Silca EnduranceChip

The one thing I truly don't like with waxing is the longevity. It's not anywhere near these alleged lab tests you see online. Example, If I take my freshly waxed chain, throw it on my bike, and go for a 4 hour ride, the chain is definitely sounding a bit rough by the end of that ride. It's not to say it's still not lubricated, but it's louder than fresh. That's only 4 hours, call it 80 miles, and those are dry, road miles.

I will top it up with drip wax around that time, cheat it a bit more, and by the time I get to 8-10 hours, I am re-waxing, and that's again, dry miles on the road.

I'm not a newbie either, this is just how it is. So my theory was that if this endurance chip worked, it'd save me from using the drip wax, which also lasts TOPS, one 3 hour ride, less is usual, and it'd stop me from paying for the drip wax.

I am really going to buck the system here, and I tested this with Molten Speedwax, I only use their stuff for waxing. I took one of their pucks, 250g, and used 2x endurance chips, to get maximum longevity out of it. Brand new everything. Melted it all together, nothing special happens, it just turns into wax, no unicorns came out of the pot or anything else fun.

I took my chain, gave it a thorough wipe clean, and waxed it. Let it dry, and remounted. First thing of note, you don't get nearly as many break-in flakes all over your bike with the endurance chip tuned wax, it's almost like it's sticky, but not to the point that it's picking up dirt. Broke in about the same, it's 40 degrees in the morning where I am, and my first ride of the day is cold. Coming home is 50-60, and it sounds the same there too.

So first wax lasted me just over 300 miles before I was hearing the chain get audibly louder, to the point that it sounded dry anyway. These were all dry, road miles too. Chain didn't pick up any extra dirt either than normal. Wiped it, and just rewaxed for round 2. It's got 110 miles on it right now, and is doing the same as the first wax, so it wasn't a fluke.

For me, this has been a solid hack to the wax, and I know it's not even the pure Silca wax base either, but sorry, I'm not switching waxes, MSW is solid. It works and doesn't cost an arm and a leg.

I also waxed my bad weather bike's chain, and got in one rain ride that was 1 hour of drizzle, but very wet roads. I didn't wipe it or anything, and it's fine, no rust, and still pretty quiet. I haven't had a good downpour rain to really test it, but I'd probably assume I have to at least hit it with drip wax either way, it's wax, water washes it off either way as far as I can tell from my years of doing this.

So, I say it's a good buy to hack your wax. Plus it'll save you taking the quick link off and on one extra time if you count this as a double+ extension of your base wax.

What I don't know yet is if it's in fact still lubricating, or if it's just quiet. I could put honey on my chain and it'd be nice and quiet, but it won't be lubricating. I'm waiting for one of the online testing sites to do their piece, but from a 600 hour a year rider/racer, my data shows a solid increase in longevity.

I do think it's expensive though. Whatever it is, it can't possibly cost that much, but I'm not a chemist and have no clue what it is, so I knew the price going into it.

I was skeptical: a small "chip" of wax, shaped like a chain link no less, that will extend the silence of my waxed chain. But Lo & Behold! I notice a difference! Normally I get about (only) 150 miles or so before I can start hearing the links making their noises. But so far I have 400 miles (yes, 400!) on this chain and I've yet to hear that familiar link noise. I have got to hand it to SILCA; this product does what it promises to do!

I was about to give up on waxing my mountain bike chain with Silca wax. I couldn�t get more than 10-15 miles in dusty conditions. Followed all of the steps, including using Silca chain stripper. The Endurance chip works as advertised, it�s quiet and so far I�m about 70 miles into with one touch up of Super Secret.

I've used the EnduranceChip for over 500 miles and have yet to hear any noticeable sounds coming from the drivetrain. I haven't kept it to dry road conditions, but no problems as of yet.