Hello all, earlier this year I headed to Europe in the van for a couple of months and in the first 5 days of riding my brand spanking Shimano Ice-tech rotors were ruined. It appears that the alloy part of the braking surface sandwich has melted and oozed out and the steel part was worn down to half its width. I switched to the Avids from my spare bike and all was well again.

When I got home the rotors went straight back to my LBS who sent them back to Madison. This was a month ago. I dropped in for an update and apparently someone from Madison has been on the phone quizzing them about how I was using the rotors. They want to know where I was riding, what bike I was on, whether or not I had entered the Megavalanche. All of which in my opinion is irrelevant.

Their professional opinion was that I must have “had a stone caught in the rotor” causing them to overheat. Really Madison? I can’t think of a situation where I could reasonably expect a set of brake rotors to wear out in less than a week. I’ve never worn a brake rotor out in the past, the Avids I switched to are 6 years old and still in perfect working order.

My LBS still don’t know whether or not Madison intend to replace or refund them. I was under the impression that Madison were quite good and we’re not sure why they’re dragging their heels. I was just wondering if anyone else has had the same problem.

This is not even a warranty issue. Your lbs should refund/replace regardless of what madison say.

Oh and i think there was a similar thread a while back

Your contract is with your LBS, not madison.

So you refund is down to your LBS, regardless of what madison do.

Wow.

Different issue, but I had nothing but problems with mine. I was recalibrating my brakes after every ride until I went back to standard steel discs. The brakes have been fine since then.

More and more talk about this on other forums.

I might stick with these in future.

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/shimano-slx-zee-rt66-6-bolt-disc-rotor/rp-prod82436

Ahh I knew I’d Seen that picture before but completely forgot about that thread. I’m on my phone so this is infuriating I’ll check back later.

I got mine from Rose Bikes. Replaced with absolutely no fuss whatsoever. I really rate their customer service approach and the slight delay in postage relative to UK suppliers isn’t an issue for me. They could not have been more helpful. 😀

Bit of a concern as they give the impresion that the new road brakes rely on ice-tech rotors

So pleased I’ve just bought a set of these. 🙁

http://www.bike-magazin.de/test_technik/komponenten_zubehoer/scheibenbremsen/scheibenbremsen-ausfaelle-beim-test/a3738.html

Germans melted them too..

Glad I never went for the “upgrade” to melt-tech rotors!

Ice melts, known characteristic – what were you expecting?

🙂

So pleased I’ve just bought a set of these

+1. I’ll go for the cheaper RT76s next time.

Been running mine in the alps all season not had any problems just keep putting new pads in when they wear down.

there was an article last year? in the CTC mag where a someone melted a set. They were using a tandem which i suspect didn’t help.

has no one come in with “don’t drag so much” yet?

Don’t drag so much.

I drag and have these rotors, no melting yet.

The issues been known about since they first appeared, people just chose not to believe it, see Chunkys post.

No amount of dragging should cause a disk to melt.

Melt or not, they look a nicer than the fully steel ones, and that’s what counts!

Actually, I bet you didn’t have pads with cooling pads in them did you? This would be the obvious cause….

😉

any updates from madison are they replacing them? Just being nosey I wont lie 😳

Your contract is with your LBS, not madison.

So you refund is down to your LBS, regardless of what madison do.

+1.

Your LBS can ask the manufacturer or distributor to inspect and provide information. But any dealing you have is with the LBS.

If I remember the Sale Of Good Acts correctly I think within 6 months the LBS must prove you had used it incorrectly. So ask them to inspect the bike and see if you had set up the brakes incorrectly or any other signs of miss use. If they don’t find anything wrong ask for a replacement or refund.

Just noticed my xtr rear rotors done the same thing as the op mentioned.
The metal from inside of the ‘ice sandwich’ has melted and dribbled out the rotor and into two holes within the rotor.
Been on holiday for the last two weeks and done loads of biking but a bits shocked at this. New rear pads and bike serviced only a few weeks back.

Pics?

Wow holy thread resurrection.

Yes, Zinaru that’s exactly what happened to mine.

Cannondale king, sorry to ignore your question for 9 months but yes Madison took them back no problem. They wanted my life story though.

