I happened to be looking at my bike, which has mostly been sitting in my living room due to the 5-10 degree temps here in Indiana, and noticed this clear plastic guard on my back wheel. It is off center. I tried messing with it for a while but can't really get it to stay where it should. Is this even necessary?

if you don't know what it is, don't mess with it.

That is commonly referred to as a dork disk. It helps to keep the chain from damaging the spokes if your chain comes off on that side. Not needed if your RD is set up properly. Still if you don't have it accidents can happen and you ruin a few spokes. I don't run them on any of my bikes.

Welcome to BF!

The dork disc? Nope, not necessary at all.

Just be sure the RD limit screws are adjusted to prevent the RD from hitting the spokes -- as it should be.

It sounds like the little plastic tabs that hold it in place are broken and it'll be rattling around anyway.

Yeah, the mounting tabs on those plastic ones always break, allowing it to rattle around annoyingly. That's why yours is off center, and if not rattling now, will be soon. It's unnecessary on a properly adjusted drivetrain, which is not hard to do. I'm sure there's a Youtube video on derailleur adjustment if you want to do yourself, or just have a shop check; you can cut off (or pull cassette) to remove any time, just be careful when shifting to the large cog, or avoid it altogether until you confirm stops are adjusted.

If it's not causing any problems, then leave it alone. It could prevent a big problem.

It's called a dork disc for a reason. Play frisbee with it.

Spoke protectors are "uncool", but serve a purpose.

A. Leave it alone
B. Take it off
C. Replace it with a better one.

aren't you just supposed to burn it off with a torch?

Burning it off is the proper dork way of removing it. Using shears is the lame way. Removing the cassette to remove it is the intelligent way, but hey, this IS Bike Forums...

Leave it there - it will help prevent damage to spokes or rear derailleur.

Correct.

Remove Cassette , first, .. then you have easy access to remove it or replace it with one that is Un Broken.

Spoke protectors cope with a poorly maintained Bike , falling on the RD bends the hanger and the RD can Go into the spokes .

Keep it set with inner stroke Limit screw , set properly & dont let the bike fall on the right side and It May be OK without it.

Upgrade immediately to an ultra-lightweight carbon fiber disc. The more expensive the better.

Is it a disk or a disc? I am thinking disk.

Whenever i buy a new bike that's already built that piece of plastic is one of the first things i rip off and fling in thebtrash....maybe the only thing depending on what condition the bar tape is in...

Do you keep the wheel reflectors??

Hmmm, i cant recall the last bike i bought that still had those on it...

But yeah those defintely gotta go too...i have night lights that are super bright for my bikes...no need for the reflectors...

If the pros used them then everyone would think they were cool haha

You may not recall and/or the shop could have taken them off for you, but the CPSC requires them to come installed on all bikes that are sold as complete units in the U.S. So if you bought a complete bike, they were shipped with the bike.

You can leave the dork disc, b/c we all look pretty dorky on our bikes no matter what we do. Accept your dorkiness.

BTW i remove mine. I'm living in denial.

I'm thinking that if you can't retrieve audio and/or video information by bouncing a laser off of it, it's "disk."

They come with the latest U2 album on them now