katsup

Needing a helmet is also an "if", but do you wear one? Plus, to the average person, a helmet or lycra is a lot more dorky than a plastic spoke protector.

If I have a disc the right size, I'll keep it. This is coming from someone who saw the advantage when my mountain bike derailleur got out of alignment after a fall. I don't like them when they are oversized or broken and will seek a replacement.

Dan333SP

Bad comparison. Crashes can happen on any ride and are usually out of your control (other riders, cars, weather, bad roads, whatever). The helmet could save your life. I know it's saved me on a few occasions, or at least prevented more serious injuries.

Shifting into the spokes only happens when your RD is improperly adjusted or the hanger is bent. If I crash on the right side, I replace the hanger if bent and check the limit screws. Plus, unlike the consequences of getting it wrong when not wearing a helmet, the worst that can happen with no dork disk is jamming your chain and having to replace some spokes. That's better than a skull fracture.

katsup

The bike barely fell over and I didn't think to check the dérailleur with such a minor fall. The worse that can happen is losing control of the bike and crashing. However, I would agree that this is not likely to happen as you aren't going full speed if you are shifting into the largest cog.

I'm just a bigger dork than you with my dork disc and helmet.

Cyclist753

Can I vote 73 more times to keep the race, I mean poll, neck-to-neck?

Jeff of Vt

I forgot about the old steel ones.

It got me thinking... Are there custom dork discs? Dork disc or wheel cover, something shiny and blingy. Gold-colored, intricate patterns, LED lights, whatever. I would actually buy some wheel bling, whether it's a dork disc or wheel cover. No, not something professional and cool looking like those TT discs. No, something gaudy and flashy. I want the bicycle equivalent of hub cabs and beauty rims.

Dan333SP

I mean, I don't care if people keep them on their bikes, I just like the aesthetics of not having one on my bike. I crashed a few years ago and thought, "I definitely hit my hanger, but it looks straight", so I tried shifting into the biggest cog after sorting myself out. Chain went right over the cog and into the spokes and jammed, had to replace all of the drive side spokes and the RD hanger. Lesson learned, but I did sort of anticipate it so I was pedaling very slowly and that's the only time in ~50k miles where this has occurred for me.

MoAlpha

If they were made of carbon-reinforced polymer and sold by makers of expensive gear with prominent logos, they'd be popular.

Deal4Fuji

They make good bird feeder trays


I keep the metal ones

Fendertele

Came back from a ride this morning and rays of sunshine were glistening off the cassette. Then I noticed the dork. I knew immediately, and the dork knew, this was his last roll. Snip, snip, snip and it was gone. In my view the cassette area is a fine work of engineering and machining that doesn’t deserve to be tainted by this piece of plastic. By most accounts it will likely weather and eventually break off anyway.
Thanks for the input. Point well taken to ensure the RD is properly adjusted.

bobwysiwyg

+1

one4smoke

What is accomplished by removing it, other than it being gone?

MinnMan

This does not address the wisdom of having a dork disc, but just sayin - none of the many regulars on my group rides has one, and if some new person shows up with one, I silently assume that this is a person without a lot of road experience, and I keep my distance from them in the pace line.

indyfabz

In theory, you look less like a dork. In reality, for some the drop in dorkiness will be imperceptible.

MoAlpha

If I "ran" a dork disk, it would function like one of those animal secondary sex characteristics, like the peacock's tail, which serve no purpose other than attraction, actually detract from purely physical fitness, and signify a surfeit of vitality and coolness simply by their awkwardness.

Lemond1985

I think the word you are searching for, is "foreskin".

MoAlpha

What's that?

Lemond1985

Today's word of the day, to be added to the auto-censor. Come on, only 171,472 words in the English language to go.

sheddle

weren't kickstands mostly removed/replaced with centerstands because the "traditional" placement of them could cause frame damage if people sat or leaned on the bike with the stand engaged? IIRC it caused stress to be put on the frame in a way it wasn't designed to handle

Miele Man

The so called dork disc is like an insurance policy = you hope you never need t but if you do you're really glad you had it. If a chain for whatever reason goes past the largest cog then a "dork disc" saves the spokes from being gouged and then later breaking.

Cheers

edscott.

If your bike actually needs it, either the rear derailleur is incorrectly adjusted or is not hanging in a correct vertical.

If you just like how it looks, then it's your bike.

Reynolds 

Remove it, except if it's one of these:

Kahsyrbag

Look up bicycle moon discs.

Duragrouch

Yeah, that's what I thought. UNTIL I did a bit too fast of a shift to low while climbing a hill and the chain jumped over the big cog and JAMMED between it and the spokes. Tore up the spokes, source of subsequent spoke failures, all on the drive side so impossible to replace on the road. Now, I have dork discs on all of my bikes. I favor plastic, and just big enough in diameter to do the job. Not big enough to prevent a super bent long cage derailleur from getting in the spokes, more of a chain guide in case the chain jumps the big cog.

I've also had the chain jump the small cog, and on my bike the spacing there is perfect for the chain to jam there too, and I don't have quick releases for an easy unjam (by choice, an urban bike, I use nut axles for slightly improved anti-theft, but mostly because adjusting the wheel bearings is so much easier and bearing preload stays more consistent). So I've pondered if there is a cluster lockring that is thicker or has a step to prevent that. I thought of putting a spacer behind the cluster, even bought one, but that greatly reduced lockring thread engagement to a point that I thought compromised things, so I didn't go through with it.

hagak

Sounds more like you need to fix your RD, most likely just the limit screws, but you could have a something bent or loose. I shift my gears extremely fast under load and never had this issue as do many many other riders.

GlennR

You need to adjust the high/low limit screws.

I've never seen the disc on GC or sprinter's bike so are you saying you shift faster than they do?