Making Fastest Race Chains

[@CatManDoSocial]

Nicely done! I've always been curious about race power. I'll never need it but really glad you covered here.

[@10100110101]

Can’t believe we haven’t established a bingo card already. 😂

[@JPatteri]

Happy Anniversary!

[@Bluerhinopig]

Thanks for the guide.

[@aarons1073]

Have you tested the effect(s) of adding a container of the race powder to melted wax? Just wondering if the extra molybdenum and tungsten disulfide would have any benefit when mixed in.

[@RenAigu]

Hello, this is unrelated to the video, and I'm sorry for even suggesting something that might give you more stuff to do. I recently saw that Wippermann started to sell factory waxed chains, labelled '##WAX' in their product names, and that they also now have their own hot and drip wax products. To my knowledge that's the first first party chain manufacturer to do that and wax of course pairs greatly with their reusable toolless quick links. Off course this is very exciting, eliminating hopefully all stripping of factory chains if one would make that change. This comes as a price though. In webshops I have access too Wippermann is already a bit more expensive, and the WAX chains more so. In your chain longevity it seems Wippermann performs slightly below average, and as far as I can see their wax is ZFC untested. So I would be very interested in how those new chains perform, if their wax is compatible with other popular waxes already in people's pots and if the price premium would make sense for me to have a chain of theirs as a immediate drop in spare. Sorry for the wall of text!

[@zerofrictioncycling992]

Hi Ren, yes i am not sure what their drip wax is yet, but it is 99.9% certain the IM wax they are using for their factory wax chains is Optimize bike wax. Unfortunately i have no idea when i would be able to test unless they book in for a test as testing bookings are pretty flat out. However i have no concerns about Optimize being a good wax, and that anyone starting off with a pre waxed chain from any reputable mfg then that is going to be a great start vs factory grease whether that person is planning on continuing waxing / going to a good wax drip / or going to a good wet lube. I also wouldnt have any concerns with compatibility - whilst we dont know, it is likely that they are also using a good quality paraffin wax base as the main base - but even if their wax base is a bit different, by the time one uses that factory wax treatment to the point where it is due for a re wax, there is only about 1gram of wax left on a chain, not enough to worry about with then moving to a different wax like silca, mspeedwax, rex etc from then on. The only thing that really had wippermann lower fs some others in the chain wear checking was higher roller wear. When just looking at the elongation wear only - they were right up there. Im not too concerned about a bit higher roller bore wear, and that was an accelerated test (bad lubricant) - it wouldnt be much of an issue if using a good lubricant that protects against wear better. It may still happen more over time vs some other chains but not enough to worry about at all if replacing at recommended 0.5%, overall wippermann seem to be a quality chain option

[@matanhale]

@@zerofrictioncycling992 KMC also now selling pre-waxed chains with their 'GOwax' treatment. Be interested on your thoughts on these also

[@colinl2908]

Thanks Adam. Compared to a normal waxed chain, it looks like you need to handle a race prepped/powdered chain with gloves for install.

[@zerofrictioncycling992]

you do for race powder for sure. Some don't wish for the race powder application, or if doing at home - don't bother with that step. So sans race powder then yes normal handling of chain is fine, just as always in (hopefully) normal behavior washing hands before eating etc will ensure not eating any wax. The top waxes are not toxic as such, but they are not food grade anymore due to additives. if one ingests 0.000000001gram of ws2 from fingers it is unlikely to be any issue over decades of handling wax chains, but just in general washing hands before eating so to ingest less stuff from handling things (micro plastics etc) is a good plan, and takes care of any chain handling on any product. But race powder is a faffy clean.... :)

[@bpilky]

Do you guys pay attention to which way the chain goes back on the bike after waxing? Wondering if there is any benefit to having the chain run the same way it came off.

[@michaelhotten752]

For someone using or topping off with a wax compatible drip lube, cane they use a race powder?

[@zerofrictioncycling992]

Potentially - but honestly this is not well tested by anyone as far as i am aware. How soft or not wax drips set varies a fair bit, and the raced powder is developed with the more solid immersive waxes vs wax drips. It for sure be a negative, but whether you would get positive for the effort is currently unclear.

[@infocuslearning]

The quick answer is don’t buy a SRAM chain wear indicator tool.

[@zerofrictioncycling992]

very correct!

[@TwiiKuuTF2]

a bit of an editing error at 13:05, i believe you can cut the duplicate part in youtube

[@redkeyspoke]

16:05 ends here

[@zerofrictioncycling992]

oh ffs lol, will try to fix over weekend if i get mo!

[@10100110101]

@@zerofrictioncycling992😂

[@10100110101]

@@zerofrictioncycling992That’s a bingo

[@akiofearth]

What is the difference between a race chain and a normally treated waxed chain in watts?

[@10ktube]

Probably not enough that your over the counter power meter with a .5 to 1 percent margin of error can reliably detect it. The time spent doing the prep, hit the gym or do some core work, seriously, and I mean this with no sarcasm or hate either, I love optimizing stuff, but nope, not detectable and I'd guess we need more time on the body work more than anything. Unless it's just for kicks/fun, totally cool too, hit the gym so you can keep your body position better, it'll matter more.

[@TGMvideo]

An important bit is running the chain in pre-race, 20-30 minutes should get it closest to its sweet spot (talking UFO chains here which i have experience with - UFO chains have had a brief run in, so its basically race ready out the box.). From a freshly dipped chain to its sweet spot you might be looking at 3+ watts drop, and this quickly drops down (within 10 minutes, nearing its lowest loss after 20-30 min) and you could be looking at around 1 maaaaaybe upwards to 2 watts improvement. Depending on the wax and chain. A well broken in (worn) chain is "faster" than a brand new chain for an example. UFO chains have a lengthy break in performed before being waxed. And yes, you can do other things that make more of a difference but knowing you have the best of everything going for you is mentally important too. Case in point, a national championship time trial was decided by 100ths of a second (from memory, could have been 10ths or 1000ths), the winner had an aero cage on his OSPW system, the "loser" did not. So difference between nr 1 and 2. Worth it? For top athletes for sure.

[@akiofearth]

@@TGMvideo Thank you

[@TGMvideo]

@@akiofearth You're welcome, hope it wasnt too chaotic, i typed my thoughts :D

[@zerofrictioncycling992]

Alas precise figures for a lot of models are not there, but going off the old friction facts days + ceramic speed - on average it is around 1w vs an ultrasonic cleaned and waxed chain, but vs factory grease it will be around 3 to 5w.

[@michaelpeace1201]

Bingo

[@clintmichigan9112]

Definitely max out the ram

[@zerofrictioncycling992]

yeah i dont know why i thought 16 would be fine when i bought computer, i guess cos i was moving up from 8!! :)

[@markifi]

@@zerofrictioncycling992 what are people doing with their memory use?! i'm on lxqt nixos occasionally cutting 4k@50 video using losslesscut, limit my open tabs to 8, and i honesty don't remember the last time i went above 4 gigabytes full

[@carreramann]

Hi Adam, first to visit the WAXGOD from Germany