I had been holding out on moving to wax. My new road bike came with a waxed chain and a bottle of the super secret drip wax. I was really impressed with how long the wax lasted vs lubes and topping off with the drip wax was as easy as lube. So I decided to switch my gravel and MTB to wax. Watched lots of "how to" videos and talked to others using wax. The Silica system seemed to make it easy to do. I have done 3 chains now with the system, no problems and can go about twice as long between lubes as I did with regular lubes. I use the strip chip when I do a full waxing which is much easier than cleaning a chain as it is just part of the waxing process. The hanging feature on the system is really convenient and easy to use. Chain stays noticeably cleaner too, besides being quieter. Not sure if it makes me faster as my new road bike is so much faster than my old but probably doesn't hurt.
This is a great tool to carry in your bike kit on those long rides where you may be out on your own or far from support. It's really small, but works like a charm if you have a spoke issue or need to do some road/trail-side repair work. These work really well and for the price you can't beat it. Easy to stash in a seatpack or tube roll. There multiple sizes of this tool so make sure you buy the one that fits your spokes. This is the same tool that I use when doing truing work in the stand.
Magicshine needs to explain how its products work. Both the instructions in the box and website are vague and unhelpful. It took scanning through YouTube videos and customer comments to uncover the secret to what is labeled as a 'transfer head' in the instruction manual. It's actually a screw-on Presta head to attach on the end of the short 'air tube" that is described as being helpful in tight situations. In my case, it is the only way to fill my tires successfully. The short, stubby rubber Presta adapter proved to be totally worthless because it couldn't create a complete seal on the valve. Now that I am squared away, the pump works great.
My daughter is a pro/1/2 cyclocross racer (humble brag) (and whatever the fast classes are in gravel bikes and MTBs) who grew tired of a roof rack, and changed to a trailer-receiver rack. She's going to travel this year and do the Belgium Gravel Race/Ride (whatever it is) series, with the longest trip to Arizona. My wife is going to support her in Arizona, and my younger daughter is going to go to Arizona with her dirt bike. (I am going to stay in Boise and watch the dogs.)
Anyway, i bought two of these racks - one for my daughter, and one for my wife. This was based on my daughter's market research - her racing buddies LOVE this rack.
This rack is crazy good - cast aluminum parts, integrated locks and work stand, and quality fasteners and integrated tool. That's the good part.
The bad part is that Kuat includes an inadequate set of printed instructions with the rack. The lack of instructions relates both to the assembly instructions and the use instructions. In particular, shortcomings are with the integrated work stand and the plastic plug to protect the rack when the work stand isn't installed, and the use of the steel ball to take up slack in the rack-receiver interface.
My daughter ended up tightening the slack-absorbing ball OUTSIDE the receiver, and it jammed in the rack. When I went to visit her, I had to take a ball peen hammer, appropriately size socket and extension to hammer the ball out of the rack. Once i explained how this worked, we reinstalled the rack, put a piece of red tape to indicate the depth to which the rack should be installed. Once we made these changes, installation on the vehicle was easy.
The printed included instructions really didn't cover the work stand very well, and not much detail on the steel ball which takes the slack out of the receiver/rack interface.
The other disappointment is the really cheap receiver/rack lock. Tiny, soft steel. I bought a Master lock which is of much higher quality. Given the cost of this rack, i don't want to someone walking off with it. That problem was solved for $15.
WIth just a bit of extra effort on the part of Kuat, this would be 5 stars.
