Thanks cyc.

I think i will use your mineral spirit method as it seems really easy and I hate doing maintainence on my bike but realize it is essensial if i want to have everything long lasting. I ride a recumbent so my chains VERY long and I was worried about not drying it out properly and it getting rusty, so can bypass the use of water now.

Took me about 10 minutes of googling to find out that mineral spirits is called white spirits here in the UK and is in fact easily available from hardware shops and not some hard to aquire obscure chemical