Silca Ultimate Chain Stripper + Wax Prep

Thank you very much for sharing!

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Yep seems daft to me.


My UFO Clean (middle bottle) is about 18-20 months old and I’ve factory degreased 2 chains plus use it about twice a month to deep clean the chain on the bike. Of the original 1 liter bottle I’ve got maybe a third or quarter left.

This is why I don’t think of it as premium, its really convenient both as factory degreaser and on-the-bike degreaser.

I’m tempted to buy another bottle before the old inventory is gone and price increases, but I have a full liter bottle on the shelf.

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Sure…I have acknowledged the convenience factor.

Again, I am questioning whether that convenience is worth the premium. This is something everyone is gonna have to answer for themselves. There is no universal answer.

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This product is perfect for people who are “wax-curious” but can’t be bothered to do the degraser prep followed by alcohol cleansing and immersion/drip wax. One thing - 5 minutes, then top with wax of choice.

For people who already have the cleaning products and a system - it’s not for them - it’s obviously much cheaper to use existing chemicals on hand.

As a full wax convert on every bike I think it’s a smart product - especially the two bottle package - get your chain clean and then add the drip wax. I have so many friends who thinks it’s “too much” and use awful drip lube (WAY too infrequently) on their disgustingly dirty drivetrains. My mechanic describes himself as a “borderline waxing/drug pusher” attempting to convince everyone to switch

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sure, if you have chemicals and a system why switch? Totally understand that,

My cost so far has been $1.70/month, and its likely going to drop down something close to $1/month for fast&easy initial degreasing (2 chains) and then fairly frequent fast&easy 5-min contamination removal.

I can’t wrap my brain around that being premium or pricey, even when I run out of my ~4 year supply and costs go up to $2/month.

You know, each of the steps in the standard cleaning process is actually pretty simple. But there’s quite a few steps, especially for someone who’s used to oil lubes, and who maybe didn’t even remove the factory lube because all the manufacturers said not to. So, to have one bottle of magic chain cleaner does take a lot of that cognitive load out. When I run out of my current load of solvents plus alcohol, I may consider this or the UFO stuff. Thing is that could be quite a while from now.

My point is that if people aren’t taking the chain off, they don’t have the other option. It’s like saying to someone on a bike that the quickest way to get somewhere is to drive.

Word on the street is that UFO Clean was originally formulated by CS to prep their pre waxed chains, (so off the bike and immersively) before they considered selling it. Not sure I buy that as if doing it on that scale surely they would have a ZFC style filtering system for mineral spirits…

I prep chains myself for customers and use both methods, depending on use case/time/experimenting factors, and would say both work so for off bike prep the cheaper options probably makes more sense.

Didn’t they ban mineral spirits in California or something though? I vaguely remember that being part of the story as well…

Edit: Love how this thread wasn’t even technically about ufo clean initially :ok_hand:

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Replace UFU Clean with Silca stuff. Same same.

Haha, I just bought 8 bottles with the old price/packaging of the UFO Clean.

It’ll be perfect on my Tarmac SL11 in 9 years :joy:

Jokes aside, the SILCA is way too expensive. Even the UFO Clean with the new price is approaching silly pricing territory.

20 euros a litre is fine, as it cost now with the old bottle. As you say, you pay a bit for convenience by not messing around with methylated spirits etc.

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But it’s Silca. You must not buy much of their stuff. (partially sarcastic)

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The irony is that I have more than a few pieces of their stuff…couple of bags, a pump and use their wax (both the blend and the drip).

But even for them, that is quite the pricing.

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That’s like the deal I got on 5 bottles of electrode gel in 2018 and 5 years later I haven’t even used half the bottle :rofl: Gave the rest away on TR Forum.

See, I won’t buy their hot melt as I consider it over priced :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

… that might be UK pricing though, it’s about 1.5x the cost of MSW here.

I bought on sale. It helped a bit.

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Yeah I remember that, not sure he’s buying at these prices though!

My thoughts are that contamination in the pot is what’s going to kill the efficiency so I’d rather use twice as much MSW (at the same cost) and rewax early and often… IMO that’ll get better ROI on component wear :pray:

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I always using boiling water to clean before dunking back in the slow cooker.

The real question is…how do I know when it needs to be replaced if I’m going back to clean chains everytime there should be minimal contamination

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I wonder if you could degrease multiple factory chains with the same solution. It seems like you should be able to. That would help reduce the cost in terms of cleaning the grease of new factory chains which is where I currently use mineral spirits.

When re-waxing, I put them through the ultrasound cleaner first with Simple Green HD and then rinse with acetone.

Does the UFO cleaner do a good job of stripping older wax off the chain? Prepping an already waxed/used chain to redip is my least favorite part of the whole waxing process.

It’s really good at getting a waxed chain clean! :slight_smile: I do it on the bike myself, so I just spray it on, let it sit for a minute or so, scrub a bit, and then rinse!

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