Better waxing: Why mountain bikers should use chain wax instead of chain oil!
Stefan Frey
· 10.02.2026
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Josh Poertner, the former Director of Research and Development at Zipp, decided to make a fresh start in 2013 and took over the Italian brand Silca. His aim was to achieve more in a smaller, dynamic environment than in large corporations.
Under his leadership, Silca not only significantly expanded its product portfolio, but also introduced innovative technologies to the market, including chain waxes, which are becoming increasingly popular in cycling. Poertner is an advocate of high-tech developments and enjoys experimenting with new approaches to optimise the performance of bicycles.
In an interview with BIKE, Poertner talked about why chain wax is still neglected in the mountain bike segment, what misconceptions are circulating about chain wax and why mountain bikers can save a lot of money if they wax their chains.
BIKE: Many mountain bikers still consider chain wax to be a luxury for road cyclists. Where are they wrong and where might they actually be right in their scepticism about waxing?
Josh Poertner: That's a good question. I think they're wrong in the sense that a lot of people - even our pro teams that we work with - believe that wax doesn't work in wet or muddy conditions. But if you look at the data, especially the data from Zero Friction Cycling (independent testing institute specialising in bicycle lubricants, editor's note), wax is actually much better in these conditions.
So why haven't we all been growing our chains for a long time?
The problem is, oil-based lubricants hide the fact that they no longer work. With oil, you have something like viscoelastic sound damping. And so dirt and mud is stirred into the chain, but the chain still remains quiet.
With wax, you realise when there's a problem. You might ride with it for 10 or 12 hours in the rain or mud and then you hear the chain and think: Ah, it's broken. But the wax would actually have lasted 30 hours. With oil, you think it would have lasted 30 hours, but it doesn't.
The oil causes wear and high friction almost immediately, but it's still quiet. I always say: if you're married and have children, you'd rather know there's a problem, wouldn't you? The cost of today's components is enormous. Sram offers a cassette for 700 euros, so I want my chain to tell me when it's starting to wear out.
Even in professional mountain biking, the topic is still less widespread than in the road sector. Why is that?
Last year, the Trek mountain bike team came to us to buy lubricants and now we are their official supplier. The Orbea World Cup mountain bike team has also approached us. So things are happening in this area.
But you also have to bear in mind that there are some brands with very traditional products that, frankly, don't work so well, but which are very firmly anchored in mountain bike marketing. And unfortunately, marketing just works damn well.
Because if you look at the data, the product is simply not fast. It doesn't last long, it's not an optimal product. So I would say that we are less effective on the marketing side. I don't have a huge marketing budget. We spend maybe a quarter of what we spend on technical development on marketing.
The cost of today's components is enormous. Sram offers a cassette for 700 euros, so I want my chain to tell me when it starts to wear out.
In your opinion, is there a mountain bike category in which it makes no sense to wax the chain?
No, I think so, Hot wax is still the best. Dripping wax is number two. And everything else is a distant third. Only for very, very long distances do we recommend our Synergetic Lube oil-based as a supplement to wax.
One of our customers has just completed an 800-kilometre gravel event. And he said: "But the wax was only enough for 600 or 700 kilometres." Nevertheless, I recommend riding with wax because it repels dirt and stays clean. Ride with it until you can hear it and then put oil on it.
This is definitely better than oiling the entire track, because dirt gets onto the oil from the very first minute. And the oil mixes the dirt with the chain. The wax, on the other hand, is slowly pressed out of the inside of the chain. You could say that the wax protects the chain itself.
It's similar to cutting yourself: You know that it actually has to bleed a little to push the dirt out of the wound. It's the same with wax. The dirt gets into the chain, but the wax pushes it out again, leaving the inside of the chain very, very clean.
So why do you recommend oil instead of liquid wax?
Because the liquid wax has to harden. It may need four to eight hours drying time to be optimally effective. It is therefore not so suitable for travelling.
Would you recommend wax for every bike category?
Oh yeah, I just saw this picture on Instagram from Sram the other day. Check it out (Josh shows a picture of a totally filthy cyclocross bike with a sparkling clean chain). People ask us if wax works in the mud. Look at the chain. That's crazy, isn't it? The rider didn't just give the chain a quick clean. He's in the middle of a cyclocross race. The wax is so much better at repelling the mud than oil.