Replaced with Superstar rotors that felt much better from new and are still tip-top.

I might be a bit slow but In order to actually Melt the Aluminium out of the rotor wouldn’t you’d have had to get your rotors up to around ~600*C for a reasonable period?

It does sound somewhat incredable, I can understand Madison wanting more information…

Thankfully I’ve got a spare 180 avid for the rest of my break.
Surely a tiny defect/crack im my Shimano with my particular xtr rotor? (Bought online from Germany)
Must have happened during a ride yesterday. I ride a rigid jones so I’m hardly doing 50mph downhills. The trails pretty dry as well. And I live in Scotland, it’s hot just now but not 600 degree hot!!!

Stikes me as they must be using some pretty low melting point monkey metal for the inter-rotor finned bit!

Lets face it, the heat into your brakes comes from exactly two sources:

1) your legs – cycle along at the max speed you can manage with your brakes on, and if you’re speed is constant, all you leg power is going into heat in the discs – for most cyclists i can’t believe this could be more than ~200W for any period of time

2) Potential energy for height loss. The mass of you and your bike, from the top of a mountain to the bottom of the mountain. If you start at zero mph, and finish at zero mph, then all that potential energy has gone into your discs. The average “power” of course, depends on how short a time it takes you to get from top to bottom!

In each case, these energies and powers seem totally obvious and estimable!. To blame it on a “stone” in the disc is ridiculous, as that doesn’t change the energy being imparted to the disc……

Pic stolen from another thread on here but this is what mine looked like;

I think you’re all using the brakes too much.

The energy going into heating the disc is ‘known’, but the amount of heat leaving into the atmosphere is going to be highly variable and dependant to an extent on how you brake. You’ve also got an element of braking occurring due to resistance to the tyres rolling, both normal and the effect of smacking into big rocks or pushing into berms.

It’ll be the peaks of temperature that cause this though, not the average heat calculated from height drop.

If I were Madison I’d want to know as much about the cause as possible, Shimano will have to redesign them based on your info to an extent.

It must be that wonderful metal they were using for chain rings a few years back.

So pleased I’ve just bought a set of these.

Me too!

Fly out to the Alps the day after tomorrow too! 😕

https://twitter.com/johnjnicol/status/479278700769599488/photo/1

great brakes, reckon ive just been unlucky (or im way too rad for xtr – which is unlikely)

Aluminium will be under pressure from the calliper under breaking too, sure to bring the melting point down, or is it the other way. Can’t remember.

Of course this would happen. Everyone knows aluminium has a considerably lower melting point (or indeed expands quicker) than steel. This is why extracting a seized steel bolt in an aluminium caliper for instance is easier when you apply heat to the caliper. Focus are being sensible by selling their new Focus road bikes with no less than a 160mm rotor. This will benefit from much better modulation too.

I still think all those that are claiming this to have happened to them should post pictures for the benefit of the community as well as saying what brake pads they were using at the time. Be honest.

By the way this gives a great excuse to start retailing carbon discs en mass.

Aluminium will be under pressure from the calliper under breaking too, sure to bring the melting point down, or is it the other way. Can’t remember.

Theoretically increasing the pressure on a substance increases it’s melting point, however the caliper isn’t increasing the pressure as it’s just a point load.

The 660c melting point is also probably fairly irrelevant in this case. Aluminium is a fairly soft metal, and enough force from the caliper could squeeze it out of the rotor even at room temperature. Presumably the calipers aren’t capable of delivering enough force to do this, but evidently the temperatures generated by braking can soften the metal just enough that the force from the caliper is sufficient to deform the aluminium section of the rotor.

Carbon discs as they are at present aren’t much use on an mtb.

I may have got it wrong, but weren’t they marketed as having better heat dispersion characteristics/being able to handle heat better than normal rotors?

I wonder how many of you that have had problems were using shimano brakes with the finned pads? I’m going to have a stab and say that without the extra heat dissipation of the finned pads the rotors exceed their design heat range.

I wonder how many of you that have had problems were using shimano brakes with the finned pads? I’m going to have a stab and say that without the extra heat dissipation of the finned pads the rotors exceed their design heat range.

How on earth are fins on a pad going to cool a disc down?