Brake rotors ; much of a muchness?

I have had too Hope rotors warp on me … looking at new rear rotors at the moment. Are Hope etc much better than the Clarke’ offerings …
I am avoiding the really cheap e bay tat … but is there any real difference…
I will be going down the “floating” rotor route

I will be going down the “floating” rotor route

Why?

Personally I found “acceptible” rotational play in a braking surface horrible. And the fact that it increases with use completely unacceptible.
Hope might as well have told me to **** off when I questioned them about it.

They all warp/bend in use. it’s down to pushbikes using 1.8-2mm thick steel sheet to keep weights down. They really need to be thicker not to

I suppose because I’m a fashion victim… so what solids would you suggest?

Centerlines are good but for similar tarty reasons to you I use Uberbike Radiator rotors with the coloured alloy inserts.Actually, they are really good…. Though I’m not saying the alloy inserts actually do much for my type of riding. Still, they look nice to my eyes.

They are generic rotors and I think SS sell them too but with their logo etched onto them instead.

I found TRP rotors to be really effective but that might have been down to heating the pads on rotors during bed in period.

They were 160mm and were standard I.e. non floating which as above become worse with play over time.

Tbbh there really is no need to spend £40+ on each rotor.
£20 tops should get you rolling well for a good wee while.

Just try avoid that alligator XC racing rotor shatt!

I’ve had lots of sets of floating Hopes in the past but have SRAM Centerlines on my bike now and they’re really good. Don’t feel the need to change, I think the design looks good as well anyway

Just put some Clark’s 180 rotors on my yeti. £11 off eBay each. Replaced some warped Hayes and seem thicker than usual. So far so good.

Cool … tbh the floating concept on a mountain bike always seemed to be style over substance ….

I’ve got Centerlines on both bikes and they’re great. I’d imagine the Shimano equivalent are too. I’m not sure why you’d want two piece rotors – apart from to look bling? They just seem more expensive and over engineered.

SRAM centreline rotors still bend/warp just the same as any other 2mm thick rotor. The only nice feature about them is the curved edge. Which I do like. But it’s not worth £30 a pop just for that.

+1 centrelines

tbh the floating concept on a mountain bike always seemed to be style over substance ….

They do have less ‘substance’, if weight matters to you.

I’ve never warped a rotor though, even in the Alps/Mega etc. so the Hope floaters have been fine for me. Are you a brake dragger?

How do rotors warp? As opposed to simply becoming bent through being squashed or knocked?

Discobrakes solid ones are decent enough and under a tenner each iirc

I mix them with centreline rotors that came on bikes. Can’t tell difference in use.

Changed my forks recently and had to increase the rotor size. I had an old cheap Clarks one available so fitted that and can’t tell the difference between it and any other more expensive one I’ve used.

I’ve got Centrelines too (single piece rotors) and they’re great. I bought them to help with a spot of judder I was experiencing and they really did help, however I’m still inclined to the view that they’re a tad over priced and over engineered (having a clever swirly whirly pattern to present a consistent center of friction to the pads) when my old XT rotors did exactly the same, for about a tenner a pop, by merit of the fact that they were simply circular (I don’t really get the current fad for jagged rotors).

Seen centrelines on ebay for 17 quid a pop. Could be fakes though I guess

Seen centrelines on ebay for 17 quid a pop. Could be fakes though I guess

If they’re genuine then that’s a good price (I was hunting around on Ebay recently); I bought my set of the classifieds here a few years back but they’re listed as 51€ each on the SRAM site.

Warp was mis-leading. They bend. And very easily. Only had two rotor bend. Both were Hope

How do rotors warp?

Excess heat when constantly dragging them.

Recently I’ve had, Hope Floating, SRAM Centerline, Shimano XT76 (alloy carrier, non-icetech), Shimano XT86 (Alloy carrier, icetech), Shimano SLX (all steel).

They all feel as near as identical. The Shimano SLX can be had at ~£10 if you look around, Hope are ~£40 in comparable size.

The only benefit I found is weight (which to be fair can be considerable), and look.

I do find the Hope rotors went out of true a bit easier than others. I also found Shimano Icetech tended to arrive already bent, and needed truing.

I like Shimano SLX for bang for buck, decent high quality rotor, and not silly expensive.

I’ve had a few different brands and have now settled on the bottom end Shimano offerings – they can be found for approx £5 at the German sites.

I view them as a consumable, and would rather repalce a cheap rotor more regularly, than be stressing about £40 rotors.

Ultimately they are just laser cut from Stainless sheet – there are only so many different grades, so pretty difficult to buy cheap/nasty material, so they only real difference in one piece rotors will be the design.. which could be heavy/light and good/bad at heat dissipation.

I’m not convinced there is much of a performance gain from floating/two piece rotors.. they might handle repeated heating/cooling cycles slightly better, but probably not noticeable to your average weekend warrior.

I view them as a consumable

Really? How often do you change them? Think I’ve replaced one rotor due to wear, ever.

I’ve only ever had one rotor warp on me and that was a Hope. Not really much of a controlled test as I’ve never bought another one since. I’ve used plenty of cheap ones and they’ve all been fine.

Really? How often do you change them? Think I’ve replaced one rotor due to wear, ever.

They bend all the time, though, and trueing them can be hit and miss IME. So recycling a pair of 5 quid rotors after a year might be a better bet than persisting / mending an expensive set that are equally out of true.

The only bling on my bikes is my Hope floating rotors. Never had a problem with how they work but they do look good!

I have always used Discobrakes rotors, they have been fine to be honest, though they have gone a bit (few spots) rusty on the non-contact area due to the bike spending too much time in wet salty spray on the back of my van this winter.

I’m sure’ll clean up with a bit of wire wool and elbow grease.

I view them as a consumable

Really? How often do you change them? Think I’ve replaced one rotor due to wear, ever.

I’ve replaced one/two on my MTB due to bending then (tree branch through front spokes did for one of them) and replaced a pair on my Arkose last year out of total exasperation with squealing Shimano hydro brakes – i’d got the brakes a bit hot a couple of times (rotors a bit discoloured and wondered if that had made any difference – which it didn’t)
I’ve never changed any due to ‘wearing them out’ so i guess my comment might have been misleading.

Really? How often do you change them? Think I’ve replaced one rotor due to wear, ever.

Roughly every two to three years. Depends on how hard the pads are I’m running mostly.

Are you sure they don’t just bend because when your using them very hard and turning the wheel, the play in your spokes / wheel actually means they get bent ?

Afraid it has come down to cost so buying Chinese off ebay.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/AVID-BB5-BB7-HS1-G2-G3-Brake-Disc-160mm-2pcs-Bolt-Brake-Rotors-UK-STOCK/253834276652?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&var=553395041921&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649
I know it says Avid but they also have Shimano.
Aliexpress have them but cheaper off ebay.