AbsoluteBlack unveils pliable hot melt chain wax lubricant

It's good question.  Wax doesn't last in wet. gritty conditions and riding in those conditions means clean, dry, repeat in my experience. 

I'm assuming the wax sticks around inside the rollers so am sort of adopting a once monthly waxing routine and topping up more or less every ride to protect the outer plates.

Still wondering what the best lube for 'topping up' is. Am just using some Morgan Blue wet lube that I had lying around anyway, apply sparingly and wipe off excess so it stays relatively clean.

I've been using the Silca Super Secret wax on the rollers - and if you dip the chain and let it dry properly then it seems to work.  I'd not considered using wax and oil.  Doesn't that mean you get crud-caking on the cassette and chainrings?

Out of curiosity, I always understood the lubrication properties of graphite came from the loose bonds between the layers, allowing them to slide easily over one another. So graphene, that is just a single one of the graphite layers on its own, nothing else much to slide over. How is graphene supposed to be a better lubricant than graphite (or am I just assuming that), or is it just a "sexier" thing from the marketing perspective?

Incidentally, graphene was only isolated in 2004. You must have been ahead of the game to be already exploiting it at that time.

We believe you are refering to graphite which is not graphene

Despite the fact that both of these materials are only built from carbon atoms, the similarity ends here. Graphene possesses completely different mechanical and tribological properties to graphite. For example, graphite exhibits 0.1-0.2 COF (coefficient of friction) in very humid air, but 0.5-0.7 COF when air is dry, which is very high friction comparable to steel on steel sliding without lubrication. Graphene, on the other hand, is very stable across full spectrum of humidity with 0.1-0.2 COF.  Graphene also possesses incredible mechanical strength allowing it to effectively separate metal surfaces and suppressing wear rate by 1-2 orders of magnitude in comparison to graphite. To sum up, using graphite instead of graphene in the same solution, would produce completely adverse results.

Good of you to chip in. But graphene is just graphite separated into its constituent layers, right. It was first isolated by using sticky tape to simply peel off individual layers from a lump of graphite, after all. So all this talk of its superhuman strength and magical properties, don't let it distract from the fact that graphite is just lots of graphene stuck together in layers. If a single layer can "separate metal surfaces" then I don't see how multiple layers can do any the less. Even if it has to wear down to the final layer before the marketing people get excited.

Using the same logic you could say that coal is the same as diamond, however we all know how different those are and how different properties they poses.

Well no, that is not using the same logic at all, is it?

Are any snakes harmed in the production of your oils?

I was thinking of getting our resident trolls some for Christmas. 

 we don't make oils 

You're on a hiding to nothing rising to the bait! 

Sriracha wrote:

Good of you to chip in. But graphene is just graphite separated into its constituent layers, right. It was first isolated by using sticky tape to simply peel off individual layers from a lump of graphite, after all. So all this talk of its superhuman strength and magical properties, don't let it distract from the fact that graphite is just lots of graphene stuck together in layers. If a single layer can "separate metal surfaces" then I don't see how multiple layers can do any the less. Even if it has to wear down to the final layer before the marketing people get excited.

Hmmm.  I don't think graphite behaves just as though there were lots of sheets of graphene stuck on one another; there are bonds between the layers for instance.  I would say that the electrical, chemical and mechanical properties of graphene are very different from those of graphite, and I think it is very fair to say that eg graphene has a much higher tensile strength than graphite for instance, and I could easily believe that it has much lower coefiicient of friction.  For me the interesting part would be how Absolute Black have stopped the graphene from stacking and becoming graphite in the wax/chain lube, but I suspect they will not be prepared to  tell us on this forum 

HI absoluteblack , a question re: maintaining your hot wax, how do you know when to rewax and can you use anything in the interim with the chain installed rather than removing for a full rewax? Thanks

how basic? is vegetable oil okay? I have loads of that.

I understand it's better than nothing.

Canola oil is used to lubricate paper shredders.

I mean, articulating the links on a freshly waxed chain, it's not exactly the end of the world.