How often to lubricate/rub clean chain? Rock'n'roll lube

I commute a similar distance weekly and what you're doing sounds about right to me, and in the worst case, what you're doing won't hurt. I ride the same amount on my commuter and in times past I used to be as diligent as you.

Nowadays I lubricate my chain rather infrequently (bi-monthly maybe?) with the exception of rides that are wet enough where the water permeates the chain causing a) the existing lube to dissipate and b) the potential for resting water to then cause rust.

With the weather being more in the latter, being overly cautious will definitely extend the life of your parts but as a general rule of thumb, in my experience, my chain and cassette need to be replaced every 2,500 miles (4k km give or take) or in otherwords, every 6 months for people who ride like us. And that's being abusive with the stop and go (i.e. stop then stomp).

I guess my point is that riding as much as you do even with routine cleaning and lubrication there's only so much time before your chain will stretch and the teeth on the corresponding cassette will sort of bed with the chain which will eventually lead to slipping.

If you're super diligent on your cleaning these symptoms will manifest themselves a little sooner because you're cleaning out the typical junk that, yes wears down your parts over time, but also plays the somewhat contradictory role of extending the practical use of daily rider parts by boosting the tolerance at which your drive train functions. For example, on more then one occasion giving an otherwise operation yet dirty bike a thorough cleaning has required a full cassette/chain replacement because the grime free parts became less forgiving, or "tolerant", when rotational force was applied to the crank.

tldr; everything you're doing is great and in all honesty you could even do a little less and still be in great mechanical shape

/r/bikewrench Thread