DropBarFan

Last winter we didn't get any snow in DC area....one day they did spray the roads to prevent icing...went for a short ride, bike didn't seem that dirty so I didn't wash the drivetrain...wow, it rusted the chain & I had to replace it. If touring on salted roads I'm not sure how one would keep the chain clean...maybe wipe, generous lube & wipe...but seems like that would still leave some salt on the chain.

djb

with my winter commuting, I have a clear routine that I force myself to do.
pull in garage, I have a bucket I put soapy water in, I use a wide car washing soft bristle brush more than a foot wide to quickly wash down both sides of bike, chain rings, cables, rims, side of tires etc
I then wipe the chain with old towels I have, this gets all the water, dirt, salt and crap off it well, I wipe chainrings with rag, rd, jockey wheels etc, and then spray wd40 on chain in 12t while turning pedals.
Do this every day, but I'm fast and don't mess around. 5 mins maybe, maybe a bit more.
wd40 isn't an ideal chain lube, but for yucky conditions like this, I figured I'd try it, and you know what, it works really well. No rust, daily wiping keeps gunge from accumulating, and I figure the water dispersing wd thing is good for chain.

salt on roads is a given, and worst thing is riding through wet roads, even at -10c, cuz it's wet because of heavy salt concentration in it, so really really salty water going over bike. This is why I wash it with liberal water, always wipe the lower cables under frame bb, and dry and wipe with old towel quickly.
I'm always surprised by how well this all works. I'm very fond of my old mountain bike that I use in winter, so making the daily effort is fine by me, and it simply is very effective.
I'm lucky at this moment to have a garage, so I can be sloppy and shoot water all over, but no biggee.

DropBarFan

WD-40 might work nicely to clean chains on a tour when it's too cold to wash with water. 1 gallon is surprisingly cheap so (unlike with expensive chain lubes) one could use a generous amount to rinse & scrub chain. AFAIK to reduce drag/wear cleanliness is more important than having the optimal lube. I once read a motorcycling post by a guy who claimed to get insane mileage just by frequent cleaning with WD-40.

PedalingWalrus

yeah. Salt is terrible. I now just tour a fat bike off road in the winter when the roads get full of snow

Sometimes just transporting my bike to the start of the trip puts a lot of salt over my bike 😕

djb

maybe, I really only went the wd40 tryout route to save time (bought a coupleof large spray cans on sale) and the coating that happens with it and the water displacement things I figured were good. It's an eight d speed bike so kmc chains are 12 bucks so I figured if it didn't work out it wasn't a big issue, but the chain has been fine. To be fair I don't ride many kms so not factor, but waa surprised by how well it looks after a couple of winters.

the most important thing to me is physically wiping chains with rags every day, to get the most grit off. I also take the time sometimes to go link by link and get as much off as I can with the rag.
in winter I also I find I need to floss the cassette more often to keep stuff from accumulating, I do it with wheel on bike.

djb

oh yeah, big time. The odd time I see a bike on a rear car rack in winter, I hope the people think and really clean the bike cuz especially if wet and sloppy, salty brine is getting thrown up all over the bike.

I even put some thick grease on with a brush on some bolt heads, ones that I know get rusty, but it's a losing battle, kind of like our cars.
like Neil Young wrote, Rust never sleeps. (album name I think)

PedalingWalrus

for the upcoming winter season when traveling further than one hour in a car I am planning to just take the wheels off and stick the bike in the back of the car. somehow.

djb

I think that's a really good idea. I'm sure back of the car salt spray is much much worse just because it's a fine 50 mph salty spray that gets into every nook and cranny and thread.

staehpj1 

I only use WD40 on tour for those fairly rare times that I get a drive train loaded up with sand that doesn't easily rinse off. In those few cases I bought a spray can, used it for one cleaning and gave the remainder away. This has only happened a couple times over the years. At home I do use it as my primary means of cleaning and lubing spd pedal retention parts.

djb

Re wd40 and spd pedals. On my 1991 or 92 spd shimanos I used wd40 regularly on them and they are still in occasional use. A lot easier to unclip than newer ones for sure, but i figure keeping all the moving parts free of grit helped with their long life. Amazed always by how well the bearings are still turning fairly smoothly and with just a tiny bit of play.

Tourist in MSN

From your comment, you must have seen my bike on the back of a friends Jeep. The extra thick spokes are covered with ice and road grime from the Jeep tire spray.

djb

Ouch, the gunge factor is pretty high there.
Because I really do like keeping a drivetrain clean, even in summer I prefer if possible to put my bike or both of our bikes in the back of our car, hatchback with rear seats down and just front wheels off it works ok. Driving through rain just means I'd have to take time cleaning chains, so prefer inside.
of course sometimes you can't though.

ricrunner

In snowy regions we don't salt our roads, you have to use snow chains all the time whilst your there. The main reason they don't salt is contamination of the natural soils in the immediate area. and waterways