The wax is like a warning light on the engine that tells you if something is wrong before the engine breaks down. You have to think of the chain noise as a function that saves you money on spare parts in the long run.
Mountain biking means exactly that: dust and mud. Many people think that when it's muddy, when it's wet, the wax doesn't really work. What's the biggest misconception about chain wax in these tough conditions?
I think one misconception we hear all the time is that water washes off the wax. You can put a waxed necklace in water and shake it and nothing will happen, just like if you put a candle in water, nothing will happen.
Water does not wash off wax. What happens is that dirt and dust in the water wears away the wax over time. The big misconception is that this does not happen with an oil-based lubricant or a dry lubricant.
If we look at the friction values from the Zero Friction Cycling tests, we have a wear value of 0.27 with Silca Hotmelt after 6000 kilometres with sand and rain. And then there are some of these dry lubricants that already have a value of 0.3 after 1000 kilometres - in dry conditions and without dirt, mind you. They have more wear in clean condition than we had after 6000 kilometres in mud! That's crazy, isn't it?
Many mountain bikers accept high wear almost as a law of nature. How much of it is really unavoidable and how much is simply bad lubrication?
Oh, I think it's totally avoidable. I'd say in a perfect world, if you could treat your chain with hot wax before every ride, you'd have zero wear. You'd have no wear at all.
Sure, that's a little too optimistic for most people. I myself ride an e-bike to work, a 500-watt Canyon Bosch e-bike, every day, regardless of rain, snow or other weather. I now have around 5000 kilometres on it and the drive is perfect, the chain has no wear.
In a perfect world, if you could treat your chain with hot wax before every ride, you would have zero wear.
In our lubricant technology, we use tungsten disulphide as an additive that embeds itself in the metal of the chain. We call this phenomenon "layering up". Tungsten is much, much harder than steel and much more slippery than Teflon. It changes the surface of the metal so that it is much harder and at the same time much smoother. And it is therefore much more wear-resistant. We are talking about a wear rate four to five times higher than that of steel and much better than that of aluminium.
Imagine you buy a pack of eggs. The tungsten spheres are like the eggs: they fill the small cavities in the metal, just like the eggs fill the gaps in the packet. This gives you a much better surface. The advantage of the very advanced, modern waxes is that they also change the surface of the chain.
Even candle wax, i.e. simple paraffin, is still better than most wet lubricants. That's really interesting.
If you look at the drive over, say, two years, how does chain wax realistically change the cost calculation?
A Sram chain costs 200 euros today. I don't know what happened, but now we have a chain that costs 200 euros and a cassette for 700 euros. That's absolutely crazy. A thousand euros for a T-type derailleur. And I think, in comparison, you can save a lot of money with a little time and effort with wax.
Zero Friction Cycling has created a cost calculator based on a $500 drivetrain. So they assume $500 for the chain, cassette and chainring, plus the cost of the lubricant. Our wax is not cheap, but it only costs 95 dollars per 5000 kilometres. With a lubricant like Squirt, you're looking at $600 per 5,000 kilometres. So you save 10 dollars on lubricant, but spend 500 dollars more on spare parts.
Modern drivetrains such as Sram Transmission or Shimano XTR have extremely low tolerances. Is that an argument for or against chain wax?
It's absolutely an argument in favour. I think it's a combination of several factors. One of the things that people notice when they use chain wax is the shifting behaviour of the chain. The tighter the tolerance or the closer the spacing of the sprockets, the faster the chain responds. A new chain feels like it shifts without any delay. Because wax fills the tolerances between chain and sprockets, every time you wax the chain you get that nice feeling of shifting so quickly and smoothly. Many of our customers, especially professional riders, are almost addicted to it. They say: "I can feel it."
In addition, you also prevent wear because the wax penetrates the side plates. Just as the chain length does not change, the lateral play does not change either. And this lasts for thousands and thousands of kilometres.
So why has chain wax not yet caught on off-road?
Chain wax is like carbon wheels. It took years. We tried to sell carbon bikes to people and nobody wanted them. They look stupid, they don't work, the pros don't ride them. We spent years on them. But then we found someone who tried them and he came back with a big smile. When you looked at the data, wow, it was incredible. And today you can see the result: who doesn't ride carbon bikes today? Nobody, right? I've been telling people for years: "That's the right answer. This is the future." And it turned out to be right.
