How To Remove A Dork Disc From Your Bike | Maintenance Monday

A lot of new bikes come with a spoke guard or spoke protector, commonly referred to as a ‘dork disc’. This plastic disc can help to protect the wheel spokes should you drop your chain, but many people, Ollie included, think it’s ugly and unnecessary. Here he shows you the proper way and a bodge way to remove a dork disc from your bike.

Chapters:
0:00 Intro
0:34 What is a dork disc?
1:14 How to remove a dork disc

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🎵 Music - licensed by Epidemic Sound 🎵
FLACO - Azucares
Doing the Twist - OTE

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[gcntech]

What other maintenance videos would you like to see Ollie & Alex make?

[phillipstivi]

Ollie has this capacity of making even most useless HowTo videos fun and entertaining.

[throx]

I would like to see the UCI introduce them as a required standard, just like low socks.

[dominicbritt]

A very even handed handling of a complex and controversial subject - well done!😁

[jonglass]

a couple observations--somewhat humorous. 1. The fact that this video went from an almost throw-away comment on Thursday's show to a full video on Monday, and 2. at the end, Ollie ripped out a dorky quote from a dorky movie, thus showing his dork credentials. ;-)

[gregvassilakos]

I leave it on for a few years until it starts turning yellow, then it is much easier to snap it into small pieces for removal.

[cra_]

Are aero disc wheels the final evolution of the dork disk?

[ChrisGuarraia]

Oh, my, goodness. The Obi Wan Kenobi quote was absolutely priceless! And also pretty spot on.

[stevengagnon]

As a professional mechanic since 1984 Im fully aware of what the spoke protector does and doesn't do. Yes those stupid rings on high end wheels don't work very well. The most common cause of the overshift is not a poorly adjusted derailleur. It is the derailleur hanger getting bent that is equipped on the majority of bikes sold (high end road bikes are a niche market) those hangers bend very easily and are usually not true by the time the bike is in for a tune up a year later and many of the bikes I work will have evidence of an overshift probably half because it's pretty common. Those 3 and 4 pronged spoke protector do work on alot of normal small and large flange hubs just replace it with a new cassette. Some of those failures can be quite catastrophic to the parts and sometimes the body. But usually goes unnoticed until one of the drive side spokes breaks and then I end up replacing all of that side of the flange by removing them one at at time unthreading, replace and get it up to proper tension onto the next in a staggered rotation. Then after all are replaced wheel truing begins. This process takes as long as a whole wheel build with all new spokes ...many just buy a new wheel. Some just replace the one broken spoke and have the wheel trued (and some of the time I break some more any way truing the wheel) and are back with a new broken spoke later. Too bad they don't make real nice looking ones that actually work for high end wheels...but then again that's a niche market with expensive and high profit margins parts . Cha...Ching ! Oh forgot chash registers don't make that sound anymore. So let's stop calling them dork disks it's insulting and unprofessional. And they do serve a majority of costumers well. Those bikes subject to alot of random stuff and not noticed until the inevitable overshift. Any mechanic that says that it's all about being properly adjusted is full of ....

[Aureas]

I kept mine on as long as bearable, just to troll the overly serious enthusiast at my local club.

[joban]

To be honest I've always just snapped them off like a gorilla.

[pcmjpcmj]

I had such a disc on a new bike and it was immediately spotted by the 'cool' cyclists. I politely asked these knowledgeable oh so cool people how to remove it. They did not have a clue.

[mickchaganis]

And this is why Ollie loves time undercover dork, 700c carbon dork disk 🤪 love you 😁

[lukeerlandson]

Just bought a used bike with a dork disc that had been broken off and subsequently zip-tied back on. Would it be sacrilegious to remove at this point?

[matthewnormand]

It's removed from all of my bikes but I could see how it may have helped when I crashed off road and ever so slightly bent the derailleur hanger. When I tried to get into the biggest cog, the chain went behind it and jammed hard. Damaged a spoke that broke shortly thereafter.

[mikemonohon]

coolest video on bike repair ever heard hahahahaha, truly a classic and near perfectly presented! TY. yea, those tools aren't inexpensive...

[Arachnoid_of_the_underverse]

On a serious note as we head into darker nights, how about effective lighting for riding in the dark i.e. do`s and don`ts what works and what doesnt?

[potatocipollini]

"They'll come after you in World of Warcraft..."🤣

[bladesman]

Proper pisstaking done like a true Sheffielder 🤣

[ianlainchbury]

Is it wrong of me to think..."that's all well and good hacking it off, but where can I buy a replacement? " 😂