pepperbelly

I was riding a local paved trail at a small lake. There is construction around part of it. Besides some water seeping across the path there was a stretch about 40-50 feet along the path with a wet fine silt. It splashed all over the bike. I figure some must have got in the chain.
I hosed it off when I got home. Is that good enough? When it dries I will re-lube it.
I really don’t know all of the places it could get that can cause problems, if it is a problem.

Eric F 

Time for a new bike, obviously.

Or, you're probably fine. I ride my gravel bike and MTB through some pretty dirty/mucky conditions on a regular basis. After I ride, I hose it off, wipe it down, and re-lube the chain. All good. My road bike gets the same treatment when it needs it. The components of a road bike aren't significantly more delicate than those of a gravel bike or MTB. Actually, my first gravel bike was all road components (Ultegra).

pepperbelly

Thanks for telling me what I want to hear!😎

rumrunn6

sometimes I ride sandy areas & it can get kicked up on everything. a few years ago I added straw brushes to my cleaning kit. the kind of brushes ppl uses to clean their water bottle straws. took a while to find some that fit between the small links in the chains. not something I always do, not even annually. but when the needs arises, they are handy to have. when the chain gets mucky I dip the straw brushes in mineral spirits. I'm not going to spray a hose directly onto my chain links. a little splashing is OK

Iride01 

What's the worry? You might have to get a chain a hundred or so miles sooner? Even if you had to get one tomorrow, would that be a problem?

Rick_D

Seems like removing the chain, putting it in a closed container of cleaner, shaking the daylights out of it, rinsing and drying, lubing and replacing would rid it of any particles. Not knowing what minerals comprise the silt it's hard to guess if it would cause accelerated wear.

But it's not as though you were swamping for hours, and mtn bikers deal with this routinely and probably don't do more than a scrub and hose-off. OTOH now that we're in an era of $80 chains and $400 clusters I'm less of a mind to "use it up and toss it" and intermittently give my chains a complete clean off the bike. I appreciate the silence of a clean, lubed chain.

Camilo

You should do it right

The ShelBroCo Bicycle Chain Cleaning System (sheldonbrown.com)

Smaug1

That's all you can reasonably do.
One comment though, I wouldn't wait for it to dry from the hose-down, or you might find it rusty when you get back to oil it. Wipe the water off with a dry rag or paper towel and re-lube it on the spot.

You may want to hose off the pedal bearings too.

ofajen

I ride almost exclusively on crushed stone trails. They are either dusty, muddy or some of both. My bikes are always covered with dust or mud and stuff gets on the chain with every ride. Brush off the dirt and crud or wipe with a paper towel. Add some lube. It’ll be fine! 👍

Otto

pepperbelly

The advice to not wait was way too late. I will just ride and see what happens.
If chain wear accelerates I will replace it sooner than expected. I was worried more about the sprockets.

t2p

Swiffer cloth works great to remove the fine dry dust from the crushed stone trails and similar - much better than paper towel

like riding the crushed stone trails - but the dust can be a turnoff - so much that we avoid the crushed stone trails during dry periods … prefer to ride those types of trails when damp / not long after rain - as opposed to when dry / dusty and then just about everything is covered with fine dust after a ride

ofajen

Thanks. I’ll try out the Swiffer cloths.

I only ride those trails (and connecting routes), to the point that my frame color preference is now based on how well a color matches the trail dust color. 😊

Otto

dedhed

My experience with sandy silt where our river often overflows the trail is that stuff is slicker than ice when wet

t2p

this area can be lottsa fun early day especially if the temps dropped below freezing during the previous evening

pepperbelly

That was the first thing I was concerned about. This stretch was after a slight decline where I had picked up speed and around a blind curve. I knew better than to kit the brakes so I simply lightly oedaled through it in a straight line.
It was wet very fine silt from nearby construction.

Pratt

In my experience, slippery mud is clay. Sand is small quartz grains. Crushed stone may be soft limestone, or hard granite. Clay and limestone are soft enough for the chain and gears to handle. Quartz and granite, on the contrary will eat the drive train.
YMMV

pepperbelly

This stuff was wet and light tan colored. It washed down from a construction site uphill from the trail. It was just fine silt. I managed to clean most of it but I missed some that had been sprayed up under the seat.