Ducati Monster Forum

I am only a few months away from having no choice but to replace my rotors (they are well past spec).

What are some good looking long lasting street rotors?

Beringer has these SWEET looking stainless steel rotors. 1 pair for $549.99
http://www.bellissimoto.com/BeringerRotorsandKits.html (http://www.bellissimoto.com/BeringerRotorsandKits.html)

How long do these last? Is it a better street material than stock?


Alternatively, I can pick up those ebay rotors for $250 bucks....
http://cgi.ebay.com/Front-Brake-Disc-Rotor-Ducati-S2R-S2-S4R-Monster-S4-R-/190518647516?pt=UK_Motorcycle_Parts&hash=item2c5bcbdadc (http://cgi.ebay.com/Front-Brake-Disc-Rotor-Ducati-S2R-S2-S4R-Monster-S4-R-/190518647516?pt=UK_Motorcycle_Parts&hash=item2c5bcbdadc)

My MAIN concern is longevity and cost. If I can snag used rotors that still have life in them at a good price i will.... but $100 is the most ill pay for used rotors because those eBay ones seem like a deal since i havent heard much of anything bad about them.

i dont think you can beat these for looks/cost ratio. black like carbon looks yet iron practicality and at rrp 350ea i think they are good value.

http://www.braketech.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=49&Itemid=96 (http://www.braketech.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=49&Itemid=96)

those are along the same price as beringer for cast iron.

Ive read cast iron is not as good as Stainless for street. ( i ride in the rain a lot and my rotors get rusty often). and average life expectancy? WHats that suppose to translate to? I am pretty heavy on my rotors. They were past due at 18k.

It's not necessarily cast Iron, it's a ductile iron, slightly different, machined from iron bar, not melted into casts.  No air pockets. Cry-Heat treated. Tensile strength is far superior to stainless. They wear slower too. They do require some different brake pads though.  They are definitely street-able, but iron doesn't like a ton of moisture (they perform flawlessly wet, but some rust can form (which will wipe off the second you tap the brakes while moving).  The iron is anodized for protection and strength.

If you're going to be rain/salted roads riding, stay stainless.  Otherwise Iron is a much better brake material as it dissipates heat better, and leads to less brake fade.  Braketech is one of my favorites in that price range, never been a huge beringer fan.  Braketech makes a stainless version. Their floater system is unique, in that the floaters are non-load-bearing so they float smoother, and transfer energy from the rotor to the wheel more effectively.

GP riders use Iron in the rain.

These are the ones I got:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=310261763134 (http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=310261763134)

But look he's got new styles too:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=310242642843 (http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=310242642843)
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270624197297 (http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270624197297)

I would pick them up again in a heartbeat!  For SS rotors, they have functioned very well.  I have put about 800 miles on them on my S2R and zero issues.  I might pick up the other style for the SS for when I need them.  The yuan is about to be revalued and I cannot see them staying so cheap.

All stainless rotors should last around as long, at least blade wise.  Plus you can use sintered pads that are more resistant to wear.  Iron and ductile iron offer a better coefficient of friction and better heat transfer at the cost of wear and rust.  The rust is more an annoyance than a problem.  Sintered pads will eat iron rotors quickly.


If these make ducatiz happy they should do the same for you.  Replace the pads too, it will take a long time, maybe never for your old ones to bed.  

Howie, I use an orbital sander on pads to get them to rebed easily.  Takes about 20-30 seconds max using 400 grit emery paper.  A hand orbital sander will cost you under $30 and you can find them as low as $15.  For old pads, they are great.

But I can't crow enough about those rotors I got.  It really makes me go "huh" every time I look at the Braketechs I have on the 900SS.  "Why did I spend that much money?"

I have a beringer set up on my supermoto race bike.  pretty sweet setup.  if you are looking for a rear rotor I have an almost new abm and a galfer and I'd sell either. [bacon]

That will work.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270734537856 (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270734537856)

Why are mc rotors so much?

because they can.

same reason you'll pay 30-50 to get a mc tire changed and balanced but only 12-20 for a car tire.

Let's just totally ignore production volume/economy of scale in manufacturing.  [roll]

And time yourself on an R&R of front and rear wheels on a moto versus R&R of two wheels on a car.  [roll]

Don't get saucy with me, Bernaise.

I don't buy it given almost every bike made uses either a 300 or 310mm disk.  The difference is the carrier.  On cars the rotor is one piece.  Bikes have the additional cost of the carrier but the rotor surface is cheaply sourced.  Exceptions for the iron types or carbon.

cost to r&r wheels in car vs bike is offset by the cost/sq ft per vehicle needed in a shop.  I can have a 2 -3 bike shop in the same area as one medium sized car bay.

ducpond's entire shop is about the size of 1 car bays at a repair shop and they've got either 3 or 4 bike stands going.

not to mention profit from storage.  in the same space you can put 5-6 bikes, you can only put one car.  Coleman's at Falls Church has a 2 story storage facility for bikes.  probably get 35-40 cars there max, they have over 200 bikes stored.

