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Squirt and Paraffin wax for your chain A year or so ago, I had a contact with Marcin from Absolute black.
He advised me to try Squirt, a paraffin emulsion(with water) instead of traditional lubes.
And that my drivetrain would last much longer than my usual 5000km.

On top of being much cleaner, it seems he is right about the longevity of the drive train.
I kept a little bottle in my bag, in case of really bad, long, muddy rides to add some mid ride.

However few months ago I found Oz cycling video about waxing your chain:


His answer to questions are very interesting too, part 1:


And part 2:


Recently GCN made an awful disservice to the cause, with a really poor video compared to Oz.

So I tried.
Got the paraffin in a 5kg pack, the 20€ rice pot, a plastic cocktail shaker to clean the chain.
I will probably go the ultrasonic cleaner route soon, to avoid the diesel cleaning and other dirty fluids.

At the beginning it is messy, you need to be careful to not end with paraffin everywhere.
And it last longer than a usual chain cleaning. But it comes better with practice.
I get it done in about 5' of net time now.
Do that in a well ventilated place, as paraffin, although it is the same you get in home candles, is not very good to inhale.

The result is impressive. Ultra smooth, silent and most importantly clean drivetrain.
After each muddy ride, or multiple dry rides, I just shake the chain in hot water and soap.
Rince it. Dry it. And in the paraffin rice pot.
When the temperature gets to about 52°C get the chain out, wipe it.
And mount it back.

I tried the paraffin/xylene Oz recipe to get a bottled lube.
But it doesn't look to be adapted to colder weather, I can't get it liquid on the trails.

Squirt is already a very good option for a medium/good clean chain.
But paraffin is the best if you learn how to use it.
January 12, 2018, 03:56:37 AM 		1
Re: OG Evkin CF-025 All done-7.68kg as built.
March 22, 2018, 12:43:44 PM 		1
Re: Custom Titanium frame from CS Finally got it out on a full ride. Joined the Audax Rizal 200km, considered to be the hardest brevet in the Philippines. It's a climb-infested route. I didn't finish, didn't make the last checkpoint cutoff time. Overall, I rode some 180km. With 20km to go and pretty much 12km of climbs, the setting sun and an hour to cutoff time, I decide to throw in the towel. It was a fun ride, very nice weather and lots of scenic views, so not finishing wasn't that big of a deal.

It was a sweet ride. The frame felt good. Not much to say about speeding on flats as the route were mostly climbs and descends. Double the pain but double the fun. The bike is confidence inspiring during descends. I personally usually hold back on my descends as I'm not the most skilled in this department (usually just doing under 40kph) but was hitting 50's on this bike. Went thru a section of unfinished road (lots of rocks) at 35kph and still felt confident doing it. The roadies behind me were just amazed with what I did. 35c tires doing that. There were also a few sections of the road that felt rough on descends but the titanium does absords the vibration pretty nice. At the end of the day, it didn't felt too harsh on the body.

Assessing on why l didn't finish, l came to the conclusion that I should have used my old 38T chainring instead of the untested new 42T. I could've climb faster, not much flat for the 42T to shine. Also did a quick examination on the frame to check for visible cracks or damages, everything checks out well. Bottom line, I love this bike.

A couple of pics from Audax Rizal.
Last pic also in Rizal but not part of Audax.
November 24, 2018, 04:58:27 PM 		1
Serpah FM199 Drop Bar MTB Build I wanted an aggressive gravel bike that's able to fit MTB tires.  Trying to copy a Salsa Cutthroat with a Chiner frame.  I basically wanted ~70mm BB drop, clearance for 29x2.25, chainring clearance for 36t+, and modern XC geometry (100mm fork geo, ~69 deg headtube, etc).  I usually ride large MTB's (I'm 5'10.5") so I ordered a medium FM199 frame from Serpah on Aliexpress.  It arrived in 9 days from ordering and was packaged very well!

-Serpah FM199 Chinese Carbon 29er MTB Frame
-SRAM Rival HRD 1x w/ 38t and 10-42
-Teravail Sparwood Tires on ARC27's laced to Novatec hubs (my first wheel build!)
-Niner Boost RDO Fork
-Tranzx Dropper actuated with left shift lever
-Ritchey VentureMax bars

The main setback on the build was routing the rear derailleur cable.  This frame is intended to run bare cable through the frame, but I like to run full housing so I drilled through the frame fittings.  The DS chainstay is THIN inside, I had to grease up the housing and use a bit of force to get the housing through.  With Jagwire 1.1mm cable there's no issue with stiction.  Other than that the build was super straight forward, the BB was solid and the PF BB went in no problem, no creaking yet!  Headset area was solid, the rest of the cable routing was easy, everything else went together in one night.  This frame is weird that the rear caliper is set up flat mount, but they include an adapter.  Luckily I'm running a road groupset so I actually am running flat mount in the rear and post mount in the front.  Since there's only clearance for 29x2.3 tires and it's boost spacing, the DS chainstay runs parallel to the centerline a ways past the chainring, I'm sure I could fit a 40t or 42t no problem.

