I have some Hayes 9's and have fitted 160mm XT rotors but I cannot (or the LBS) for the life of me get the bloody things to stop rubbing. The brakes have just been bled so I am wondering if Hayes rotors may be a bit 'thinner' as the XT ones do seem quite thick.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Anyone?

My memory is not 100% on this, it was a few years ago, but I seem to remember measuring up a few rotors with a Micrometer…

Bear in mind this may all be complete tosh now, as each company might be using different thicknesses, but the Shimano Rotors I measured were bang on 2mm thick, Hayes 2mm thick again, Hope 2mm thick… Only rotor that was thicker was a Magura at approx 2.4mm thick iirc.

If you're brakes are constantly rubbing, it's nothing to do with rotor thickness anyway, as they should be self adjusting… Is the rotor buckled at all? Are you sure you've got the caliper on straight? Have you pushed the pads all the way out and then pumped the lever back up?

Yup, all done but cannot get them to stop, I thought about new pads but the fronts are not that worn so I wonder what good that would do….

are they new splined xt rotors by any chance? if they are then the alloy spider on the rotor catches the hayes caliper.

Sticky pads? Sand the paint off the edges to stop them sticking in the calliper and not retracting properly – I have found it makes a difference on occasion – as does bleeding the system and doing the pump the piston out and clean it with a cotton bud routine to stop the pistons sticking.

Of course all that may not help – setting up recalcitrant disk brakes is a black art

corroded hayes caliper causing pistons to not retract far enough? Very common,

Strip caliper, remove pistons and seals, polish piston bore in caliper, then refit, and bleed.

time consuming and messy but worth it, and makes the pistons retract miles.