【AD】The spoke protector is a transparent disc part attached to the rear wheel.

It seems to be attached to prevent the chain from falling inside the sprocket and getting entangled with the spokes.

On the Internet, there are the following opinions.

If the rear derailleur is well adjusted, the chain will not fall off, so there is no problem without spoke protectors.

It’s not cool with the transparent disk spoke protectors.

However, the exterior gear mama bicycles on the street do come with them, for example, the Giant Escape R3 and Condent 2 come standard. Also, in the US it seems to be a legal requirement to install them. We think the spoke protector is to prevent the chain from coming off the inside of the bike and causing injury or even death.

Added on 5/29/2021

I still hold the opinion that it is safer to have spoke protectors on.

However, after I started to adjust the rear derailleur (Shimano RD-2300) of my road bike () by myself, I think that if the low side is well adjusted, the possibility of the chain getting caught in the spokes may be very low. Because it doesn’t move to the spoke side even if you operate the lever.

So, I’m insisting on it, but I haven’t added it now.

(But if for some reason the chain should for some reason get caught in the spokes and cause an accident, I might say that it’s safe to put on spoke protectors just in case it hurts…)

After a while ・・・・

Conversely, the spoke protectors came off on my 16″ folding bike (Dahon EEZZ D3) to protect the spokes from the chain, causing the chain and rear derailleur to become entangled and preventing the cranks from turning.

When I noticed the abnormality, I was riding slowly and I heard a strange noise from behind. When I shifted gears, I could not turn the crank because the spoke protectors were tangled. I can turn the crank depending on the number of steps. After I came home, I destroyed the protector with a tool.

So far, the rear derailleur seems to be adjusted so I don’t have to worry about it coming in contact with the spokes. I’ve learned the lesson that if the spoke protectors aren’t secured properly, it’s dangerous when they come off…