I feel mixed about them, and ultimately, my view is shallow. I remove them because they're ugly. But they are useful. Sure, we can argue that all you have to do is maintain your bike properly and you won't need your spoke protector. But like the "other" driver, you can't control your entire environment, and you can't do any job perfectly. So we really should use spoke protectors. But I don't use them, so I'm full of hot air.