LeeG

Turns out I was doing it all wrong. As I've started to ride more in the last couple years my standard maintenance after riding through down pours was to shake the water off, spray the chain with WD40 so it didn't rust overnight then in the morning after the water and WD40 dried off lubed with regular heavy chain oil and wipe down . Previously seeing the chain develop rust spots overnight after drying off it seemed reasonable to prevent it.
I ran out of WD40 and the previous brand of sticky oil so with the new chain I"ve just been wiping it down and using whitelightnings brand of sticky/rain oil. Amazingly enough there's no rust spots. I'll still lube in the morning after heavy rain and wipe down and inbetween the links to remove excess but there's no rust.
I wonder if the use of WD40removed the heavy lube and the grit and grime I allowed to stay on the chain also helped to keep water on.

Alan@TreeFort

As I was reading through your post, that was my assumption as well.

WD40 is more a degreaser than anything and will strip oil off of a chain. Heavy, wet, bike specific chain lubricants like White Lightening Wet Ride will help create a water barrier and deter corrosion. From my experience it is best to do what you have started to do - dry and clean the chain as much as possible with a dry, clean rag, apply the liberal amount of wet lubricant (like Wet Ride or something similar) and let it sit overnight. Wipe and clean the next morning, and it generally should be good to go.

After really messy, wet rides that get the chain filthy(like dirt roads), it is best to take the chain completely off the bike and soak it with a chain degreaser. Another option is to use the Park Tool Chain Cleaning kit with it on the bike. Its a hassle, but defintely keeps up the life of the chain.

FBinNY 

What you need to do after riding in the rain depends on what you did before. Different chain lubes have vastly different water resistance. The object is to keep water from getting into your chain, down between the plates and in the bushings. It's also food to keep water off the chain with a product that repels or sheds water well. If you succeed in doing both you don't have to worry about the rain at all and can simply let your chain drip dry after the rain.

If you use solvents after the rain and do not properly re-lube your chain, you're setting yourself up for failure.

Obviously, I have a bias because I make the stuff reviewed here, but here are links to a fairly severe wet conditions test, and a followup harsher test. My point isn't necessarily to sell you my stuff (though that would be nice) but to demonstrate that the key in wet conditions is prevention rather than remedy.

BCRider

If you got rust spots the next morning after "washing" the chain with WD40 and wiping it down then you simply were not using enough WD40 to flush out all the water that was on the chain.

Like many here I don't believe that WD40 is the cure for cancer and the common cold as the makers would have you believe. But if there is one thing that it IS good at it is displacing water and leaving behind a light oil that combats corrosion over the short term. But the key is that you have to use enough of it to soak the chain and allow it to flush out and bring the water between all the plates and rollers to the surface where you can then blot it away with repeated use of paper towels or rags until the chain is pretty much dry with no signs of water on the chain or in the blotting stains on the rag or paper towel. At that point I tend to just go ahead and oil with my regular chain oil. Or if you really must leave it until the next day then one last spray down with WD and a light blotting away of the excess is all that is needed. You need to leave enough product behind to let it do its job.

The amount needed to flush away water from the chain in this way is actually quite a bit. Enough to pretty much soak to the point of dripping about 3 pieces of paper towel. If you're only giving it a single light non drippy spritz of the WD and think it's good enough then that's your problem right there. You're not getting enough onto the chain to actually displace all the water that is contained IN the chain.

I only went with a post rain ride cleaning for a few times but here's what I did....

1. Put the bike on my workstand and blotted away most of the water with a couple of paper towels. This pretty much soaked two squares of paper towel.
2. Spritze the chain down liberally with WD40 to where it was beginning to drip off the chain. This was blotted off the chain right away with a two or three of squares of paper towel
3. Once the last WD paper towel was coming away with just a light stain on it I applied my chain oil. Use whatever you want. There is no need to wait overnight as the blotting away of the WD has removed pretty close to all of it.
4. Put the bike away to bed along with the rest of the fleet.

Note that to soak down the chain to where it's dripping WD is important. Any less and you won't flush out the water. And blotting away the bulk of the water before starting really reduces the amount of WD you need. Without doing that you'd have to flush the chain with WD and blot it away at least two and likely more like three times to remove the water fully. And each full soaking of the chain to where it is dripping is a good 1/2 oz or more of WD.

I must admit that while I did it this way the chain stayed nice and clean and I actually avoided the once every 5 or 6 rain ride serious cleanings that required solvent and the clamp on chain cleaning gizmo. But I admit that while it worked well I got lazy and soon slipped back into the old habits of just doing a full cleaning when the chain sounded like a cement mixer and felt and looked like sandpaper.

Al1943

After riding in the rain the chain is the last thing I'm concerned with. It's all those things you can't see that will get you- shifters, cables, and cable housings seem to suffer most. Then there are the bearings, axles, bottom bracket, headset, and pedals. Some bearings are more protected than others. I've also seen serious damage to rim eyelets and spoke threads. I use Velox rim tape on all of my rims but the one problem with Velox is that when it gets soaked with water it holds water in close contact with eyelets, nipples, and spoke threads.
Of course steel frames should also be a major concern. And the seriousness of some of these potential problems depends on the particular components, what their made of and how often they get wet. Oxidation and other types of corrosion are cumulative in their effect. If hidden a component can fail before you know you have a problem.
If you're really worried about your chain rusting, next time buy a nickel plated chain.

dab3

I ride all the time in the rain and don't so much as look at my chain afterwards. I've never seen the slightest hint of rust. I use white waxy lube (white lightning?) I guess it keeps the water out?

garage sale GT

Why screw with the wd40 at all? Why not just put chain oil on? It will cling to the metal better than water and will displace any water which is on the chain.