Then definitely stick with stainless.  If you need more braking power than you get with stainless on the street, then you need to learn how to take it easy and/or get your fix at the track.

I had a set of iron EBC rotors on my old Suzuki and they were nothing but heartache.

If it were me, I'd find me some Brembo. In my book are the dogs bollocks. [thumbsup]

SNAP I totally agree and don't buy it either, yet I grin & bear it right along with everybody else. But the same is true for just about anything moto. The economy of scale/production volume argument is weak at best. Plenty of motos & parts being made & consumed globally. America is not the world; one must consider the percentage of motos as personal transport in other countries is much higher than it is here. Also, moto R&D expense doesn't even compare to the auto sector. They don't crash test bikes. Hell Ducati doesn't even road test them :D Bikes are simpler products, and all things considered should be cheaper on parts & labor. I drive an old Benz daily; new front end bushings, tie rods, & Bilsteins cost me $700 installed by an experienced independent MB tech in the DC area(and he got it done in two days). 12k service on a 2V, $800. You tell me which is the harder job requiring more expensive parts, knowhow, shop space, specialized tools, etc.

The cost premium over auto parts is a convenient genre surcharge for moto mfgs. In the case of Ducati, it amounts to blatant exploitation of the consumer. And I don't care how 'low volume' Duc is supposed to be. They sure sell a hell of a lot of bikes worldwide for a low-volume manufacturer. Ironically, hottest selling bikes in Italy are Hondas. But hey as long as I am aware I'm being exploited I suppose it's OK. [roll]  

BTW- those cheapie rotors look pretty hot.  I'm definitely bookmarking that for the next time a bike of mine needs rotors.

Better buy them up before China reevaluates its currency.

I've had my EBC ones on for a decent amount now, and am nothing but pleased by them. They look great, perform great, are lighter, and are cheaper than galfers. I don't think I'd buy some no name brand chinese rotors where you have no idea of the quality of the materials used, what their tolerances are, etc. They just thought the Galfers looked cool and were popular so made a copy of them, no actual R&D or anything. Total upposite of the big name companies like Galfer and EBC. Last place I'd cheap out would be brakes. Well, brakes or tires.

Didn't see anybody mention weight, but when changing rotors it's something to think about. IMO the quality of the known rotor manufactures, Brembo, Braking, Galfer, EBC there isn't much difference. I just put on Galfers and they are over 1 pound lighter each then the stock Brembos that's 2 pounds of un sprung weight. The weight savings has made a nice improvement in the way the bike turns. Just my 2 cents

i have mine off (chinese rotors) and i'll weigh them tomorrow if i get a chance after work.  my gut tells me they are about the same as the snowflake brembos.

buy a full foater kit from tps put them on some brembos and call it a day. The money you save can be spent on gas[bacon]

wouldnt you still need to buy the brembos???


those new styles are looking pretty good... my brother is in HK i can ask him to find some and buy it for me on the cheap if i can figure out the exact specs.

if your bro is there and can buy locally for cheap, then you better be planning to take some orders from me.  :-)

FIXED

 i need to figure out where the hell he can find them first!

hes in HK for 2 days only.

the seller you linked me to is in Wuxi China, near Shanghi, he already passed shanghi. :(

ah.  i gotcha.  when i spoke to the seller (skype) he said they had a shop to buy things locally, but that's in shaing hai

i might be stopping by sh during the summer... i'll see if i can take a look if/when i'm there.

nice town, i have a whole list of fun places to go there, but make sure to coat your body in latex first... well, the "fun" places.. most of the new areas in S'H are pretty amazing, a lot like NYC but newer and cleaner.

haha, lived there for a year... pretty fun, best way to explain it is "it's the cheap chinese version of nyc"... has got the same vibe, but everything is a lot cheaper and somewhat suspect.

that being said... i've never lived somewhere with that kind of sense of insane growth before.

latex? you must be that 50% who likes bdsm. dont worry i wont tell anyone. :P

50%??  So more people like BDSM than VOTE??  WOW, I have to find something else to do to be weird.. dammit [bang]

What about EBC brakes?

(http://www.ebcbrakes.com/Assets/r-xcdisc.jpg)

They seem to get good reviews, http://www.ebcbrakes.com/reviews/x&xc-reviews.shtml (http://www.ebcbrakes.com/reviews/x&xc-reviews.shtml)

I love the look (and price) of these:

(http://sportbikegearinc.com/product_images/store_images/yana_shiki_rotor_zoom.jpg)

However, I haven't found any positive reviews on Yana Shiki stuff. http://sportbikegearinc.com/categories.php?category=Brake-Rotors/Yana-Shiki-Front-Rotors/Ducati (http://sportbikegearinc.com/categories.php?category=Brake-Rotors/Yana-Shiki-Front-Rotors/Ducati)

I have just bought and installed the same rotors that Ducatiz has, I weighed the two OEM 3.4kg and the two ebay rotors 2.8kg, for anyone interested.
Don