Looks shiny, use the aluminium core to conduct heat away from the braking suface, then instead of cooking the aluminium core, radiate it away from the fins.

Think i’ve seen some images of melted icetech cored rotors somewhere.

Think i’ve seen some images of melted icetech cored rotors somewhere.

Yea, a few people have problems.

Catch 22, do you become a better rider, brake less and not need better rotors, or do you buy better rotors and run the risk of melting them. My hunch would be that if you can melt ice tech rotors, you’d have fading or boiling issues with normal ones anyway.

Similarly I’d not run ice-tech rotors on the commute or cross bike, the braking surface is way too thin to be durable in crappy conditions.

bollocks, why are they specced on mtbs then?

My mtb gets a clean when it’s dirty, my commuter. Um. It gets a clean occasionally.

I’m surprised they aren’t looking at bigger discs on road bikes to give a bigger heatsink TBH.

I think it’s safe to say airflow would be usually much greater due to faster forward and rotational speed..?

Edit : ignore me, I didn’t realise that the Freeza rotors are CL only. How annoying.

Similarly I’d not run ice-tech rotors on the commute or cross bike, the braking surface is way too thin to be durable in crappy conditions.
bollocks, why are they specced on mtbs then?

Prob because there’s a performance benefit for some at the risk of some reduced lifespan but you’d replace a rotor once the surface has shown noticeable wear compared to the spokes anyway, ice-tech or std rotor. For a cross or commuter bike, why would you need ice-techs in the first place?
I’d just fit a 180 std rotor on the front if durability and heat was a concern, more surface area per wheel rev.

bollocks, why are they specced on mtbs then?

Because (as JamesO says) they’re better at what they’re designed to do.

But the steel surface is quite a bit thinner than even I’d (as a penny pinching northerner) let a solid rotor wear by.

I’ve got 2 sets of ice-tech rotors, both bought aftermarket so I knew the limitations (poorer life, chance of melting) and feel they’re a good compromise in the hot/dry. Not much use for them in the wet and mud so I stick cheaper rotors on my SS and swap the ice techs for solid rotors in winter.

The difference between “decending the Alps on a heavy full susser” and a road bike, is the FS bikes loses a lot of energy to the ground/shock. On the road you have none of that, so the brakes do a lot more work. Also the speeds are generally higher, even on a DH track most people probably average 20mph though anything technical (where you’d need to be braking), on a road bike any chimp can hit 40mph downhill without breaking a sweat.

Not saying you need 203mm rotors, but bigger rotors, or rotors with more cooling capacity do have their place on the road. Similarly I’d not run ice-tech rotors on the commute or cross bike, the braking surface is way too thin to be durable in crappy conditions.

Surely on a road bike if you are braking you are doing it wrong 😉 I am not a road cyclist but do you not also use your body drag by sitting up in a brake dragging situation? I can see why a long drag or brake from high speed would put a lot of cooling requirements into a road bike brake though, I just expected there to be more scope for predicated and managed braking (after all most roadies will be used to rim brakes where abuse is wearing out your expensive wheels) and using your body drag than mountain biking where you might have to brake suddenly and very sharply and staying composed on rough terrain dominates body position etc.

I have turned a brake disc blue on my mtb up on a road section near rivington when a tractor pulled out in front of me with a plough on the back though.

As for the thin metal then surely gritty mtb is the worst place for them but good point about them and that is why I chose not to get them (apart from me not needing them). Larger discs make more sense than fancy dissimilar metal sandwiches which have thin braking surfaces and failure of the disc on a road bike would be very nasty indeed. There might be a very slight increase in weight but i think there are plenty of places to lose weight that make more sense than brakes, especially if you do ride somewhere with big descents. If you ride in Norfolk then stick the smallest brakes you can find on!

Yes, but the energy going in (worst case) is far far greater. You still need to store it all somewhere before you can dump it to atmosphere.

Surely on a road bike if you are braking you are doing it wrong I am not a road cyclist but do you not also use your body drag by sitting up in a brake dragging situation? I can see why a long drag or brake from high speed would put a lot of cooling requirements into a road bike brake though, I just expected there to be more scope for predicated and managed braking (after all most roadies will be used to rim brakes where abuse is wearing out your expensive wheels) and using your body drag than mountain biking where you might have to brake suddenly and very sharply and staying composed on rough terrain dominates body position etc.

Whilst sitting up to slow down is useful in a group, it’s not something you’d do to have significant effect on a decent, you still need to brake for corners. And when you do it’s a lot more energy than on an MTB.

That and if you are braking you are doing it wrong is a bit like saying Sam Hill can ride the Fort Bill track in sub 5 minutes with 180mm rotors so why do people ride trail centers ever need 200mm ones? What the Pro’s do, and what Joe Blogs does are going to be very different. I suspect that Joe will drag his brakes down decent to keep his speed sensible, Contador won’t! In the same way you (comparatively) rarely see pro’s melting the repair patches off tubes due to the heat from rim brakes.

Like Disks themselves, ice-tech/freeza is a development, you don’t have to use it, but it’s probably a marginal gain over conventional disks, which are probably a gain over rim brakes for Joe Blogs.

andyl – Member
I am not a road cyclist but do you not also use your body drag by sitting up in a brake dragging situation?

yes, sitting up into the wind will slow you down a bit, but sit up enough to make the most of it and you can’t reach the levers properly – they’re down in the drops…

dirtyrider – Member
why are they (ice tech rotors) specced on mtbs then?

the name ‘ice tech’ is really cool, and we’re total mugs for that kind of thing.