Cyclowax, a prototype of an automatic machine for waxing the chain

Waxing or lubricating bike chains through a bath in melted wax, a wax that contains different elements to increase the duration of the treatment and reduce friction to the maximum has become one of the ways that teams have to reduce a good handful of watts in transmission friction. During the Tour de France 2024, Lidl-Trek is testing a prototype machine to automatically perform this tedious task.

Cyclowax creates a machine to make bike chain waxing easier

Among the sponsors of Lidl-Trek we find Cyclowax, a company specialized in wax lubrication for bikes and that, as it could not be otherwise, has specific kits that include waxes specifically treated to achieve the best performance of our transmission or the small pot with which to melt the wax and bathe the chain at the exact temperature to perform the waxing in the ideal way.

Now, Cyclowax goes a little further and, during the Tour de France 2024, has made available to Lidl-Trek a machine that automatically performs chain waxing without the need to disassemble it from the bike, only for chains that have already received a previous waxing treatment.

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The automatic waxing machine from Cyclowax resembles, at first sight, one of the modern direct mount rollers that cyclists use to warm up before stages with an intense start or to loosen legs after marathon days. The wheel is fitted onto a rail and the chain is passed through the device that has a container in which the wax is heated and a tensioner that holds the chain and forces it to pass through the melted wax while, slowly, the machine rotates the transmission so that the entire chain is bathed.

A process that lasts about 30 minutes per bike and above all, avoids having to disassemble the chain every 300 or 400 kilometers that a waxing usually lasts, even less if it has been used in rainy conditions, which theoretically requires (although then none of us do it) to replace the quick link every time the process is carried out.

 

 

 

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However, this machine is designed, as mentioned before, for chains that have already been previously waxed so, in the case of a new chain, we will not be able to avoid the tedious process of degreasing the new chain and applying a manual waxing.

In any case, the Cyclomax waxing machine that has been seen at the Tour de France 2024 is still a prototype and the 30 minutes it takes per bike means that you can still see Lidl-Trek's mechanics waxing one chain after another with the traditional system, getting them ready to mount on the bike and achieve minimal resistance for another couple of stages.