Dork Disc Advocacy - Counter Arguments in support of the humble spoke guardian 

If you've ever tried to pull your chain out from between your spokes and low gear and dealing with bloody knuckles you will become a fan of the dork disk.

For the average person, especially the majority that defer maintenance and don't work on their own bikes, dork discs are an asset. I personally remove them because I am confident in my ability to stay on top of the adjustment to prevent the chain from overshifting. All my mountain bikes have clutched derailleurs, so very little chain bouncing. I do have a couple vintage mountain bikes with them still attached which I have left there for originality. My favorite is my old Cannondale which had a cool looking dork disc. It had kind of a turbine pattern embossed with the Cannondale lettering. I also like that it's black plastic instead of clear. I am also a fan of stainless steel or aluminum dork discs you'd see on bikes up until the early 80's. Those are just classy!

I like being a dork! I leave it on e-bikes. That is a lot more energy if it comes off. It gives me good humor when people see it.

I myself used them on my beginner bikes when i had zero knowledge on bicycle drivetrains. It does serve a purpose when someone isnt willing to work at all on a bicycle and just wants to ride. It's also "Good Insurance " to have on a bicycle with the lower end Derailleur.

I had a stick throw my chain off into my spokes. I am a believer that a dork disk would've saved my hands that day. Dork disk is now my ride or die buddy

What I find interesting is that no one would scoff at using a (K-Edge) front derailleur chain catcher, yet a spoke protector is unfairly called a dork disc. Both serve to protect something; a wheel or frame. The "bad" thing about spoke protectors is that they are generally only available to fit common freewheels or a few cassette hub types. If your bike has less common hub flange diameters, you can't get a protector unless it is one of the useless ring style ones that do absolutely nothing. Maybe if someone stepped up to make carbon fiber spoke protectors they might become accepted by bike snobs.

If you adjust the limit screw, that thing is just uglyness on your bike, but if you have no idea what you are doing with the derailleur, then it's a thing that does the thing all while looking ugly and making a scratching noise while being rubbed with by the chain.

I keep mine as a back up and I like the look of a clear dork disk and they are cheap to change out.

Me being 54 and have been riding since I was in kindergarten, I've had different types of bikes over the years so I see and understand the purpose of the dork disk, do I think they are necessary? On a properly maintained street bike I don't think they are necessary, on a mountain bike that is a hard maybe. If you have a good derailleur and maintain your bike then it's not necessary, if it's a cheap derailleur then leave it on till you can upgrade to a better derailleur

I use one on my leisure/gravel bike, I always remove them from my mountain bike before the mountain does.

I'm happy to be a "dork" and have that added insurance to avoid/minimise the damage that can happen without one. Dork disc for the win 👍

The only reason I removed the dork disks from my Dahons was because they got discolored and cracked up after I cleaned each bike with general purpose cleaning agents for the first time. Both of my Treks from the 2014 model year still have their dork disks because they seem to be of better quality than the ones that came with the Dahons; even though I had cleaned the Treks with the same cleaning materials several times, their dork disks still look pristine. Besides, clear composite dork disks scream 1980s coolness! 👖👕👟😁

I don't use them. I've never had an issue with my chain dropping off the rear, but it can happen. If somebody decides they want to keep the "dork disc" in place, that doesn't make or break how they ride. Everybody drops a chain at some point.

I used dork discs for years. Decided to leave it off my new build. Sure enough bent my hangar and guess where chain went?😅

Never had wheel chain suck back in the days of "non-clutched" derailleur once the stops were adjusted correctly. It always happened while adjusting the stops. Granted the chain can bounce around but it will pull out the moment you pedal forward. The chain would have to ounce off the bottom of the of the cassette to be pulled into the wheel. Only issue was front chain drop and it would suck into the space between the bottom bracket and crank. Cable tension wont cause it either as that just affects indexing between the stops

I worked for a shop for 6 years and I test road a lot of bikes from cheap to pro level bikes. I am not saying it never happened but it was close to never happening with a tuned Shimano even at the low end. Now same cant be said for some of the shity ebay china bikes (yes I know all bikes are made in china but I am sure you have seen them). If you are spending one day a year checking your bike and just learning some easy basic bike tuning you will be golden and save your self loads of money and time if not you should be looking to get a basic bike tune at a price close to $60-80 (not counting the price of any parts or extra work thats just a break and gear adjust and spoke check (maybe with 1-5 spokes replaced if needed)). So really stay away from no name brands and do a check up at least once a year but id say every 6 months or more if you ride every day or once a week. Most the times I have seen something happen with a rear derailer is when they bend the derailer or the hanger and it jams it into the spokes but most time the disk isnt big enough to help and just get in the way. This is after 6 years of working on 5-6 bikes a day on a wide range of bikes.