It weighs 21.9 lbs as it sits in the pictures.  I also have carbon road wheels that will get the weight down to 20.5 or so.  I could drop another pound or so off the gravel weight if I went carbon with some lighter spokes, but I'm pretty happy as is.  The wheels are 1840g without tape or valves.  I found a nice gravel two-track trail that leads into a tight single-track trail and then leads to a long dirt road, this bike was perfect for that!  I want to get it out on some longer single-track trails to see how it does.
October 02, 2019, 11:19:15 AM 		1
Re: FLYXII Gravel Build FR609 I purchased after watching some YouTube videos and the fact that FLYXII has been doing business over 15 years.  There is generally positive reviews of the FR602/603 as well and I wanted a frame that was a bit more current so I went with the FR609.
https://www.youtube.com/c/TraceVelo/videos

I've since found that this frame is also branded as the Workswell WCB-C-112, Miracle GR029, TanTan GR029, and a few others.  As well, it appears similar to the Bianchi Zolder but I don't see any perfect match among the major manufacturers.
http://m.miraclebikes.com/Product/detail/id/37.html

Here is a 10,000km review of the Workswell:
https://www.reddit.com/r/cyclocross/comments/91n17a/chinese_carbon_10000km_review/

Anyhow, I'm still waiting on the frame.  Due to COVID it was stuck in China for 2 months but is now in transit and should be here in a week or two.

P.S. I have added the frame to Geometry Geeks for those that want to compare:
https://geometrygeeks.bike/compare/flyxii-fr609-2020-54,santa-cruz-stigmata-2019-54,cannondale-topstone-carbon-2020-md,giant-revolt-advanced-2020-m,bianchi-zolder-pro-disc-2020-54/
July 31, 2020, 12:47:18 PM 		1
Re: ZTTO MTB M1 Boost hubs 28H 54T Ratchet here are the pictures.
Like I said, I ruined the right end cap on the rear hub, when I wanted it to get off the axle.
FH: 139g
RH: 240g
August 03, 2020, 08:12:01 AM 		1
Re: ZTTO MTB M1 Boost hubs 28H 54T Ratchet Just hit them gently on the inner crown from the other side, to get them out.
Either with a dedicated cylindrical tool and a mallet.
Or again a bolt, an Allen key or a screwdriver.

I wouldn't change them now, just check if they develop some play in the coming months.
When you feel the wheels moves too much laterally.
Ali bearings are ok for disposable ones like BB and headset ones, they are generally crap and don't last.

For the wheels, I put SKF or NTN stainless ones.
Ceramic are a waste of money on an MTB IMO.
August 04, 2020, 05:27:06 AM 		1
Re: Custom Waltly Titanium 29er I wrapped up some of the anodizing. The head tube I had to do twice and the finish is a little more matte than I was hoping for. But overall, I'm happy with the outcome.










August 05, 2020, 07:41:03 PM 		1
Re: Hydraulic Brakes on LightCarbon LCR006-D I did order the frame and, as I suspected, the hydraulic disc brakes work just fine.  I put the frameset through several inspection points since there is so much talk about quality issues with Chinese carbon and it passed all of them.  The only issue I could find is that the rear tire was very slightly off center by about 1mm but I can likely fix this with some minor modifications to the frame.  I have put about 100 miles on the build thus far and I am very happy with the bike.  I even ran an endoscope down the tubes to get a better look at the quality and it looks like they did a great job on the carbon layout.  I would definitely recommend this company and I love this frame.
August 19, 2020, 12:49:15 PM 		1
Re: FLYXII Gravel Build FR609
Quote from: cst_jpr on September 08, 2020, 04:05:55 PM
Those are $1,300 wheels: https://shop.fullspeedahead.com/wheelsets/mtb/k-force-off-road-wider25-wheelset  Not really comparable to $600 china wheels. If you found them cheaper thats great though.
Did the frame arrive yet?

Not those ones... mine are from 2015 or 2016 I think.  I bought new from Chain Reaction.  So yeah, could have bought China carbon wheels for $600 but managed to get these instead.  https://www.chainreactioncycles.com/ca/en/fsa-k-force-mtb-wheelset/rp-prod189664

Didn't get the frame yet.  I read (an opinion probably) that carriers aren't taking big bulky things they don't make much profit on.  Aliexpress refunded me on the frame already since it's way past the date.  Not sure if it will come, but I believe it hasn't been loaded on a flight wherever it is.  I ended up ordering another bike actually... the Vitus Substance CRS-2 which uses the Carbonda CFR696 frame and has GRX components (I'll likely just swap on my carbon wheels... and big flare gravel handlebar maybe).  I do hope this ones arrives, but I feel like I keep throwing money into the wind and hoping I get bike stuff.  It's beyond frustrating.  Especially since I also ordered a MTB frame form the UK which is lost somewhere in Canada for over a month.  Not a good time to be building bikes with overseas components.

This is the bike I ended up ordering by the way.  I got for the current price (30% off), so I think it's great value:
https://www.chainreactioncycles.com/ca/en/vitus-substance-crs-2-adventure-road-bike-2020/rp-prod185535
September 08, 2020, 05:03:42 PM 		1