Preventative maintenance Vs emergency repair

[bikeworkshop]

A lot of retrobikers strip things down and clean and lube them up just for fun.

A lot of our customers ride on ignoring noises and other sensations until their bike just doesn't ride any more.

Then they come to our door...
Hopefully it's not 5.29pm


Usually i use a basic chain, wipe it clean, keep it oiled, and replace after a thousand miles or so.

On my Orange Vitamin T though, I've now fitted a wipperman 9sx (iirc) retail: 3x the price,
wear profile: 2x the life

As a result I now take it off and clean it in the enzyme parts washer when it's looking filthy.
Before:
After:

What strikes me though now is that my average speed (if you include the chain cleaning activity) has declined as a result of using a more expensive chain.

Maybe 0.5%.
Or has it increased as a result of reduced Friction

Next i'm going to hot wax it, like I used to do my motorcycle chains.

Any wax fans?

 

[27motorhead]

A lot of our customers ride on ignoring noises and other sensations until their bike just doesn't ride any more.

sounds familiar!!! Any they never like the price of the repair bill!

Waxing - Supposed to be good. Never got around to doing it personally.

30 pages of hipsters talking about it. I'm sure there is some useful knowledge in there somewhere!

Chain Waxing | LFGSS

www.lfgss.com

 

[bikeworkshop]

My life was too short already.

I got to
"i don't care about watts...
I've got a ceramicspeed chain"
(rrp£135)

and I could no longer read the thread because I was crying in despair.

 

[27motorhead]

My life was too short already.

I got to
"i don't care about watts...
I've got a ceramicspeed chain"
(rrp£135)

and I could no longer read the thread because I was crying in despair.

Sorry should have warned you. Sadly that is a typical LFGSS thread. Some useful information buried in amongst rich kids showing off and hipster keyboard warriors throwing abuse at each other.

As I said I've never personally done it on bicycle. If I was more organised and was racing again (hopefully one day) I would. Have done it on motorbikes in the past and worked well.

 

[benjabbi]

We seem to have 2 types of customer.
Those that want a full strip down service, the bike doesn't really need it but I guess that's why? Because they keep on top of it.
Those who want a basic minimal service, begrudgingly, because a noise has appeared, quite often these bikes are fecked and the bill ends up big, they moan.
I wish most people were somewhere in the middle.
Wax is messy and time consuming to apply and doesn't last too long between applications, it's clean in use though. I've been using Finish Line Ceramic Wax lube which seems like a good happy medium so far.