Disc rotors that could stay true more than Shimano's

[xiyuwang]

I am constantly annoyed by how much Shimano's disc rotors (MT800 and MT900) would deform and become unture when the temp of it goes up. I also found it to be less and less true as the mileage goes up. It is so frequent that the rotor begins to rub the pad after braking from slightly higher speed and sometimes the rotor begins to rub the rotor for no obvious reasons (I did not brake, and it was not running wet).

Changing the wheels does not help, both my arc1100 and zipp404 have the same problem with both set of rotors. I suspect my 7170 groupset's caliper has a narrow gap between pad and rotor but, even if the gap is indeed narrow, I can still make the rotor not rubbing the pad when tuning at home. And I don't get the logic why it would suddenly make noises on road...

Any recommendation on rotors that is tougher and be able to stay true? I don't care too much about weight as long as it is not ridiculously heavy. Maybe SRAM's?

Another question: I found my r8000 groupset's caliper's gap being significantly larger than my r7170's caliper gap, which makes it much easier to tune when swapping wheels. This shocks me because Shimano they themselves said they make the gap of caliper of 7170 groupset 10% larger... Shimano's QC seems to be shet more and more.

[snaxez]

You can try Hope floating rotors. I have had good emotions with them on MTB. But they are not light.
Hope Road 6 Bolt Rotor
Hope Road CenterLock Rotor

In comparison
Hope Road 6 Bolt 160mm is 105g
Shimano RT-MT900 CenterLock 160mm is 108g
Shimano RT-CL900 CenterLock 160mm is 114g
Shimano RT-CL800 CenterLock 160mm is 114g
Hope Road CenterLock 160mm is 121g
SWISSSTOP Catalyst Pro 6 Bolt 160mm is 128g
SWISSSTOP Catalyst Pro CenterLock 160mm is 137g

[Nereth]

Swiss stop Catalyst Pros have not warped for me even with dumping about 26kJ into a single 160mm front rotor over about 5 seconds, a dozen times (with cooling time between). I.e. approx 95kg brought to a stop from close to 90kph all at once on solely the front rotor.

This will overheat, soften and subsequently destroy organic pads instantly, or outgas or otherwise brakefade any of the metallic ones I've found.

But the catalyst pro rotors don't warp.

[mikehhhhhhh]

I'm currently looking for a solution to the same problem, I posted here yesterday: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=145230&p=1851747#p1851747

It's basically between the Hope and the Swisstop for me. Hope looks better, but Swisstop is cheaper.

[robertbb]

The Shimano RT-CL900 rotor is the newest one and it's fantastic. It's from the 12 speed road stuff. They "solved" rotors with this new release, faultless.

[HBike]

The Shimano RT-CL900 rotor is the newest one and it's fantastic. It's from the 12 speed road stuff. They "solved" rotors with this new release, faultless.

I use them, too, great performance on two bikes. But the previous generation worked nicely, too. Much less problems than with Sram rotors.

[CampagYOLO]

You can try Hope floating rotors. I have had good emotions with them on MTB. But they are not light.
Hope Road 6 Bolt Rotor
Hope Road CenterLock Rotor

In comparison
Shimano RT-MT900 160mm is 108g
Shimano RT-CL900 160mm is 114g

Likewise I've abused the Hope rotors on the CX bike and they've stayed perfectly true and don't seem to wear too quickly. I've got the 6 bolt ones which are pretty light, just seems to be that they can't make a light centrelock rotor.

[MagicShite]

The Shimano RT-CL900 rotor is the newest one and it's fantastic. It's from the 12 speed road stuff. They "solved" rotors with this new release, faultless.

In all honesty the problem with shimano rotors for me isn't them warping during use but rather being WARPED out of the box brand new.

[cleanneon98]

The Shimano RT-CL900 rotor is the newest one and it's fantastic. It's from the 12 speed road stuff. They "solved" rotors with this new release, faultless.

I thought these were still a "step down" from the RT-MT900 XTR rotor. I actually recall seeing the XTR rotor come stock on quite a few DA builds but not sure if that's due to supply or performance. I also think most pro teams running Shimano have moved to XTR as well, I think I heard the spider is stiffer and more surface area on the brake surface due to different cooling cutouts

[snaxez]

The Shimano RT-CL900 rotor is the newest one and it's fantastic. It's from the 12 speed road stuff. They "solved" rotors with this new release, faultless.

I thought these were still a "step down" from the RT-MT900 XTR rotor. I actually recall seeing the XTR rotor come stock on quite a few DA builds but not sure if that's due to supply or performance. I also think most pro teams running Shimano have moved to XTR as well, I think I heard the spider is stiffer and more surface area on the brake surface due to different cooling cutouts

Now seems RT-MT900 is marketed as e-bike rotor
https://bike.shimano.com/en-EU/product/ ... MT900.html

and RT-CL900 is marketed as XTR/Dura-Ace rotor
https://bike.shimano.com/en-EU/product/ ... CL900.html
https://bike.shimano.com/en-EU/product/ ... CL900.html

[cleanneon98]

Interesting, probably good for my hefty system weight . Just checked and the Lab71 SSE and Madone SLR9 both come specced with the MT900 while the SL8 S-Works comes with the CL900. I guess non-SL8 bikes are just too heavy and require e-bike kit

[xiyuwang]

You can try Hope floating rotors. I have had good emotions with them on MTB. But they are not light.
Hope Road 6 Bolt Rotor
Hope Road CenterLock Rotor

In comparison
Hope Road 6 Bolt 160mm is 105g
Shimano RT-MT900 CenterLock 160mm is 108g
Shimano RT-CL900 CenterLock 160mm is 114g
Shimano RT-CL800 CenterLock 160mm is 114g
Hope Road CenterLock 160mm is 121g
SWISSSTOP Catalyst Pro 6 Bolt 160mm is 128g
SWISSSTOP Catalyst Pro CenterLock 160mm is 137g

Another 20gram to me is nothing. I'd prefer durability and rotors that won't wrap more than a noisy and slightly lighter one.

[xiyuwang]

The Shimano RT-CL900 rotor is the newest one and it's fantastic. It's from the 12 speed road stuff. They "solved" rotors with this new release, faultless.

In all honesty the problem with shimano rotors for me isn't them warping during use but rather being WARPED out of the box brand new.

Same, in fact one of my MT800 is wrapper out of the box (The one before this factory wrapped one is also wrapped due to a descent and couldn't be trued anymore). The mechanic just instantly started to try to true the damn disc and I asked why a new rotor is wrapped. He replied that this is wrapped anyways. Honestly, my confidence in Shimano's product is fading quickly recently. Their cassette makes this and that noise (there was one post here about the same clikcing noise problem that cannot be totally mitigated unless you file the cassette teeth).

[hansotto089]

Swiss stop Catalyst Pros have not warped for me even with dumping about 26kJ into a single 160mm front rotor over about 5 seconds, a dozen times (with cooling time between). I.e. approx 95kg brought to a stop from close to 90kph all at once on solely the front rotor.

This will overheat, soften and subsequently destroy organic pads instantly, or outgas or otherwise brakefade any of the metallic ones I've found.

But the catalyst pro rotors don't warp.

Which pads do you use?

[cleanneon98]

I haven't used them yet but I did get SRAM HS2 rotors for my MTB, they are 2mm thick and apparently offer better stopping power and warp resistance. Potential downside for weight weenies is they only come 160mm+ and I'm not actually sure if there would be enough pad clearance on a Shimano (or any road) caliper to fit them.

https://www.sram.com/en/sram/models/rt-hs-2-a1