The hot wax was gone from the chain in under 200 miles.
Wow, that makes it functionally useless imo. My current approach is really simple:
Clean chain with a cleaning tool - 1-2 min
Rinse and dry with a paper towel - 30s
Add oil lube and dry with a towel - 30s
I do that whenever I remember (and check the chain stretch), and it seems to work pretty well. I keep a bottle of Simple Green for cleaner and dilute ~50/50, then lube with whatever my LBS sells. It seems to do a pretty good job...
I don't think they applied the wax right though, just hitting it with some WD40 isn't sufficient to completely clean off all the grease. Most people soak the chain in degreaser or even use one of those heated vibrating cleaners to really knock everything off and once it's completely clean/dry, then submerge it in a wax bath for at least a half hour to make sure it gets into everything.
Yeah, that could lead to pre-mature flaking of the wax. But the question is, is it closer to 200 miles, or the average time most people do between lubes (I do the shorter of 500 miles, every season, or if I went on a nasty wet ride).
Idk, it probably depends on where you ride. I mostly ride on dry bike paths, and I always store my bike inside. If I were riding on wet roads/muddy paths, I'd probably lube more often.
Silca makes a pretty good degreaser that's one step and is pretty effective. It won't work as good if the chain is caked with crap and well used, but it's quite robust and will certainly do a good job with a newer chain. Anything more is overkill. It takes like 15 minutes too, start to finish, and if you do a good enough job you will only need to wash with hot water in the future.
