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I’d like to maximise lifespan, so cleaning and lubing to avoid grinding sand and grit into these parts makes sense.

Sheldon Brown had a joke article about the proper way to clean a chain, where he completely disassembled it. The serious part was that you can't really clean a chain; any grit that's worked its way inside is most likely going to stay there no matter how many times you rinse and shake it...

My philosophy is to keep on wiping a newly-lubed chain until you're sick of wiping it, and then wipe it some more after riding, until crap doesn't stick to it. Then keep brushing it clean with a towel rag until the next lube.

And if you ride in the wet, have a wet weather bike with mudguards, and using a heavy chain lube like Chain-L. And stay the fuck away from sand.

And replace your chains before 1/2% elongation, if you have expensive chainrings and/or cassettes. Throw the biggest pulleys you can fit in your derailer so you have a longer chain which wears a couple of percent slower.

And if you have a 10s drivetrain, use an 11s chain - same internal width, but the narrower outer width forced a shift from stamped integral bushings in the inner plates to separate pressed-in bushings which thanks to their sharp corners have a larger bearing surface.