*waves hi* I was around a bit last summer, but school & student teaching kinda kept me busy for the past few months. I've been poking around a bit the last few weeks, though, and finally have a new bike and some rides under my belt

My husband surprised me with a new bike as a graduation present. I shopped around a bit at a few different chain and local stores and settled on a 15" Trek 7.2 WSD -- it's a good fit, but I barely make standover on it (I have no standover space). I've gotten a few good rides in on it -- been to the park on the other side of the highway twice to use their paved paths, hauled it down to Pittsburgh proper on Mother's Day and rode along the river, and ran over to the post office (about a mile away) this evening. I definitely have a lot of work to do to start making some of the longer rides I'm interested in (especially with all of the hills around Western PA), but so far... so good!

And my question -- what kind of cleaning/maintenance should I be doing after rides with my bike? I haven't had any mud or muck to deal with, but I don't want to run into problems down the road if I ignore maintenance / cleaning (and I forgot to ask LBS folks about it when I got the bike). How frequently should chains be lubed, and what kind of chain lube is best for short rides?