Ok, so I was greasing my chain and had asked my girlfriend to spin the wheel for me. I didn't really notice but she had been turning the wheel the wrong way and when i switched gears my chain derailed. Somehow when this happened the guard between my gears and my spokes on my rear wheel came loose. Now when i pedal it makes an annoying noise.

I've never looked at this part with any real consideration so I'm not really sure if its broken or if its just come loose or what it is suppose to look like if it isn't broken. I was wondering if this is something I can quickly fix because of something ive overlooked or if i need to replace it.

The part is just a clear plastic plate, between the gears and the spokes. The plate has four little nubs on the spoke side that are irregular as if there may have been something there, that broke off and, that might have held it in place.

Thanks for the help in advance

Yup. The plastic guard is almost surely broken.

Take off your freewheel and replace the spoke guard.

Yeah thats what i was afraid of, what a pain in the ***.

It could be better with just a little superglue

Don't try to fix it; either replace it or remove it. I remove them from my bikes. I've never thrown a chain into the spokes and I find that they're magnets for dust, dirt and crud.

I suspect that his spoke guard broke because the derailure stops were not adjusted correctly. If he removes the broken spoke guard, then the derailure will go into the spokes and cause unholy hell.

well said mike, i ripped three spokes, nipples and all, out of a rim, plus bent 3 more, when the deraileur "leaped" into the spokes.

Ummm... the plastic guard is hardly long enough to keep a derailleur cage out of your spokes. It is designed to keep the chain out of your spokes, and you won't throw the chain into your spokes if you keep your machine properly tuned.

For those of us who keep our rear derailleur stops properly adjusted and who shift onto the largest cog only when cycling slowly on a long or steep climb, "spoke protectors" are superfluous. (Over 99 percent of the time, my rarely-used inside emergency granny cog serves as my spoke protector.)

Go to www.parktool.com to learn how to properly adjust these "stops" mentioned above. Or, take it to the shop and have them do it for you and while they're at it have them remove the spoke protector(dork disc). It requires a special tool to remove the cassette, but only takes about 2 minutes!

L8R

Actually, I find that, when I shift into my big cog [23t] on a long, steep climb, I'm usually pedalling at 90+ rpm. I like keeping that cadence up.

[Saves my knees.]

When the chain gets caught between the spokes and the freewheel it can jam up and then bend the derailleur.

When you have a bent derailleur, it's completely toast, unrepairable.

Spoke guards are cheap and the LBS will remove the freewheel for free.