Advice from a full-time cyclist: be back home by 1 PM
Thanks bro, let me just tell my boss I’m leaving 4 hours early. This article was written for one person and one person only: the author.
None of these are problems that prevent me from riding in the winter.
The biggest issue I have with winter riding, by a long shot, is road salt. I hate the fact that riding in the winter, even once, means that I’m ruining my bike somehow because of road salt. If not for that, I’d be out nearly as often as I would during the warmer months.
My partial solution to that was a belt drive bike, less that can rust. 1 year so far with no rust.
for a regular bike, I replaced all my rusted bolts with titanium ones and aluminum for ones that are not under load, hot waxed chain with no drip wax ever and a bottle of 99% isopropyl that I use to flash off the water. I used to take the chain off and dunk it but work has infinite iso so I just use the pinhole sprayer directly on the chain. If I cared about the finish of the frame maybe I wouldn’t do that but it doesn’t seem to affect this one.
hot waxed chain with no drip wax ever and a bottle of 99% isopropyl that I use to flash off the water.
Can you elaborate? This will be my first year with waxed chains, and your method seems interesting.
Do you just wipe the waxed chain off after returning home, then hit it with 99% isopropyl alcohol?
How many km between immersion waxes?
some people use a ‘drip wax’ as they go but I am not able to tell if it makes a difference when I tried it. If it is beneficial it’s either one of those “only an athlete could feel the performance increase” things or of benefit to the chain itself. I don’t use it, though partly out of leaving it in some dumb place and losing it. Some people only recommend hot wax for dry cycling, but I just use it anyway and do my kinda silly drying.
when I get home or to work I just use the garden hose to rinse any muck down the drain (indoor wet area both ends of route so no frozen hose), bounce the bike on the tires a bit to shake off a bunch of water, then use what is essentially a glorified sriracha bottle to squirt the isopropylene directly on the chain to displace the remaining water. dry season I just go straight to isopropyl. I have thought about things like if the iso can get in and ruin the grease in the bb or ruin the paint, etc. but never really looked in to it. seems fine after doing it from the beginning of last winter to now for my bike at least, but I’m not any kind of scientist or engineer.
Immersion waxes I do whenever I feel like it’s not quite necessary yet but can’t hurt, plus before and after winter. I used a chain wax off amazon, forgot brand but its kinda dark grey or blackish, in a second hand slow cooker.
My procedure is heat wax, rinse chains and swish in the tub of old yellowed iso (or degreaser then rinse then iso if new), hang up chains vertically and straight or folded in half, heat gun to melt the old wax and let it drip a bit, then put in the hot wax with a bent wire hook around the center pin and swish it. I use chopsticks to wiggle all the links a bit and to detangle the chain without burning myself. After hanging it to dry if the wax looks thick or uneven I heat gun it again to smooth it and reduce the wax chain dandruff and prevent janky shifting while the excess wax is being shed off the pivots.
I do 5-8 at a time and any that seem like further use will permanently worsen them I store for the next time I have enough chains waiting to justify heating the wax. I just rinse and iso and flail it around to dry for storage and even go extra and bag it with dessicant because I have a jug for 3d printer filament anyway.
As a side note, if anyone knows any reasons I shouldn’t do any of this please let me know. I have heard from one of the waxing tutorials online that long soaks in degreaser can worsen the structural integrity of the chain’s metal so I keep that to a minimum already.
For sure, a belt drive aluminium bike would be way easier to manage. I’ve got to work with what I have.
I finished coating the inside of my steel frame for the second year. No signs of internal rust when I inspected it, except for the bridge of the chainstay.
For some reason, my fender doesn’t cover this hole, so wheel spray goes directly into it. 🤔
Replaced all bolts with SS, packed marine grease in front of any bearings, and made sure that all rustable parts have either a bit of oil or grease on them.
“plan your arrival time, not departure time”
My arrival time is the time I have to be at work without getting fired.
