Had an unexpected faceplant today whilst bedding a new set of brakepads down a very gentle slope. Got up to find my rotor tacoed and big damage to my hub and fork from the warped disc. I have been using it for the past 4 months with no issues and it was true and rotating in the correct direction when the failure happenedBrake pads were intact so still cant work out htf it self destructed!!

[img]http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6188/6069215771_61fe94c78b.jpg[/img]

might straighten got an adjustable spanner?? 😀

propper job .

anything bodily broken ?

Those pads must’ve been good!

saw something similar with another rotor last week, a few rotor bolts had gone walkabout and the rotor moved into the calliper causing a very similar looking fail. Was the damage to the hub a result of the accident of did the hub crack at the rotor bolts causing the fail?

Any idea which snapped/broke first – the rotor bolt mount or the rotor ‘face’ itself?

I’ve been using these (203/180/160) for a couple of years now with no issues.

Whats the burn marks on the tightest bit of the kink? Something weld itself to something?

They were Superstar pads 😯

Broken wrist and sore neck (smashed helmet obviously saved my bonce)

Rotor surface definately failed first, the ripped section was caused by the warped disk jamming on the underside of the caliper.

Think its just dirt and camera angle SBZ.

You going for compo from Ashima?

Na, call off the lawyers, shit happens.

looks like a good bit of modern art- id stick that on the mantle piece 😉 –

*later the missus would probably throw it in the bin 😉

id stick that on the mantle piece

I’ll put it in the classifieds, still some life in it 😉

I think that’s best described now as a ‘trophy rotor’!

Hope you heal quick buddy.

That rotor looks a state, eh?

I almost bought two of those 😯

decided against as I thought it looked a bit flimsy.

hope you heal up soon.

I would definitely return it to Ashima – they may be interested in such a failure, although they may well blame it on incorrectly torqued fixing bolts or other such bollo888. In their shoes I would seriously think about beefing up the spokes, as the whole braking surface has rotated around the hub fixings. Nasty. You should at least get Ashima to contribute towards a new hub.

Healing vibes though – not a good way to end the day

1st glimpse of picture 2 and it was obvious that rotor was going anti-clockwise.

Which would be the wrong direction IMO.

And looking at the arrow it was indeed going that way – is this one of the rotors with the arrow pointing the wrong way?

Looks to me like a perfect example of a lightweight rotor buckling due to rotating the wrong way – I’ve been warning people that would happen but people didn’t seem to believe me. May I use your pictures in future to show people what can happen?

PS are you okay? Looks very nasty.

Aye, looking at pic 2 it does seem to be one of the older ones with the arrow pointing the wrong way.

Just one small point…

Which way round did you have the rotor mounted?

Looks to me like the rotor was fitted the wrong way round. ie. with the outside edge of the rotor “spokes” trailing the inner edges.

I know a while ago Ashima made a big thing about the fact the rotors should be fitted with the outside edges of the “Spokes” leading the inner as it rotated forwards. Seems that it might well have been for this very reason!

EDIT: Beaten to it…

See the post by Barbus here: http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/ashima-airrotors-anyone-tried-them

You definitely have grounds to take them to the cleaners I would say.

Feel free Andy, I always thought the arrow was counterintuitive to the design also but went with the manufacturers direction.

mboy, disc was fitted in accordance with direction arrow

Initially, Ashima had recommended running the AiRotors in a reverse direction in comparison to other rotors, so instead of the struts rolling against the direction of rotation they go with it. The reasons were that the AiRotors lightweight struts perform significantly better under tension, since under compression, they are subject to bending forces. After some more research and analysis, Wayne decided that the normal rotor direction performed better, so “reverse was worse”.

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cheers. saved copies for future arguments! I might exaggerate your injuries, your widow said you were a lovely guy 😀

Do you have house hold insurance with legal cover? That would be my first call in the morning. Do you have a receipt? They really should have done a big recall on those – really is a potentially fatal/cripling mistake.

Have a reciept, it was one of the large online retaillers who supplied them, maybe old stock?

It feels a bit harsh to instantly suggest going the legal route instead of contacting them but this kind of ‘error’ really irks me and you (and they) were lucky (just reading about that rider killed in Scotland) and I’d want some advice on how best to approach them to get the damage paid for. Plus you also need to know who you approach first. I am guessing the retailer but I don’t do legal stuff.

I saw some printed recall notices in EBC way back when, don’t know how much they’re obliged to do, although you’d think the retailers might have been a little more pro-active..

Dug, if you fancy some hillwalking with a fellow cycling convalescent then give us a shout.

if you fancy some hillwalking with a fellow cycling convalescent then give us a shout

I may take you up on that offer 😀

:0

Heal quick.
Scary light part on vital braking system fail….

disc was fitted in accordance with direction arrow

Have just looked closer at the picture, and so it was!

They did change the arrows on later rotors to point the other way I recall…

Really hope you heal quickly. I for one, even though I can’t stand the “where there’s blame there’s a claim” culture would be putting in a polite email to them, followed up by a call to a solicitor, to at least find out where you stand on this. “Not fit for purpose” springs to mind, but seeing as we know they changed the design after the rotor that you bought cos they found they had problems, but did not recall the old ones knowing them to be defective, you have reasonable grounds to expect some compensation IMO.

P.S. Did you ever sell those Pro-Lite wheels you had in the classifieds a couple of months back? I sent you an email a while ago, but no response…

aye. just get yourself some advice on how to go about it. I would want to have my bike put back how it was before the part failure.

Not sure how they stand if they issued a recall – this is what you need proper advice on.

I did mboy, apologies, thought I responded to all the sale emails.

When they first came out a couple years ago I remember people complaining then of them bending, here’s a thread on MBNW about it happening >>

http://northwalesmtb.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=kit&thread=2716&page=1

and a review of them on MTBR where it was stated in an update that they should be installed and run in the same way as other brake rotors, the opposite of the direction arrow on the OP’s rotor

http://reviews.mtbr.com/blog/ashima-airotor-review/3

Occams razor.

You change the pads. the brakes fail. Something that occurred during the pad change caused the failure.

Edge of pad catching n one of the holes?

TJ it was all double checked before I left to ride and the pads and retaining spring are intact so the failure appears to be disc related.

If you changed the pads and then the brake failed occams razor tells us that the changes you had made led to the failure in some way

occams razor ?

Not necessarily, the failure may have occurred anyway due to fatigue in the rotor over a period of time and todays ride was when it was going to give up regardless of pad replacement. (In fact the original Shimano pads were more powerful than the replacements)