Ahh. Finish Line also sells a "Bike Wash Spray" that some people swear by. Personally, for general cleaning / de-greasing I tend to stay away from the expensive LBS products and visit the local Home Depot.

I keep thinking that it would be good to wax my bike to protect it from sand and salt, but I'm too lazy.

WD40 is a cleaner/degreaser. . . I usually don't put it on anything that moves and needs to be lubricated unless I'm re-greasing/lubricating it afterwords.

To each their own though.

That's really good stuff, and it makes the work easy, but it's expensive.

I've used mineral spirits to clean chains. Those quick-attach chain cleaners with the internal brushes make the job easier, and more importantly, they seem to do a better job than not using one. I've read criticisms of them, but I like them.

Don't use gasoline. It's too dangerous, and cheap alternatives are safer.

I found that using degreasers and cleaning agents on my chain significantly reduced the mileage I would get out of it. Now all I do to clean the chain is add more lube (one drop per roller) and wipe off the excess. If I need to clean the cassette or cranksets, I remove the chain and use basic orange degreaser. You can get a big bottle of it for $4 at the hardware store.

Living in an area where there isn't much extreme winter weather, your cleaning regimen shouldn't be much different from the rest of the year.

I use household products to clean off the finish and jyst use wd40 to move some of the crud, synthetic machine oil on the moving parts and cables, and some nice gooey motorcycle chain lube on thr chain. In winter I'd rather have an oily fhain yhan a rusty one. The bare metal/chrome surface rust annoys me thoughx Especially on v brakes.

I was unaware of this item, I see several varieties in a Google search. I'll look further into this for sure.
It appears that a trip to the local hardware or maybe an auto-parts store is in order for the weekend. I've been commuting daily since late May, only driving my car 4 times since then. I want to get into a regular maintenance routine with the bike.
I'm amazed at just how much I've learned in this short amount of time, not just about the bike, about commuting, traffic, the roadway, and myself.
This place has been an inspiration, for that i thank all of you.

Castrol Super Clean works great but its quite strong. Don't leave any on your finished surfaces too long. Let it soak in some then brush and hose off the grime. Relube as needed. In winter, I do as others have noted, just keep things lubed and don't bother with the fine degreasing until spring.

fendertl5, I'm glad to hear all of that and glad to have you in this community. I'm learning, too, even though I'm a veteran of sorts.

avoid using water to clean it. once water gets into your housings it can freeze and prevent you from shifting.

I'll also chip in to the "leave it until it makes too much noise" camp. I clean my chain and rim if they're grinding. The derailleur I just kick until it decides to stop defying my will.
The dirt will keep until spring.