Originally Posted by kergin
I didn't know they made chains out of iron, and I'm being completely serious about this: I have no idea what will and will not rust from exposure to water on the bike, with the obvious exception of aluminum. The cleaning went well, but I messed up the alignment on my rear derailleur such that when on the smallest chain ring on the rear cassette and the largest in the front, the derailleur will try to downshift onto a larger ring, but it can't get all the way up. The end result: it feels like chain skip. I knew I should have gone for a small cage on the RD!
Yup! They are made of steel but steel is mostly iron with some stuff added to make it harder. To see what the iron (steel) bits on your bike are use a magnet. If the magnet sticks it can rust (with the exception of some stainless steels but I doubt that you have that
) and you want to get it dry.
Cleaning your bike shouldn't have done anything to your derailer unless you got something in the cables. You may want to readjust your cables (maybe relube them also).