Chain & Sprocket wear

Thanks for the long reply but there are a couple of points i still don't get:

I might have misunderstood you, but you don't use any oil: you wipe the chain with clean rags and then lube.

By oil i meant lube. I was describing my attempts to follow the method you linked to. It says to rub the chain clean, apply a little lube, work it in, then rub it clean again and repeat until: "When the rag stops picking up black crud the job is done." My problem is that on any chain that has done more than a handful of miles, i never seem to do get to that point. Each time i come to rub off the excess lube it carries a little more contamination out of the chain but it's a process of decreasing returns - after 4 or 5 iterations it is a lot cleaner, but still not actually clean. Does this not happen to you? When do you stop?

It's best to begin with a new chain, but you can twist thin rags or baby wipes into a point to poke between the links or try Bike Floss.

So you really do have the patience to poke rag through all hundred-odd gaps in your chain? To remove all visible contamination before that first lube application?