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  "description": "Here’s what I learnt, and how close I came to drinking it to prove a point.",
  "path": "/i-tried-a-10-aliexpress-chain-wax-and-it-might-just-be-water/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-05-01T00:07:15.000Z",
  "site": "https://escapecollective.com",
  "tags": [
    "products bought through AliExpress",
    "I bought a frameset from there",
    "I bought a frame from AliExpress. It didn’t go very well.A haven for the bargain-hunter or a disaster waiting to happen? Time to investigate.Escape CollectiveIain Treloar",
    "Chain wax: Is it the way forward for everyone?The long-running debate of oil versus wax is slowly but surely getting settled.Escape CollectiveAlex Hunt",
    "Subscribe now"
  ],
  "textContent": "Iain Treloar\n\nYou’re probably wondering how I ended up with a bottle of AliExpress chain wax in my hand, thinking about whether I should take a swig. A fair question.\n\nChinese ecommerce titans like AliExpress (and Temu, Shein, et al) have rewritten the rulebook for online shopping: implausibly cheap, wildly inconsistent, occasionally sketchy. They offer goods at prices that undercut established Western marketplaces, with known brands sitting alongside products you’ve never heard of. There are a few compromises, though: IP theft is widespread, counterfeits are common, and after-sales support is almost non-existent.\n\nThat doesn’t mean I don’t have a morbid fascination with it all, though. After having some mixed experiences with products bought through AliExpress, I took a leap last year: I bought a frameset from there. It was a deeply tedious process to get it built up, riddled with problems that I wouldn’t accept from a mainstream brand. But now that I’ve overcome those teething pains (and by ‘teething pains’ I mean gums coursing with thick, fresh blood) I have a silly pink basket bike that I ride almost every day and genuinely like. Still, would I make the same kind of purchase decision again? Probably not.\n\nI bought a frame from AliExpress. It didn’t go very well.A haven for the bargain-hunter or a disaster waiting to happen? Time to investigate.Escape CollectiveIain Treloar\n\nSuitably cautioned, I have recalibrated my purchase decisions – nothing that will kill me if it fails. But you know what I _would_ roll the dice on for content? A $10 bottle of chain drip wax, that’s what.\n\nDon’t worry, I also got _proper_ drip wax; this was purely for shits and giggles and on the hunch that there could be a fun story at the end of it. Let’s see if I was right.\n\n## **The shape of water**\n\nA week or so after I hit the big red ‘buy’ button, my little bottle of Hozonex-branded chain wax showed up in a nondescript postal satchel. Its appearance was, I will admit, a surprise: the contents were completely transparent, with the viscosity of water. I gave the bottle a little shake in the hopes that it would thicken, but a light lacing of bubbles was about as far as that went. After chucking my chain in an ultrasonic cleaner and getting everything ready for application, it was time to see how it went on.\n\nThe answer was ‘easily’ – too easily. It spurted out as if it had somewhere to be, liberally coating the chain and then, as I rotated the pedals, the bottom of the jockey wheels and chainring, before dripping onto the floor. As a non-Dave Rome, I reached out to him for a second opinion about whether any of this was remotely normal. His verdict (and I quote): “LOOOLLLLL”.\n\nStill, the scorn of my colleagues is not (and has never been) enough to prevent me from following a hunch through to its giddy conclusion, so over the next few weeks I used exclusively Hozonex ‘chain wax’ on one of my bikes. First impressions turned into worse impressions. My drivetrain was no longer grimy, true, but it was also very noisy: a squeaking little nest of mice seemed to have taken up residence where my chain once was, getting insistently louder from about the 10 km mark of any ride.\n\nWet-weather performance was dismal, too. One night ride ended with wet trails and the lightest sprinkling of drizzle, and when I looked at my bike the next morning, the chain and cassette were liberally dotted with orange specks of rust. Either it had basically no permeability, or the mix was just plain wrong – watery wax, instantly washed off with water.\n\nChain wax: Is it the way forward for everyone?The long-running debate of oil versus wax is slowly but surely getting settled.Escape CollectiveAlex Hunt\n\nAs time went on, I became increasingly suspicious that ‘water’ might actually be all I was dealing with here. Still, every ride, no matter how short, I dripped on some Hozonex. And every ride, I’d both heard and felt my drivetrain components grinding themselves away.\n\nA breathtaking simple yet stupid idea lodged itself in my brain: maybe I could prove this chain wax was water by drinking it.\n\nJust a quenching bottle of Hozonex.\n\n## **A bad idea, briefly considered**\n\nBefore taking the plunge, I decided to seek out some alternate views. Dave’s perspective was that “If [there’s] no smell, it’s clear, and there’s no particles – it's most likely water.” (He later clarified “don’t drink it”). Matt’s perspective was “WTAF”. Fair all round, but I couldn’t shake my worst impulses.\n\n### This post is for subscribers only\n\nBecome a member to get access to all content\n\nSubscribe now",
  "title": "I tried a $10 AliExpress chain wax, and it might just be water",
  "updatedAt": "2026-05-07T18:09:55.365Z"
}