We therefore need to change the lubrication behaviour so that the lubricant is applied after the ride. This way, it has time to dry overnight and is ready for the next ride.
Chain wax is probably the toughest technology I have ever seen. But once someone starts using it, there's no going back. It's quiet, and wow, the chain is so clean. When you wash your bike, it only takes three minutes now because it's not all splattered.
I hate to say it, but COVID was fantastic for chain wax because the World Tour teams only got a hundred chains a year due to the supply shortages. During COVID, we won six World Tour teams because they didn't have enough chains. So they started waxing the chains because they hardly wear out anymore, the bikes are cleaner, the mechanics need less time.
So I think that with mountain biking in particular, you simply have to overcome this hurdle and get people excited about it. In my experience, as soon as a few people in a region or a bike shop start doing it, everyone else joins in. Because these people don't stop talking about it.
What do you think is the most common mistake mountain bikers make when they switch to wax?
I would say not to clean the chain completely. But very often with mountain bikes, even more so than with road bikes or gravel bikes, it also starts with the use of a used chain. Then you start with a chain that is much more difficult to clean completely. With a brand new chain, it takes 10 to 15 minutes, you rinse it once, shake it, and all the grease is out. With a used mountain bike chain, it can take two, three or four rinses until all the dirt is really out.
For optimum results and satisfaction, we always recommend a new chain. Start waxing before the chain has ever been ridden. If the chain has already been ridden, you really need to clean it repeatedly until the fluid is completely clear and clean, and then start waxing.
Another point is that the wear of the chain is very non-linear. All chains have a kind of coating that is much harder than the steel itself. It takes a long time for this coating to wear away, but once you're through, the metal underneath is much softer and then the wear accelerates. If you've already ridden the chain 500 kilometres off-road with oil or factory grease, you've probably already broken through the hard coating. So if you start with a chain that is already at 0.2 in terms of wear, the chain will not last 10,000 kilometres even with wax, because metal meets metal instead of coating meets coating.
If someone says that my chain sounds dry after just a few rides, is that a misapplication or a false expectation?
It is probably not an application error. The wax comes off on the outside of the chain first because it is rubbed off by the dust and dirt. And that's what you hear. But the wax on the outside is not the lubricant of the chain. It's the inside. It's that connection between rivets and bushings deep inside the chain. That's where the actual lubrication takes place. There is a microphone on our test machine and normally the chain starts to make noise somewhere between 10 and 20 hours. But the data clearly shows that the chain wax continues to work. There is usually a break-in period of one or two hours before the lubricant really starts to work. There's an optimal period of time where it's working, and in that optimal period of time you start to hear it, even though technically the efficiency is still there. Your ear says, "Mmm, it's starting to get loud." But by the time the wax starts to fail on the pin inside the chain, that's usually hours after you start hearing it.
Are there differences in the handling of chain wax and chain oil?
I would say that is probably the other biggest problem. We need a change in behaviour when it comes to application. The problem with the liquid wax is that it has to dry. So it's not a quick fix where you just apply it and then drive off. But people are used to that. So they buy the Dripping wax, behave in the same way as with oil, but the wax can never harden enough to work. And then they say, "Oh, after an hour it gets noisy." So we have to change the lubrication behaviour so that you apply the lubricant after the ride. That way it has time to dry overnight and is ready for the next ride. If you get into the habit of this behaviour, you will achieve much better results.
Another thing that I think is important is that you also spread the wax over the sprockets. After a few kilometres, you usually notice that the drivetrain becomes quieter and more efficient in the frequently used gears. That's why we recommend liquid wax, even if you actually use hot wax. If you apply a little liquid wax when fitting the chain and then shift the cassette up and down, the cassette is virtually coated and this really does make things noticeably quieter.
Many mountain bikers don't want to have a cooking pot in their garage. Where is liquid wax a sensible solution and where is it just a lazy compromise?
Dripping wax is a great solution. You just have to use it more often. So you trade frequency of use for ease of use. Our drip wax and hot wax are actually the same product. One is just emulsified in liquid. But yes, in terms of efficiency, cleanliness, it's all the same.
With liquid wax, you can achieve 99 per cent of your goal if you pay attention and do it right.
