>>1216353be careful with the hose.
you don't want high pressure (blasting the faucet, thumb over the hole, or a sprayer gun attachment) anywhere near your bearings: headset, hubs, bottom bracket. there's grease in there and if you wash it out, you can't see because you have to disassemble the part to see/replace. It'll fuck the bearings which in turn will eventually fuck the parts themselves.
Just cut the faucet on enough to get a decent flow going and let it flow over the bike top to bottom and then it doesn't really matter if it gets near those parts, the water won't force its way inside. use a soft brush to brush away grime on the frame and rinse. If you absolutely must blast off some grime, point the spray away from those areas but a brush works better anyhow.
other than the drivetrain, cleaning doesn't affect performance much, I don't guess. the dirt on the drivetrain is attracted to and stuck to the lube, which water won't wash away, so spraying on some degreaser is going to clean it better. brushing it with water is just going to spread it around
>wipe the chain dry to prevent it from rusting, that's good. the WD in WD40 stands for Water Displacement and can help get the internal surfaces. but as a lube, it sucks, so also use a real lube afterward if you go that route
>and relube the chain when neccesaryyou need to re-lube every single time after cleaning. it only takes a second.
the pulleys on the RD are always caked with black shit, I pinch a rag on the exposed edge and work the crank backwards to spin them. you really have to pinch the rag.
for rim brakes on wet days, road spray kicks up grit onto your rims and then when you brake, the grit sticks to the pads and eats your rim, so always rinse the pad surfaces, ideally before the road spray can dry (when you reach destination, squirt your water bottle in there a little, then around the rim.) If it's dried on, disengage brake and brush and rinse grit off next time you're doing the whole bike.
