain clean, reducing chain wear, and it's pretty easy to re-wax using the new Silca chain waxing system. But, it never lasts more than 100 dry road miles before the chain gets really noisy. In fact, I only get 2-3 quiet rides (about 50-60 miles) before the chain gets noticeably noisy, and then it gets worse from there. It's noisy enough that it's very irritating.
For this reason I'm thinking of giving up on waxing and going to Silca Synergetic instead. The drive train will get dirty and sticky, I'll have it clean it pretty often, there will be more wear, but I'm hoping it would run a lot quieter. This is the wax "chip" that I'd really like to see -- an EnduranceQuiet Chip that has additives to make the chain quieter, if that is possible. This is on a 1x12 Sram AXS road drivetrain. You could argue the wide 1x chain angles makes it louder, but it's loud even when the chain is straight front-to-back. And, when I've run 1x12 MTB drivetrains with wet lube, they're utterly quiet. I've carefully prepped SRAM road chains the old way (with mineral spirits), and the new way (with Silca Chain Stripper) and I get the same results -- still noisy.
12 speed drivetrains are definitely noisier than previous generations due to the extremely tight tolerances, and SRAM 12sp is definitely noisier than Shimano. You can try topping it off with SuperSecret to help quiet it down, as the hot melt is still doing it's thing inside the chain, but the super tight tolerances of these modern drivetrains remove the outer wax very quickly resulting in the noise you are hearing. We recommend putting a drop of SuperSecret on each roller while backpedalling, and then cycling through the gears.. this will leave a very thin wax coating on the outside of the chain as well as the cogs which will quiet things down. Also, be sure to use the chrome plated SRAM chains and not the rainbow or other colors as our testing shows that those coatings result in reduced lubrication longevity.
Synergetic will keep things quieter for longer due to the viscoelastic sound damping effects of the oil, but remember, this is a bit of a trap where you think the lubricant is doing just fine long after it's been contaminated to the point that it's acting as a grinding paste, so with Synergetic and all other wet lubes, you need to be fully cleaning the chain and relubricating well before you think you need to.
i can't wait to try endurance chip but $12 shipping is insane. i'll wait till my LBS gets it
You just have to buy more stuff until you get free shipping. That's how I help justify my purchases 🤣
What temperature do we use to get these new chips melted at?
melting temperature
If I already have the Silca pot with Secret Wax in it that is hard now and am about to redo my chain. Do I heat it up and pour out some or cut some out before. Have only done a couple new chains in it without the strip chip so don't want to just throw it away.
You can scoop some of the original wax out when it is hot with a plastic cup or similar to make room for SpeedChip if you like, or just keep using it until the level goes down and then add it in.
Thanks, sorta thinking that as it is about room in the pot for the extra
Does the endurance chip help with water and mud? For example if it's a muddy year at Unbound and I'm riding the 200 would two endurance chips added to my pot get me through the entire event without needing to throw some Synergetic on some where during the 2nd half?
I'm willing to bet it does. The EnduranceChip is likely a blend of softer silicone wax with polyethylene wax and some paraffin wax to give it lots of lifetime at the cost of lubrication and maybe chain durability.
How does the chain wear look like when you use those chips? Like, for example, say the chain lasts 5k km with the normal Secret Blend, would it last 10k km with Endurance chips added and 2k km with the Speed chips, or would it stay around the same way or even the other way around? Assuming you use the recommended rewaxing intervals, like 100 km with 2 speed chips/250g, 350 km without any chips and 560 km with 2 endurance chips, always in dry conditions?
With the 'normal' Secret Blend, your chain should be lasting 15K km when properly maintained... I remove the chain and rewax every 400 km but also wipe the chain with a microfiber cloth after every ride, wet or dry all year round.
Chain wear will be roughly the same as long as you are adjusting your application frequency to your blend as you noted.. so with Speed you will be doing more rewaxing and with Endurance you are doing less, but the wear rate will be more or less equal.
@@SILCAVelo I am only interested in chain wear for a commuter, car replacement bike. Is it reasonable to assume that if you continue to wax at 300km intervals after adding the endurance product to Silca Secret wax, that chain life will increase over Silca Secret wax when applied alone?
What do I think? What do I want to do?
I think it's great. I want to wax my chain!
How many cha🎉ins can I wax with 1 bag of secret blend wax and 2 endurance chips? Looking to do several chains for my touring bike for long tours.
What would happen if we waxed with only speed chip?
Would that be the fastest lol?
so basically i need to add at least 2 chips (lets say endurance) per bag of wax or max 4 chips for full length? so i basically have to pay 4x35 euros extra per bag to extend the life to maybe double. so if i dont need the endurance of 700km in one go i just go with 2x 500g secret because its 100euros while if i extend it to the maximum of 750 i have to pay 50 (1x secret blend) and 4x 35. dont know makes no sense for me. i pay triple price to rewax less often but give up efficiency.
thanks for the price info, I didn't know it cost that much, . how many kilometers does one portion of wax that you pay €35-50 last? I use pure wax without additives and I do it with a hot process on the bike without removing the chain and it costs me 6 minutes per bike since the wax is free.
