How to remove plastic disc / Spoke Protector / Dork Disc from your new bike without the proper tools

We've always wondered what these plastic plates are for..

So they are meant to prevent you from over shifting your chain into the spokes, which can make your chain end up between the cassette and the spokes. No bueno!!!

But either way they look silly, they get old and yellow and they are just NOT COOL!!! so we risk removing it and threaten our spokes moving forward.

Oh and we don't have the proper tools yet. Remember we started MTBing a little over a year ago and don't have every single tool available to us.

So this is what we came up with. It's not the professional way of doing it but hey it'll do for us beginners. Keep in mind heat knife, cut a little and repeat until you get it to cut all the way through. Then just pull it apart like in video.

Hope this helps you if you're tired of your DORK DISC!

[ayemelaa]

So glad I watched this vid before buying all the tools. Cheers lads, worked a treat 👍🏼

[TheCaptainsCog]

Very entertaining. All my friends ride bmx but one buddy has some MTB tools but no MTB. So I borrow his stuff all the time. I used his lock ring tool and took off any dork disc I could see. Now I know what to do when he wants his tools back.

[lg]

Cute, well done little vid! You look like you have a great relationship with your kids!

[Kokoro_watari]

Thanks a lot kid, at first i heated up a knife and just tore the half of the disc then disc was bent and i couldn't know what to do it was so frustrating then i watched ur video grabbed 2 pliers and tore apart the disc and it came of :D thanks u, i am subbing

[hathoundtt]

Thanks for video and idea. Instead of blade and lighter I used my soldering iron to melt the plastic came right off

[jcddracing]

a. AAAAY MORE MTB KIDS!!
b. I literally used a knife with the wheel off before, it was the sketchiest thing I had ever done and I might have dinged up my spokes before, never occurred to be to heat it up

[ShenShen]

Nc tutorial boys this helped me a lot and saved me a lot of time

[ChrisSmith-gtlg]

Ever get your chain stuck behind there? I have when a derailleur failed when hitting a log. It's bad.
Real bad.
Spokes can break and rip out.

[malykemmanuel]

I used a hot knife and hot nail to take mine off and its not easy cuz you have to tear it off

[Me-sf]

I just tryed it on an old Walmart bike and the knife didn't work so i just set it in fire

[ThatAverageMTBer]

Interesting way of taking of the dork disk off

[tellvivk]

The spoke protector is there to prevent the chain from getting stuck in the spoke in case the chain towards the spoke and also somewhat prevents the rear derailleur from getting stuck on the spokes. But yea it looks ugly.

[andykbarr]

I just used my soldering iron to get mine off

[David_R]

You will wish you left it on if your chain ever comes off the cassette. Speaking from experience 😆

[bryanlee]

watched this video after searching how to install freewheel guard disc lol. you shouldn't have taken it off and it's there for some reasons...

[badbattleaxe]

Can’t you just snip it down with a wire cutters?