Well - I just replaced a rear 7 speed freewheel on a 30 year old bike and replaced the old cracked yellowed "spoke protector." Do I feel bad about it? No. Did I need it? I believe in Murphy's law.

No worries here. Go retro, Go single speed.

Any recommend brands of 3 or 4 prong dork discs? When they get loose and rattle it is pretty annoying.

I'm a fan of dork disk, I have an old Spalding bike with a stainless steel dork disk.

I am very much against spoke protectors on my own bikes but my customers, it's almost mandatory with how much they neglect their bikes. Especially on E-Bikes, the damage can be *horrendous*, and about a third of our customers dont even realize that laying 50-60lb e-bikes on top of their drivetrain isn't the best idea. Ugh.

I've had a lot of bikes, also worn out a lot of drivetrains. I remove extra parts and the dork disc is one that gets tossed. With or without it chains can fail, and fall where they don't belong, and worse. Lately I replace chains as they stretch also replace the cassettes and chainrings as they wear. With the clutch, there are still times where the chain comes off or goes sideways because of a stick.

I keep them on my bikes, they have done their job a few times. I do wish they were a little more attractive though than a plain clear disc that gets discolored.

Don't know why they even come on the bike, eventually they start to break and cause friction,

The only time I’ve ever sent a chain into the spokes it was because the derailleur hanger snapped. The bike had a dork disk on it, but the chain jumped right over it.

Bike Farmer is known for two things; e-begging and promoting dork disc

Disc doesn't bother me, it is what it is.

I noticed most DD break super easy.

A nice new clear dork disk isn't too bad however I've seen the chain get stuck down there even when using one. On the other hand nothing is uglier than an aged yellow cracked or chunks missing dork disk! I remove them personally.

I never had an issue.... until I did and destroyed my derailer. They will never be removed again.

Spray paint them cool colors so they don't become yellow and dirty looking

"EVEN IF" everything is adjusted properly, they don't stay adjusted properly. Also, the cable stretches. Few people, especially me, have the patience to check and adjust everything every ride or every other ride or even once a week. The limit screws aren't lock-tighted in either. They can turn. Bikes vibrate.

It is very simple, if you are a Dork use the Dork disc. If you are not don’t use a Dork disc!

If they actually made a dork disc that would hold up. Such an important safety feature they should over build them. Yes, I’ve had chains fall off and derailleurs go into the spokes. So they do have a purpose. Chains do bounce on trails, things do happen and things get destroyed even if low and high limits are correctly set. I haven’t had any of these issues in decades however. Modern quality group sets seem to have less of these issues until they don’t lol. If it’s gonna happen it will on a decent in the lowest gear or lowest gear on Rocky Rutty terrain. So upshift a few gears at the top of the climb and avoid lowest gear on super rough stuff when possible.

In my 50 years of riding, one time, I saw some poor guy (who refused my help, lol) his old UV degraded dork disk, broke and wedged his freewheel and turned his bike into a intermittent fixie 🤣 Score one for the no dork team.

Yes leave it on. I don't. But you should.

I think useful but hideous. I remove when upgrading as less likely to have issues then. But leave on stock bikes.

dork discs are .... for dorks. Riding for decades and that crap has always been the first I tear off ( together with reflectors which they are forced to sell with the bike, but which would fall off on a trail anyway and then it's ( sharp ) plastic pieces on the trail.

What if the wheel manufacturers started the dork disc phrase to boost sales...

Leave it until its a problem then remove it

Everyone to their own, I've removed mine on my Polygon Syncline C5 but if beginners want to leave their's on thats fine 🚴

A properly adjusted derailleur won't go into the wheel. You smack it on something on the trail, it may not stop it from going in, but I'd still rather have it than not. Would probably rather have a thin aluminum disk instead over the cheap plastic.

I don't like em