However, I prefer to clean my chain after wet rides because the front wheel splashes gritty water into the chain.

MichaelW

I ride in the rain all the time, often several times a day. I dont have the time or inclination to clean the bike after every ride. For light rain, I dont do anything and no harm is done. If Ive been riding through very heavy rain I usually let the water drip off and relube the next morning. I use Finish Line cross country. I used to use While Lightening but it still washed off. I'll use WD 40 on occasion, followed by finish line. Putting oil onto a wet chain, the oil doesnt seem to penetrate as well as it should. WD40 helps it get inside the links.

robbied196

I was told by a good bike mechanic never to use WD40 on a chain, also, there's this link saying the same thing.

https://bicycletutor.com/no-wd40-bike-chain/

Quote: "Bicycle chains are far too heavy and fast-moving for the lubricating power of WD-40 to have any effect at all. As a matter of fact, WD-40 will actually strip away any existing lubricant and leave your drivetrain dry – metal on metal. Basically, spraying this stuff on your chain is worse than using no lubricant at all!"

pallen

I think the discussion here is about using WD40 as a cleaner and to remove water before lubing with something else after.

FuzzyDunlop

He's talking about using WD-40 as a chain lubricant, which yes is a poor idea. The commenters above are talking about using WD-40 as a dispersant to remove the water that will have gotten into the chain after riding in the rain. That's a fine thing to do as long as you follow up with a real chain lube.

FuzzyDunlop

Beat me to it.

RunningPirate

I remember hearing that WD40 actually attracts water ($0.50 word for the day: Hygroscopic), thus can defeat your purpose. This, as you can imagine, came as a shock to me who - as a child growing up in the 70's and early 80's - thought bicycle maintenance involved a) washing everything with a pressure nozzle, and b) soaking everything down with WD-40.

FuzzyDunlop

Also for the record I just thoroughly clean my chain with a rag and then hit it with chain lube, but perhaps I'm not doing enough.

cyccommute 

There are a couple of issues here and some different mechanisms at work. FBinNY is correct in saying that preventing the water from getting inside the chain is key. However, using WD-40 to remove water that is already there is probably a fools errand. The WD-40's aliphatic compounds won't mix with the water nor dissolve it. It just 'displaces' it. Any water inside the chain will be encapsulated between the lubricant stuck to the chain and the WD-40 that is going to ride on top of the water. If you really wanted to get rid of the water, you could use a solvent that does a better job like acetone or alcohol.

The reason the White Lightning is working better than LeeG's old method is because the WL is actually preventing the chain from picking up water and the lubricant is providing more coverage. His old lube would have probably provided the same coverage...if he hadn't washed it off after each rain ride. Sometimes you want to leave the gunk alone.

wunderkind

I am amused at the amount of time/cost ratio people put on bicycle chain maintenance.

LeeG

I think that's it. I'm using WL WetRide oil and was using FinishLines WetRide lubricant. Apparently the WD40 and water weren't out of the links by the next morning when I added more lube and all I was doing was making a mess that removed oil from the inside of the links. In the old days I simply dripped on Tri-Flow then wiped the excess off and replaced the chain in 6mo, back then Sedis chains were only $7. Here I am 25yrs later riding 1/3 as much in a LOT more rain and the chains are wearing out because I was stripping the lube and leaving the crap on. I was thinking the problem was that narrow chains just didn't last that long but maybe no chain lasts when it's lubed in gunk and grit.

Are the nickle plated chains more durable ?

FBinNY 

One thing you need to understand about chains and water and lubricant is the role of capillary action, which is the same thing that draws sap up tree trunks, and makes a paper towel absorb. It's capillary action that draws liquids down into a chain, and that means that for your lube to get into the chain you need narrow spaces for it to wick into. Whichever liquid gets in first will effectively fill those spaces keeping other stuff out. (try blotting up a spill with a wet paper towel). Once water is in your chain, newly applied lube won't penetrate, and if the chain is full of lube, water won't penetrate.

That's why the key to keeping water out of your chain is to fill it with oil first.

DMF 

"Chain-L No.5" ?? Oh good grief!

LeeG

I like watching kittens play

coldfeet

If it's just water, i.e. lots of rain, then just lube it. White Lightning, or my favorite, Boeshield T9. Why bother with the WD40? Most of these lubes have a water displacement function built in.

Gritty chain, different matter.

garage sale GT

Oils will stick to metal better than water.

Oiling a chain by the rollers in theory helps flush grit out of bushingless chains, the kind modern bikes have.

To the guy who said WD40 was hygroscopic: Many oils and greases including motor oils are. It has to be on there for a while, though, I think, unless you don't wipe the droplets off after spraying, though I would just lube without the WD40, or clean if it really needed it.

cyccommute 

Oils, being nonpolar compounds, don't have too much affinity for metal surfaces. You have to add detergents to oils to modify their ability to adhere to metal surfaces.

Water, on the other hand, is a polar substance and will readily bind to a metal surface bringing along stuff that can corrode the metal surface as well as facilitating...and participating in... certain electrochemical reactions.

That's the reason we have to keep lubricating metal parts. Lubricants don't really stick to them all that well. In the case of a chain in a water spray, the oils get displaced quickly...but unevenly... with water and then added oil has a difficult time displacing the water.

The hygroscopicity of oils and greases is relatively small compared to other substances. That the mixtures are hygroscopic at all is probably due to the added detergents. The oils by themselves don't absorb nor dissolve much water.