tl;dr
Will I contaminate my waxed chain if I use it on my Kickr trainer that has a cassette used with a bike using oil-based lube?
My main road bike has a chain that I hot dip in wax. I’ve recently encountered an odd clicking noise in certain conditions, namely when on the big chainring and in the third largest cog on the cassette, going uphill (thus, with pressure on pedals).
I was thinking of taking the the chainrings and cranks off, then cleaning and greasing the bolts and interface on the chainring. In addition, I plan on doing the same maintenance to the pedals and headset.
I plan on putting the bike on the trainer so that I can test for the clicking without having to go outside - it’s hot AF here (+/- 100F). My dedicated indoor bike uses Silca Synergetic oil-based lube on its drivetrain. Will I contaminate my waxed chain if I put it on the trainer with the cassette used with an oiled chain?
FYI the drivetrain and bike are all of the same age and the miles of usage are low <2000 miles. BIke hasn’t been crashed. I do however, wash the bike on a regular basis.
Touch wood I’ve had no problems when I went to wax (drip wax) using it on the trainer’s cassette (which had previously been used with ceramic wet lube. Ive been using it like that for a couple of years. AFAIK the wax seals when you apply it off the trainer and any lube left on the cassette can’t penetrate it.
If you plan to spend a lot kf time cleaning the road bike, you could also take the cassette off the trainer and clean that? Then do your tests, before putting the oil-chain bike back on.
Had the same thing on my Shimano equipped bike, its the chain touching the adjacent cog every fourth tooth. Its a very light contact so the noise is a bit intermittent and mainly under load as you found. Does t do it when cross chained further or less, so suspect its a special case of chainstay length and cog combinations. ( its on the 27 tooth hog touching the 24 in my case), 50 on the front.