I’m sure I recall a certain type of cider being named White Lightning.
We keep a cider called Orchard Thieves in the liquor fridge. In the summer I put it in a Thermos to keep it cool and dole it out to pedalpals when we stop, just a small refreshing cup, not enough to make anyone fiddly. Despite its suspect name, the ladies love it.
...luck with those Chinese knives.
Actually, I wanted to buy a Sheffield knife to replace the Joseph Rodgers of fond boyhood memory but there was nothing in stock. Then I tried to buy a Taylor's Eye Witness pocket knife and the only dealer who even replied to me would only post me the poncey 200 pound collector's version, whereas I wanted a knife to use. I didn't mind if it was overpriced, but it would get mucky with oil paints soon enough, so it shouldn't be too fancy or it would look out of place in my paintbox. Heinnie Haynes, apparently the leading British seller of knives, told me to buy a Rough Ryder "American" made in China knife for a first venture, which was excellent advice, except that the knife I chose was too pretty to do to it what I intended, which was to break it up for the blades which I intended to rehouse in copper I already have, engraved with tools and skills I already have, too. So next I bought two knives in China for about 40% each of the Rough Ryder price -- and one turned out to work so smoothly (though the scales came from mismatched rams) that I'm reluctant to take it apart, and the other, another nail-breaker like the Rough Ryder, is too pretty, as well.
Sad.
Thank you for your concern, Mr Trump.
If you still wish to use a wax lube then i can recommend a SA product called Squirt.
https://www.squirtcyclingproducts.com/portfolio_page/squirtchainlube/
It is water based and solvent free, there should be no danger sniffing this one!
Thanks for the recommendation, Julian. I've noted it for when (if...) I ever put my other bikes back on the road, but for the only bike in current in use the experiment of running the chain for its entire life on the factory lube inside a Chainglider has proven so riotously successful, and the Rohloff has proven so ideally matched to my changing needs, that I doubt the other bikes will ever be fetched down from the loft. And I have plenty of Oil of Rohloff, which I've found to be a superior lube, though on the bikes of pedal pals rather than my own, because the occasion has simply not arisen.
The irony of these events is that when I paint in oils I'm enough of an authority to advise others on which of the non-toxic solvents to use to protect themselves, their children and their pets -- but I never suspected the chain wax in the plastic bottle. I've since received expert advice to throw away all lubes past five years old, which I intend to follow.
The other problem with White Lightening is that it washes off the chain at the first suggestion of rain (which is something of which we have seen little here in the Eastern Cape during seven years of drought).
So why is Andre using it in Ireland where I would expect there to have been more rainy days in the past month than I have enjoyed since being stuck back in South Africa over the past year ?
Be grateful you're not stuck in the Western Cape, J-MS, where the winters are not only wet but cold and windy, or on the Transvaal Highveld, where it is hot, muggy and wet, with copious thunder and lightning strikes.
I started using the White Lightning Cold Wax because I had found White Lighning's Teflon grease great for assembly and very clean -- important to me because I invariably cycle in street clothes, not dedicated cycle gear, and because I work at home and so could choose my rides to fall between the rainfalls. Here in West Cork we actually have more hours of sunshine than rain, and much of the "rain" is the sort of very light drizzle that doesn't wet a good Aran sweater, which we call "a soft day" -- it might not be fun to tour in it from dawn to dusk, but for a ride for exercise with friends and hot lemon tea in the flask, an hour or two door to door, before the cold reaches your bones (if you need a hot shower when you return, you rode too far), it's a day and a ride very pale-skinned cyclists like me appreciate.
But the main reason I got away/persevered with the White Lightning was that at the time when I first started using it I was testing full chain covers in the process that led me to recommend the then-novel Chainglider. If you're interested in the state of the chain case a dozen years ago, you could dip into:
A Fully Enclosed Chaincase That Works:
http://thorncyclesforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=2233.msg10717#msg10717The Cold Wax worked like it was supposed to, and it never saw water because I didn't ride in rain all that extensively and it was inside a Dutch full chain case, in which it was good for a week or a fortnight of casual rides.
+1 for Squirt, which I also buy 'cos it's Soufafrican.
Thanks, John. That's a lot of votes for Squirt, the bicycle wax so popular you'd swear it comes with a stick of ostrich biltong.
