Hot take: my chain cleaning routine got wrecked by 3 days of rain

I spent Sunday scrubbing my chain with a Park Tool kit, then it poured Monday through Wednesday in Seattle and now my drivetrain sounds like a coffee grinder. Did I just waste my time or is there a trick to keeping things clean when the weather won't cooperate? Anyone got a go-to drying method after a wash that actually works?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_alex13d ago

Dude just ride it, chains are cheap. This is overthinking it.

mia44214d ago

... and yeah I lived through that exact Seattle baptism with my drivetrain last winter. My go to now is after I wash and rinse the chain, I hit it with a blast of compressed air from a can or my compressor on low pressure. Gets water out of the rollers before it can turn to rust. Then I let it sit for 10 minutes before I lube it up with something wet like Muc-Off wet lube. Dry lubes just dissolve in rain in my experience, so I save those for summer. Also if you don't have compressed air, a clean rag wrapped around the chain and pedaled backwards a few times gets a surprising amount of moisture out.