The secret is to do very little -- the bike really doesn't need it. I do think it's a good idea to rinse the salt off.

I used to commute 180 miles/week, sometimes all of it in the rain. I'd wipe and lube the chain once per week and knock the crud out of the RD and off the chainrings. That's it. I rode it over 50K miles and had no trouble selling it within within a day (despite disclosing the mileage) for almost half of what I paid for it brand new. I don't ride that much anymore, but I still ride more in the rain than most people.

Your cogs and chainring won't rust and I would recommend against spraying them with anything. That will only attract gunk. I also recommend against removing the chain when cleaning it because you'll strip everything off which will shorten its life. Just wipe it down, lube lightly, and wipe it down again. Most people put way too much lube on which gunks the chain up.



BTW, here's what my bike looked like when I arrived at work yesterday. I got all that debris on my leg, foot, and on the bike despite having full fenders. After returning in the evening, I didn't do anything (i.e. it still looks like that) and the only thing I'm going to do before going out on it is give the chain its weekly cleaning. I intend to keep this bike much longer than the one I sold that had over 50K miles on it.