I heard about Squirt on a podcast so I decided to try it. You really need to degrease your chain to remove all lube. Once done, you apply Squirt to each pin of your chain. Let it penetrate overnight. Then, lube it again and wipe down. It's not so much lube but a thick wax that penetrates the pins. Because it's wax, it collects no dirt. And, your chain runs as smooth and quiet as can be- for at least 3 rides before you have to reapply. The only downside of it (and it's not a biggie, you just have to plan for it) is that it takes overnight to really absorb into the chain. But once it's in, your chain runs very smoothly.
One step hot wax application to factory new chains. What a time saver, and I am very happy with the results.
I was going thru chains and cassettes with an unsatisfactory level of frequncy. I also hated all the time I was spending on wiping, applying, and often getting rags full of dirty grime. With the wax system...my chain purrs...and I can wipe my chain with fingers and they come off clean! Before ordering, I actually went to the ZeroFrictionCycling website...where I was shocked to find the lubricant I was using was proba ly the worst choice of anything they tested. It is no wonder I was burning thru hardware. Silca products are amongst the best...and I am very enthusiastic about switchi g to a cleaner running driveline and being able to get a huge increase in driveline lifespan. A good investment in longer term savings.
To preface, I've started measuring my wax intervals by ride time instead of distance since I ride mixed surfaces, and dirt is slower. Aside from mud and wet, I've been finding that road vs dirt ride time between rewaxing tends to be close, while distance is not.
That said, the EnduranceChip definitely works, and I am getting at least 50% more ride time before I start to hear the little chirps my chain makes when it's about time to rewax. I'll consider adding more endurance additive for some upcoming long bikepacking trips! The only downside I see is that I may want multiple pots for multiple wax blends. Or I'll just have to go all-in on the endurance blend, since the efficiency loss is not an issue for me in my riding.
As part of getting a killer deal on a new bike, I decided to spend some of my savings on the Silca chain waxing system and convert several bikes to wax. Yes, even with the Silca system on sale you can probably cobble together a Rube Goldberg solution out of a cheap slow cooker and other bits and pieces. But why try so hard to save $20 or $30? If you're looking at wax as an alternative to conventional lubes, you're probably already spending many multiples of the potential savings on other bike stuff. Don't cheap-out now. The Silca Chain Waxing System is complete and highly functional, and the wax pot comes with a digital control/thermostat so you can truly control the temperature of your wax. A cheap slow cooker isn't going to have that.
I'm delighted to no longer be dealing with dirty drivetrains. I pack and travel with a bike a few times a year and it will be a lot easier when I no longer need to clean/cover the drivetrain each time. Performance is good -- the newly waxed chains are quiet and work well after a brief ride to loosen them up.
My only regret is using the strip clip. No question about it, the strip clip does indeed work great on a factory-greased chain. But if you're converting an existing bike, you'll want to do a deep clean of the entire drivetrain and IMHO the easiest part of a drivetrain deep clean is stripping/scrubbing the chain. And this could just be the type of conventional lube I had been using, but the strip clip didn't work at all for an existing chain that I converted. I needed to start over and conventionally strip/scrub the chain because when I skipped that step it ended up being a gloppy mess.
