Checked the rear pads on my commuter over the weekend and noticed they’ve developed a bit of a groove in them, checked the rotors and they’re getting quite thin!

Thought I’d get them replaced before the winter really kicks in, but don’t want to spend much, is there a difference between the ones I can get for a fiver on ebay and the ones that get bundled with cheap tektro brakes?

Or will I die?

The biggest difference I found in off-market brake pads is the variation.
Same pads and some worked really well (say 90% working) and others didn’t….(30% working)

Perhaps it’s more about manufacturing consistency… I might have been lucky and got a 110% set but they a lll started off good then some just seemed to glaze real quick ????

Pads are fine (well not fine but I have spares), it’s the rotor itself I’ve managed to wear out.

I’m thinking the same variation as pads except the cheap ones rust… I have one cheap Clarks I got for spare wheels and it’s rusted and the Shimano/SRAM ones same conditions haven’t.

This is single track only as well, add in salt on roads and ???

180mm Lifeline rotors on Wiggle £5. Work like arotor should.

Edit…linky

That lifeline one would be perfect but I’m only after 140mm. Unless someone comes on with a horror story before lunch time I’ll order one off eBay and see what happens. I’ll report back if I don’t die.

I’ve got a couple of pairs of eBay ‘Avid’ rotors that cost £5 or so a pair from China.
Been fine for a couple of years.

Got 180mm lifeline disc’s front and rear with uber semi metallic and deore calipers. Over a year old absolutely no problems. Bargain.

In a very similar situation to OP, don’t fancy buying another pair of Hope floating rotors for £70 so will give the lifeline ones a try!

TBH non-fancy Shimano discs aren’t expensive and work well. I’ve only ever seen one disc failure in 12 years of riding but it was a very messy affair.

I’ve had a few cheapy rotors off eBay over the years, I’ve had ones I bought unbranded but when they arrived had Avid printed on them, they were absolutely fine.
Only ever had one issue and that was that the disc actually seemed a but thicker than normal, so took a bit of adjustment of the caliper to get things working smoothly.

Sweet, just ordered a 140mm rotor from a UK seller for £3.75, I’ve got a spare 160 in the garage that came with my replacement Clarkes brake for when the front goes, that looks fine for now though.

I think I’m going to have a look at my braking technique, must be dragging the back too much.

I’ve got some of the eBay avid copies on my cross bike and they’ve worked so far, hopefully they don’t fail in a a blaze of grinding sparks this weekend on the 3 Peaks or I might be spending some time in hospital 😆