rotors, does it matter?

Andrew's got it… I've generally found that Shimano Ice-tech rotors will work well with any brand of brakes… your experience may vary.

One more up-prop for mAndrew. The Shimano Ice-Tech rotors are better at temperature management (in real life, qualitatively and quantitatively), which does improve brake performance. If you've purchased new brakes, putting new rotors on will help you maximize performance out of the gate.

Thanks.

One note on this: I find for ShoreXC riding I ditch the alloy centre rotors (like IceTech) in the winter and this year I even tried going down a rotor size on the front (mixed results) as I was finding my brakes weren't heating up enough to perform optimally.

Results may vary of course, but if your brakes are already being water cooled like here in a Shore-To-Sky winter it's questionable that there are benefits to the, quite a bit more expensive, Ice Tech setup.

I'm an advocate of swapping to basic steel rotors for the winter and running IceTech when heat management is important. Definitely save you $$$ long term and it's quick to swap.

^ Especially if you rock CL rotors! ;)

Likely shop guy was wanting you to go with Ice Techs. Not that he was trying to up-sell you.

I was soooooooo glad to see SRAM/Giant spec 170mm rotors on some bikes. :rolleyes:

Pads with tabs that protrude below the caliper don't work too well with rotors with spiders! I'm waaaay too much of a tight ass though, so I just cut the tabs off BB7 pads and continue to use the XT rotors that I have. Needle nose pliers pull the pads out easily enough.

You need to double check that the area where the pads contact the rotor are tall/wide enough.

Shimano traditionally has less tall (but longer) pads than some other companies.

You don´t want the pads to brake too much on the "spoke-esque" part of the rotors.

@JBV: What new frame are you building?

hey F. a new alloy Transition Patrol. it's in the house, just waiting to be built up. being held up by a few small parts to service the fork before it goes together. pretty stoked. a more appropriate and forgiving ride for the burlier and steeper trails in BC.

but if your brakes are already being water cooled like here in a Shore-To-Sky winter I'm an advocate of swapping to basic steel rotors for the winter and running IceTech when heat management is important. Definitely save you $$$ long term and it's quick to swap.

I run steel 203front 185 rear . I find in climbing so much they don't get warm enough. The first few feet I make sure to warm them up before I "rip" down a trail.
I'm using these funny ones from north shore sports swap

ZEE on Avid rotors on my DH and XT on Avid on my trail bike without any problems… not sure what model rotors exactly. Thought about throwing on Icetech but I'm a cheap bugger.

Nice, JBV!

The Patrol is sure going to be a lot of fun for you!

I´d love to have one. It strikes me as a really bombproof all-purpose bike.

Are you going for the yellow one to compliment your Smuggler ?

=)

What fork are you using?

i'll tone it down with the black frame. one bright bike is plenty. xfusion Vengeance fork, most parts coming from the previous Range that i sold. extended 1x10, turbine cranks. mostly silver/gray components should look great. not all black on black. it's at the shop now, just awaiting a new seal kit for the fork. now that Suspensionwerks handles xfusion they are very hard to get a hold of and it's delayed the fork being finished. hopefully the parts come this week…