Silca

I've been a cyclist for about 12 years and have logged more than 24,000 miles on Strava.

Bike chains don't last long if you don't take care of them. And new cassettes are not cheap, either.

A friend told me about Silca Wax and I decided to try it. The starter pack got me what I needed to get the chain clean and ready, and after applying the Super Secret stuff, WHAT a DIFFERENCE!

Not only does the chain and drive train look SO much better (like new), I feel like the bike rides smoother too, somehow.

These Silca TPU tubes are new to me. I only have a few hundred miles on them. Using them with Reserve Carbon hooked bead wheels and Conti GP5000 clinchers in 700 X 30. Mounting and inflation was pretty straightforward. I did follow Silca's instructions carefully. No issues so far. The only other TPU tube band I have owned is Rene Herse. These Silcas seem very similar in construction. I prefer a metal valve stem body on TPU tubes. The Silcas come with a screw down washer that make your finished wheels look exactly like you are running tubeless. I think the per tube cost of TPUs put them in the luxury goods category. Perhaps with larger production scale over time the retail cost will come down.

I switched to waxing my chain this summer and can't believe I waited so long to do it' It is the absolute best! The chains on my bikes were relatively new and I was looking for something that wasn't toxic, smelling or bad for the environment to strip all the old lube and oils off before waxing. This stuff is expensive, but man does it work! 10 minutes in a peanut butter jar with a little agitation, and the chain comes out perfectly clean. Even though the chain stripper that I used was completely black, I saved it in a jar, and all of the black gunk settled to the bottom And I was able to decant off perfectly clean chain stripper to use over and over. The smell is very mild and it works so good!

I have been using old T-shirts and other rags to clean my drivetrain in the past. They're free and worked good enough for being free. This summer, I switched over to waxing my chains on all my bikes and these microfiber towels to wipe down the chain after rides to get the dust off. They are amazing! They pick up so much gunk and dust, which is now mostly just excess wax coming off the chain. They do such a great job that just a wipe down allows me to drip new wax on or plunge the chain into the hot wax for a thorough waxing. I ordered a second packet of these to have on hand in the future just in case they stop selling them.