indexing front and rear derailleur with freshly waxed brand new chain

[samky]

Currently building an elves falath evo+ and am having trouble indexing the rear derailleur. I'm thinking its mainly due to starting with a waxed chain that hasn't been broken in yet. I have it pretty closely dialed in but shifting still sounds clunky on the bike stand and the chain itself sounds very noisy and doesn't feel like the crank spins super smooth. Is this something anyone's experienced when indexing with a brand new/waxed chain?
I'm completely new to waxing, so is it possible this is just normal for a waxed chain, or would you all look elsewhere?
Thinking it might be good to just ride the bike with the chain til it breaks in then get the indexing dialed in after that.

[Crash217]

My waxed chains act completely normal within a few minutes of spinning.

[Daviddavieboy]

I'm completely new to waxing, so is it possible this is just normal for a waxed chain, or would you all look elsewhere?
Thinking it might be good to just ride the bike with the chain til it breaks in then get the indexing dialed in after that.

I think it depends on the wax. I used to use pure paraffin and it was quite fast but now using Silca and it takes much longer - 1/2 hour at least of hard riding. You may be leaving too much wax on the chain as well. When taken out of the pot you should not notice much wax on the outside of the chain, it's on the inside of the rollers is where it counts.

[samky]

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I think it depends on the wax. I used to use pure paraffin and it was quite fast but now using Silca and it takes much longer - 1/2 hour at least of hard riding. You may be leaving too much wax on the chain as well. When taken out of the pot you should not notice much wax on the outside of the chain, it's on the inside of the rollers is where it counts.

I was thinking the same thing about taking it out too late. Seems after lots of digging my chain had significantly more wax than most pics I saw. Plus I dont think I left it in long enough for the wax to enter the rollers. trying it again now and will hopefully remedy this.

[Sminchnz]

I don't think the chain needs to be in for long but you do need to shake it a bit to ensure the wax penetrates the rollers etc. Then pull it out and leave it to cool. I'd say that it take a kilometre or two for my chains to loosen completely and roll well. On one bike my chain won't stay on the largest cog on the cassette until it's loosened up so I'd suggest getting the indexing good enough, ride it for five minutes, and then fine tune it.

[Sebastian]

Depends on how soft/hard the wax is, like others have said. I had a softer wax that just needed a bit of spinning and all good. Silca is much harder. I need to manually break the chain free and ensure it moves properly all the way round. I pull it from the wax at 75 degrees Celsius like Silca recommend. It does last longer than the softer wax I used prior to that. But if I don’t make sure that the chain moves freely, it’s going to skip for the first hour or so if I put down a lot of power on the smaller cogs in the back. It’s particularly bad on my Ekar drivetrain when the chain is on the smallest 9tooth cog for obvious reasons. A freshly waxed chain will skip like hell on that cog and shift rather slowly. If I manually break the chain free link by link then it’s much better.

[jonathanf2]

Spin the chain a few times preferably outside so you don't make a mess indoors, and then index everything. At most, optimal indexing shouldn't be too far off even with wax. If you're having problems, it could be some other issue besides the chain. I'd even check the chain itself, if it's causing the problem. Even Shimano chains might not play nice with aftermarket cassettes. Recently I switched to a KMC X12 chain because it shifted better on a non-Shimano cassette, despite my Shimano chain shifting perfect on Ultegra cassettes.