Disc rotors what is they difference

I need to get some 160mm centre lock rotors for some cx wheels.

I have never taken much notice of them before. They rang in price to £10 to £60+ for Hope / Swissstop. So what are you getting for the extra.

Also just recommend some.

The cheapest ones wear too fast for use with sintered pads, so don’t get those. Other than that it’s thickness. Match whatever your calipers need. The rest of the features – saw teeth, hole pattern, floating rotor, weight etc are less important.

Standard shimano, sram, magura- all fine.

I have had two cheap Clarks rotors which were down on braking power.
Swapped back to a ‘proper’ Shimano and the power was back up again.

Hope ones worked better on hope caliprers for me. They also look ace. Got a deal on them cos they spendy.

Lower end Shimano one are stamped for resin pads only, Shimano RT66 (SLX) rotors are all I’ve ever used and work a treat and cost around £15 each.

Standard shimano, sram, magura- all fine.

Basically that, I think shimano give slightly more power (I’m using them with SRAM brakes out of choice), but I’ve not tried Magura for a long time.

I’d avoid anything that’s more air than rotor. I’ve tried a lot of them and just found they lacked power.  A 203mm Aligator/Airrotor/A2Z/TRP might weigh as little as a standard 180mm rotor, but it’s about as powerful as a 180mmrotor too, so it’s pointless. I’ve still got them on my CX/Gravel bike but that’s rarely braking hard.

Rotor thickness isn’t a massive deal, it has an impact on cooling and how resistant it might be to warping or knocks but unless you accidentally go so thin that the pads fall out.  It doesn’t affect bite point etc unless it’s so thick that the pistons can’t retract far enough.

i had some “cool” super star saw tooth ones, and they throbbed something rotten. Caused massive fork vibration.

Pressed ones are clearly cheaper, and look rubbish,

I had some XT ones that were very narrow in the track, so using them with different brakes meant they wore on the arms as well as the track. They were quite unusual though

anything laser cut, with a sensible track pattern that clears mud should be fine.

Floating rotors are nice, but theres something to be said for a homogenous steel part.

You can pick up six bolt SRAM centreline rotors very cheaply on eBay (£<10). Pretty sure they’re just OEM. Certainly can’t tell any difference from the ones I bought in retail packaging. And get some centre block 6 blot converters.  DT are nicest but im sure others are fine – one listing has 160 disc plus adaptor for £16

I get the least wavy and most consistent profile shape rotors I can and avoid the ones that are more holes than metal at the braking surface. The more patterned or wavy the more likely they are to have variable surface area as they pass under the pad and that’s where vibration or brake / fork flutter can come from.

I like the classic SRAM HS2 shape, or Shimano RT66s. The Clarkes HS2 style rotors are fine on my gravel bike but an E-FS MTB might wear them faster, not noticed myself as they last me a while.

You can pick up six bolt SRAM centreline rotors very cheaply on eBay. Pretty sure they’re just OEM.

Some are copies, some are OEM. Hard to say tbh. Not worth the savings for the uncertainty imo though I realise junk material causing rotor failure is rare.

I like the Magura ones. They’re pretty thick, have a nice pattern, work well, last well, aren’t noisy and last well.
There’s not much difference between them IME, as long as you buy ones rated for sintered pads.

The later mt style magura discs are 2.3mm thick. ‘regular’ rotors tend to be 1.8mm thick but magura state 1.8mm as the wear limit. So you might need to beat thickness in mind depending upon your manufacturer’s stipulation. Beyond that for me it’s whatever brand name I recognise that’s cheapish. Have used Clarke’s, avids, whatever.

I’ve just swapped from TRP to Hope floating on the commuter. They feel the same, but the Hopes are a bit lighter. Not lighter enough to be felt whilst riding though. Every other bike has Hope floating in an appropriate size, from 160 to 220. No idea if they are actually better than any others but they’ve always worked well for me so I’ve stuck with them.

If you want lightweight with great performance, Shimano Ultegra CL800’s are hard to beat.  You can usually get a pair brand new on ebay for £55

https://fawkes-cycles.co.uk/shimano-ultegra-rt-cl800-ice-tech-freeza-rotor-with-internal-lockring-140-mm-p34288/s70434?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=shimano-ultegra-rt-cl800-ice-tech-freeza-rotor-with-internal-lockring-rtcl800ssi&utm_campaign=product%2Blisting%2Bads&cid=GBP&glCurrency=GBP&glCountry=GB&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwgfm3BhBeEiwAFfxrGxoQifDmnJICqKydCVfuvdIoHnVyC40fD5s_yOWYOmbaTWg5isJXDRoCyeIQAvD_BwE

If you want a bit more strength, but with slightly less performance (and it is slight) I’ve recently settled on TRP-25.  Quiet, powerful, much more solid, but around 15% heavier than CL800.

https://www.condorcycles.com/products/trp-25-centerlock-rotor?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwgfm3BhBeEiwAFfxrG2IsQHSlYODO6_JW0SU4X505WlZ3sbWqAN2UiO_jHNng6hWgWoyeuRoCfkgQAvD_BwE&siteid=1630430&utm_campaign=1352010&utm_source=webgains&variant=41987132489878&wgc=1630430&wgp=281345

Thanks everyone I know what to look for now. I will probably get some shimano ones.

I had the same question last week, needed some rotors for my gravel bike. Ended up with the Ultegra RT-CL800. They are very nice, nicer than the older Ultegras on my road bike.