For mountain biking, the liquid wax might actually be easier because technically you should clean your mountain bike after every ride. People don't do that, but technically you really should clean it after every ride, and if you do that, then the liquid wax is much easier. Because it has the same chemical composition, you can always apply it as a backup over the hot wax if needed. So yes, I don't think drip wax is a compromise. You just have to apply it a little differently. It's like driving a Ferrari. You have to change the oil more often than if you have a Toyota.
Are there any applications for mountain bikers where you would say that hot waxing is overkill?
I wouldn't say that. I understand that for some people it's a matter of time and effort, and if you live in a small flat, it's just another appliance sitting around taking up space. I would say if I lived in a flat and had limited space, I would just use liquid wax. But if you have space and you're willing to invest the time, hot wax is probably the ultimate solution. But liquid wax is 99 per cent effective if you pay attention and do it right.
Does liquid wax last just as long as hot wax?
Many people think that liquid wax may not last as long as hot wax. They therefore prefer to use dry lubricants. The fact is, however, that they have a much shorter service life. They break down very quickly.
That's a lie that the industry has told all these years about cleaners and lubricants that makes people think, "Oh, I even clean my chain when I lube it." I know a lot of people who still use dry lubes and just do it every ride. Whilst this makes up a little for the extremely poor performance of these products, the reality is that the effect of these products is shocking. The lubrication is completely gone within the first hour. One of these dry lubricants is the worst lubricant we have ever tested. The run-in time in our test is 30 minutes. This means that it rises for 30 minutes and then drops again after just one hour. It shows a total breakdown. The wax also breaks down, but much more slowly.
I know many people who still use dry lubricants, but the reality is that the effect of these products is shocking.
Chain wax is often described as being more environmentally friendly, but is this really true or is it just less visible than black oil?
Most chain waxes are made of paraffin. In fact, we use a mixture of paraffin and synthetic wax. But the synthetic wax we use is a biodegradable product. The environmental issue is always difficult. It's more environmentally friendly in that it's a safe product. I mean, you can eat our chain wax.
You could eat the base silica wax without it harming you. The tungsten disulfide additive is approved by the Bureau of Land Management and the FDA, it's safe for incidental food contact, and the beauty of this product is that it's bioneutral, which means when you eat it, it doesn't stay in your body, it doesn't harm you, it just passes through your body.
Do not buy dry lubricant because it is toxic. It is carcinogenic. It's terrible for the environment.
The real problem is the dry lubricants, such as White Lightning or Muck-Off Dry. They are like an environmental grenade. If you look at what White Lightning and Finish Line Dry are, it's PTFE and maybe also PFOA, but in any case several fluorinated, terribly toxic, carcinogenic chemicals.
Typically, they consist of 10 to 15 per cent PFAS material. And then there is the carrier substance that they need to penetrate the chain. This is usually pentane or heptane, which are about ten times worse than CO2 in terms of greenhouse gases. They are toxic, they are flammable. If you look at the back of a dry lubricant, you will find about 17 warnings. Do not inhale, do not set on fire, do not throw in the rubbish.
This is an issue on which I have spoken very clearly: Don't buy dry lubricant because it's toxic. It's carcinogenic. It's terrible for the environment. And I think what people don't think about is: you buy a bottle of lubricant, you put it on the bike, it drips off, it ends up in the environment. That's a problem.
But the real problem is the whole chemical industrial complex behind this product. If you have 100 grams of PFAS, you previously had kilos of precursors. And they get into the water systems, which is terrible. You don't have to buy my products, but don't buy dry lubricants.
If you could give a sceptical mountain biker a single piece of advice before they try chain wax, what would it be?
I would say: if you want to try it, but you're not prepared to do it 100 per cent right, don't try it at all. It's like anything worth doing: there are 100 ways to do it wrong and one way to do it right. If you go into it already expecting a bad experience and don't bother to degrease the chain properly, it can only go wrong. If you're not prepared to buy a brand new chain to get started, it might not be for you. 99 per cent of people who try it for the first time and get it right don't want to go back. None of them go back.
I would say: If you want to try it out but aren't prepared to do it 100 per cent properly, don't try it at all.
Is there an easier option for getting started with chain growing?
Another way to start waxing would be to just buy a pre-waxed chain. We sell them, Ceramic Speed sells them - there are a dozen companies out there. If you're unsure, just start with a pre-waxed chain. I think it's almost guaranteed to give you the best, optimal experience.
Stefan Frey
Editor