@@makantahi3731 your secret blend transforms into secret blend 2.0 so the whole 250g of wax are permanently transformed into a slightly longer lasting wax. If you want 750km per waxing it costs you 50+35+35+35+35 and you get around 40-50 chains worth of wax.
So roughly 750km (if it really is that good) times 40 equals 30.000km
But bare in mind the raw wax costs 50€ (sometimes less at certain retailers) and you get 16.000km out of 1 bag.
32.000km = 100€ or s bit less
30.000km = 190€
So if you dont need 750km in one go you pay double the price for less rewaxing.
Waiting for Escape Collective's clickbait article "Are Tour de France riders doping with wax? An exclusive investigation."
Yeah, because chain waxing and carbon monoxide inhalation are so similar.
What does the endurance chip do for super wet muddy or gritty riding? My experience with the original has been a road ride in solid rain and the wax is gone gone..
Cool stuff. How does is this different to Rex set up?
Rex is letting you decide how much additive you want in your base wax.. so they are taking you along the speed-endurance continuum by changing the percentage of their 'black diamond' additive relative to a base wax. Here, we are allowing you to tweak both the additive percentage and the base wax formulation, so it sort of three dimensionalizes the optimization.. you can actually be faster and longer lasting if you add 2 speed and 1 endurance, or you can be way faster with 2 speed only, or way longer lasting with 2 endurance. From our testing we have extended the continuum on both sides giving you a greater performance range, with our range extending more than 0.4% faster than their 'fastest' formula to up to 50% longer lasting than their 'endurance' blend if, and then everything in between.
@@SILCAVelo thanks for the reply
Do these additives require higher heat like Strip Chip, or is the application process and temperature the same as Secret Chain Blend (without Strip Chip)?
We recommend using endurance at a slightly higher temperature if possible 75C for Speed and SecretBlend and 85C for Endurance.
Endurance chip extending 350-km mileage to near double?! That is good news for us randonneurs!
How do these compare to hotwax X?
Stoked!!!
still using the drip on, no space or time for wax pot,
have a routine I want Josh to comment on :
on KMC DLC chain,
I use a little bio-degreasser then boiling water to clean the chain a few times a year,
isopropyl 90% before drip to get the last bits of water out,
and the rest of the time I simply putt on the drip-on secret sauce,
sometimes I flash cure it with an hair dryer to do a double application.
@SILCAVelo Hey Josh, what's the longevity of the endurance chip like in poor riding conditions. I'm based in Ireland, I'm a waxing convert for my race bike which sees use in spring and summer when we get some reasonable weather and thus decent riding conditions which doesn't require constant treatment in hot wax.
I use a drip wax in winter here because of constant wet conditions and roads which are covered in a film of wet mud. Drip wax is most convenient in that situation because the bike gets absolutely filthy on every ride in autumn and winter, trying to strip, dry and wax chains quickly in cold conditions is easier said than done. It would be great if an immersive wax could last a couple of very wet/dirty rides before needing to completely strip the chain (hot water) and re-immerse in hot wax. This would be the holy grail wax!
I suspect you would have an easier time with 2 to 3 chains in the winter with wax.
@@rafaeldegiacomoaraujo8778 tried last winter with two chains. Not sufficient really. Plus I've found quick links to go slack after being removed 4 or 5 times meaning additional expense of replacing. quick links regularly
@@stephenconnor1274 fair enough. Synergetic is so good anyway!
Can I add both chips?
Is this the speed chip announcement?
🤫🤐😏
Take my money, Josh.
Can you use both at the same time?
You can use both as the cost/benefits of each are not completely offsetting.. so 1 speed chip is ~0.4% more efficient and costs you ~20% application longevity, while 1 endurance chip costs 0.2% efficiency, and can increase application life ~60-75%, so adding one of each nets ~0.2% efficiency and maybe 50% longevity improvement.
We need a name or acronym for people that are silca wax aficionados. SWAXAFS or Waxxists ?
I think I'll keep using candle wax with graphite on my $4 chain for now
So, if you can mix 250g wax with 2 endurance chips, then why only 2 chips can be added to a 500g wax bag? See table at 7:40
Good catch. That may be a mistake based on the speed chip graphic. Seems like the graphic artist copied and pasted and then forgot to duplicate the chips for the 500g section
@@_gregvalencia Probably, but it made me thing for like 10 minutes. It did not help, that I read Minimum amount of chips instead of Maximum to begin with 🤣
Great launch. Can I just ask - If I have 250g Secret Chain Blend plus two endurance chips, approximately have many chain treatments (dips) will that get me? I expect about ten. Is that right?
Oh, way more than that! That combo is probably nets 30-40 waxings before the level gets too low to fully submerge the chain, and then you can top it off to utilize the rest. A safe calculation is that you will consumer ~10gm of wax per waxing depending on what chain you have and how long it is.
@@SILCAVelo Thanks very much Josh!👍