First Cyclowax Performance Wax Kits shipped
For years, hot waxing a bike chain meant borrowing technology that was never built for it. The wax pots riders used were repurposed beauty-industry devices, designed to melt cosmetic wax at the wrong temperatures, in the wrong quantities, for a completely different job. When Cyclowax came to us with the idea of a machine built specifically for hot chain waxing, that gap was exactly the problem we wanted to help solve.
Building a device around an existing consumer product means working around its limits. But building one specifically for hot chain wax meant starting from the actual problem: hot waxing was messy, slow, and asked too much of the person doing it. This device warms up in eight minutes and finishes hot waxing a chain in ten. During the program cycle, a vibration mechanism shakes dirt out of the rollers and pins before the wax ever touches them, and a dedicated spool system lets several chains go through the process at once. The result is a routine that used to eat up an evening and now takes about as long as enjoying a cup of coffee, and of course a wax job that holds up three to four times longer than a chain cleaned and lubed the traditional way.
Cyclowax founder Jakob Lorré summed up why he brought Comate into the project in the first place:
This was a trajectory we could not do alone. We wanted the best of the best, so we chose Comate.
From there, our team took on the mechanical and electronics engineering, the industrial design, production guidance, certification, and the risk management that comes with putting a first-of-its-kind device into people's homes.
That work is now paying off. Cyclists have been able to pre-order the Performance Wax Kit since earlier this year, and the first units have started reaching buyers' homes. A handful of those buyers happen to be colleagues here at Comate.
One of them is Dries Van Den Bergh, Project Engineer Devices at Comate. Dries wasn't on the team that engineered this particular device, but like most cyclists he knows the old-school routine all too well: degreaser, rags, and the kind of "misery" that comes with dirt always finding its way back into the chain no matter how careful you are. He also knows firsthand the standard his colleagues hold themselves to on every project that crosses their desks, and that combination was enough to make him pre-order one the moment he could.
As a cyclist, I've always cleaned and lubed my chain the old way. But after seeing the device come to life, I wanted to be one of the first to try switching to hot wax myself.
That kind of trust isn't limited to home mechanics. The wax chemistry behind the Performance Wax Kit has already proven itself at the top level of the sport: Cyclowax supplies the Lidl-Trek WorldTour team with hot waxed chains, tested in races like Gent-Wevelgem and the Tour of Flanders, both won on Cyclowax wax. The team runs its own high-volume waxing setup for race day, but the standard is held to the same technology we engineered the device around.
Do you have a hardware idea that deserves the same chance to succeed? Get in touch with our team and let's talk about what it could become.
The Performance Wax Kit is now shipping to pre-order customers on a rolling basis. Cyclists who want a chain-waxing setup built for the job, not adapted to it, can order theirs through Cyclowax.
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