Stupid question about washing my bike

[Zinfan]

I took out the El Rey on Monday and ran into some muddy conditions that required a bike cleaning. As I was finishing up I decided to use my air compressor to blow out some of the water that I couldn't get to with a towel. It was only afterwards that I thought perhaps the air was also blowing the water farther into the pivot areas, something I'm sure isn't desired. Should I stop blow drying my bike with the air? I hate to leave the water sitting there but don't want to shorten the life of the pivots either.

Oh and thank goodness for the El Rey and it's ability to get me through miles of damp sandy conditions, sometimes if felt like riding in wet cement. I also loved the way it allowed me to drag my carcass up the 1900 ft elevation gain. No matter what speed (mostly dead slow) I wanted to go the bike just seemed planted on the climb and never seemed to be trying to drag me backwards like my old bike felt.

[Internal14]

All the seals on a bicycle are meant to shed water while the bike is standing verticle.
Pressure washing, and compressed air 'blow-drying' is a great way to erode the bearing condition.
Blowing the water out of the chain is ok, just keep it away from the cassette body and BB when you're blasting away.

[DieselAndDust]

I don't clean my bikes at all, unless I have to do some maintenance. I figure, what's the point... they'll only get dirty again. But when I do wash my bikes... I set my water hose to a light sprinkle of water, to wet... not blast clean. Then I use three different sized soft brushes to knock off the wet dirt. Then I hand wash with a very mild soapy water and rinse with a sprinkling hose and hand dry with a towel. Then I ride in the neighborhood to bounce off remaining water and let it air dry... no pressured water or air at all.