That little round plastic piece

It's a spoke protector, designed to keep your chain away from the spokes in the event your chain jumps off to the inside of your largest cog. See other recent posts on this topic.

Leave it there. 😉 I am constantly fitting new ones, at about $2.50 each, they save a lot of spoke and chain side plate damage and reduce debris in the cassette.

They go well with black knee-highs and cutoffs...........Just kidding, I leave them on.

OldGoat said:

It's a spoke protector, designed to keep your chain away from the spokes in the event your chain jumps off to the inside of your largest cog. See other recent posts on this topic.

I've searched under spoke protectors. I get 3 topics that don't really give me anything.

gclark8 said:

Leave it there. 😉 I am constantly fitting new ones, about $2.50 each, they save a lot of spoke damage and debris in the cassette.

Why do a lot of cyclist take them off? they barely weigh anything!

dbackmtg said:

I've searched under spoke protectors. I get 3 topics that don't really give me anything.

How about this one from earlier today:
http://www.cyclingforums.com/t391855.html

dbackmtg said:

Why do a lot of cyclist take them off? they barely weigh anything!

It's the Fred factor.

It's called a "dork disc" because "real cyclists" aren't newbie enough to shift their derailer into the spokes. Try a search under that.

I've left mine there, does no harm yet it could potentially save a lot of trouble.

xxamr_corpxx said:

It's called a "dork disc" because "real cyclists" aren't newbie enough to shift their derailer into the spokes. Try a search under that.

I've left mine there, does no harm yet it could potentially save a lot of trouble.

Hi, dork. 😄

It's not that "real cyclists" don't try to shift into their spokes, it's that they use derailleurs that have the limit screws properly setup so they can't shift into the spokes.

Plus I heard from a reliable source that chicks dig dudes without dork disks three to one over dudes with them.

untrue that they come on all bikes -- they will likely be on all bikes under about $400, but that's about it. they reduce the damage done by chains to spokes when the chain falls off the baby ring due to a poorly adjusted rear derailleur.

a few years ago, a reader wrote into mountain bike magazine about these things, and the wiseguy columnist he wrote to had a hilarious answer -- the referred to them as 'big wedgies', and told the reader to get one at any bike shop, they always have them. it was so funny, my buds that i wrench with all call them that now.

just like with kickstands -- 'real' cyclists roll without them. it's like outlaw harley riders rolling w/o helmets...part of the 'clique'.

my last bike to roll the 'big wedgie' was a huffy seven years ago....

OldGoat said:

How about this one from earlier today:
http://www.cyclingforums.com/t391855.html

I wish I would have seen that one. I wouldn't have had to waste everybody's time. I just don't have a great deal of time to sit and look at every posting every day. Even if I saw the post, "Major Newb Question", I would have skipped right over it not thinking it had something about the little plastic thingies.

dbackmtg said:

I wish I would have seen that one. I wouldn't have had to waste everybody's time. I just don't have a great deal of time to sit and look at every posting every day. Even if I saw the post, "Major Newb Question", I would have skipped right over it not thinking it had something about the little plastic thingies.

You hang in there sunshine. You didn't waste anybody's time. 😄