Alright... confession time. I still have my dork-disc on my wheel. However, it's pretty small and secure on there so it's not easily seen and has no danger of falling off and becoming litter. You can't even see it from the driveside and it's barely noticable from the other. OTOH, even it's supposedly intended function is negated because it's smaller than my largest rear cog.

Cleanest bike, 1st place. Love those cable routes I saw on your CF.

Can you pleeese take a pic of the offending disc??.. small..

That guy kicks ass! He is number 1 in style.

you rode a bike with WHAT???!?!?!?!?!? A SPOKE PROTECTOR???!?!?!? OMG!!!!!!
You should be baned from these forums for life!

Take a look at the second image. That black ring just between the big cog and the spokes is the protector.

I've never used a spoke protector and now am receiving shots from my doctor. Kids, learn from me.

I have to take mine off to, maybe in the morning...

Ther's no time to wait! It must happen now! Sure it doesn't seem like that big of a deal, but this kind of thing can quickly get out of hand.

Is it necessary that I remind you of this.......
?

i agree.. i read this post earlier.. and then went into the garage and after 3 mins later.. the operation is done.. dork disc gone!

so...what's wrong wit hteh spoke protector thing? i don't get what the fuss is all about ????

Khuon, I still can't see it, smooothest Spoke 'tector on earth,
Khan got WHAT in return for advanced 2220 tech?

... your cyclotronic brain????

I admit the picture isn't very good. I'll snap another one as soon as I get the chance but I'm out of town right now. Anyways, I threw the image into Gimp and tried to highlight the edges. As you can see, the protector is probably meant for a 23T large cog cassette. It barely reaches the edges of my 24T and my 27T overshadows it by a large margin. As such it's really useless but then again you can't see it. Also, it doesn't look as bad as other spoke protectors I've seen and is pretty securely attached (making it hard to remove) thus I just leave it on. Most people never even see it.

I've removed 3 spoke protectors, and they all just slid off the hub when you remove the cassette. Are my bikes weird? Why do y'all have to cut them off?

Cole

We LIKE to cut them off, it's catharsis...

I can not believe how many replies this post has gotten...I feel so much better about my dork self

After reading this thread I decided to take ine off my trek, easy... had to cut off this little paper inser in them though...

Funny thing I never thought about this before because I broke the one on my jekyll the first time out... taking the tire off...

Because we're lazy and didn't want to remove the cassette.

Isn't it harder to break one off than take one off?

Was in the LBS the other day and a guy walks in and asks to buy a spoke protector.... three of us all at once said, "you can have mine". .......you had to be there. (The LBS did sell him one)

Did the LBS try to discourage him?

Hmmm... not sure about that. They're usually only secured to the spokes with a couple of cheesy clips which is why oftentimes they'll just crack and break apart by themselves. All it takes is one cut from outside to inside. It takes me less than a minute with a pair of garden snips (shhh... don't tell my wife) but I'm sure it would take me longer if I had to get out the cassette tool and chain whip.

what in the world is a spoke protector???

An invention by 'Tha Man' to keeps us down, Fight the Power!!
Plastic disc made with bad Mojo.

Blasphemer.....it may be too late for this one?! Nothing wrong with the spoke protector thing....goes great with that chainring tatoo. Someone get the meds.

Oh I think I see your confusion. This is part of an overall concept called "humor", pronounced "hugh mer". "Humor" is sometimes used to make an overall point in a funny way. The original message is part of a humor sub-concept called "parody", which rhymes with .... um.... larody. "Parody" is often a mechanism used to poke fun at a subject, but the object is always to make a salient point.

I can have a pamphlet sent to your house about this if need be.

No ,really, I was really upset. I so want to be cool. I have a Chrome bag...I even duct taped my single speed to make it look mean...and that was an homage to the scene in "Slapshot" where the bus driver uses an ax to bust in the side of a perfectly good team bus...