What grit paper to clean rotor ?

Hi. I have some 600 grit wet and dry paper – can I use that (without water) to clean a rotor that has had 2 winters of crap embedded and really needs sorting ?

You can, but why not just wash it and clean it with some brake cleaning spray.  Or use your brake pads to clean the crap off when you brake hard ?

If you do use the wet and dry paper you should actually use water, otherwise all you will do is move the dirt/grit about.  You need to wash it off.

But to be honest, just how dirty are your discs.  I’ve had bikes in the past and never ever cleaned my discs.  I clean them now, but that’s when I wash the bike.

Use a pan scourer (one of the green ones) and some brake cleaner.

Cheers guys – the issue is that I have loads of deposits from 2 different pads and can’t get new pads to bed in properly anymore. They are very musical, if you know what I mean and no amount of heat resolves it. Have tried brake cleaner to no avail – I have a block sander so will use that with the paper and cleaner/water.

600 is going to be a touch fine, we genrally go for 180 in our workshop, light pressure easily breaking the glaze etc on the surface, without bending the more delicate of rotors out there. A good scrub with detergent and a toothbrush should then clear any residue left.

Thank you !

Green panscourer as mentioned above or wire wool.

Who said finish it off in a dishwasher?

Not me, oh no, no, no…

High percentage Isopropyl alcohol 1ltr off eBay (£5 ish) and a scrubby green dish cleaner thingy Carefully held on the disks as you rotate wheel in situ

no need for fancy packaged ‘specific’? Disc cleaner.

give the pads a scuff on your patio, spray  a TINY bit of silicone spray or chain lube on a toothbrush with bristles cut down to clean calipers and pistons and use same tooth brush to ‘Fairy liquid only’clean them again. use same rinsed toothbrush with isopropyl for final clean and rinse with water

done it for years with shimano, hope, sram, no probs.

What a lot of faff.

As my brakes were howling downhill today I got to wondering which bit is doing the howling.

It has to be something resonant, so the rotor is a likely culprit, but pads can also make noise.`

I reckon rotor – so now I’m wondering if a couple of balanced bits of lead would damp down the resonance, maybe lower the frequency to a more pleasant note. 🙂

Nah, I’m not going to clean them, they work just fine.

I am not sure it’s such a faff. Probably 15 minutes once every 2 years but mainly because one of the rotors has been badly bedded in by me and the noise is quite litteraly unbereable. Oh, and the braking power is probably about 30% of what it should be. And no amount of heat will burn the various deposits. I would say 50% of the braking surface is black, hence the music.

I have Isop alcohol btw but a big can of brake cleaner was £3 so not sure that will break the bank.