i’m not a great fan of youtube; it’s generally just a great way to waste a lot of time. but every now and then there is a grain of wisdom in this massive flood of … um, you catch my drift.

like the guy who cooks up his own chain lube. he made almost an hour of video about a rather scientific comparison of several wax base formulas, cleaning methods and cleaning devices. they were quite convincing too, honestly. i did like the idea of a home-cooked chain wax, though, these things are not cheap; then again neither are chains (add the chain rings as well, and don’t even mention the cassettes).

so when kris was out of the house and access to the cooktop unimpeded i did a little experimenting of my own. one part candle wax, one part paraffin oil, warm it up and bathe the meticulously cleaned chain in it.

costs almost nothing and so far it works well enough. let’s see how it goes after a few weeks.