I just got back from a long(ish) tour, York Pa to Niagra Falls to meet my brother, then to Americade in Lake George, a visit to Maine, dropped back in New Hampshire to climb Mt. Washington, then a day at Laconia before riding back to Niagra Falls then home.

I live in one of those states that holds you hostage to yearly inspections, I ride to the dealership and they inform me that bike has failed it's yearly inspection due to the front rotors being warped. We had no rain at all on the trip, but I suppose it's possible that they cooked on the way back down from Mt. Washington. The thing is, my rotors are only 15 months old and have about 8k on them. I do plenty of riding in the rain but none of my old bikes ever had a problem with this, I'm hard pressed to believe that I'm on my 3rd set of rotors in 4 years of ownership of my SG.

Is this typical life expectancy for OEM rotors?
Would it be worthwhile to upgrade to floating rotors?

Thanks!

 

My floating rotors lasted a long time. And they brake better from the self alignment. Plus you can get several different styles with chrome centers

 

Well, you're in a bit of a catch 22, and probably the easiest thing to do is to simply let them replace the rotors.

You can take the bike back and measure it yourself, then try to argue with them about your readings. But it's their reading that legally counts, since they are the inspection station.

You can also take the bike back and use hammer to tap the rotor back flat. It works, I've done it on simple single plate rotors before. Then you take the bike back for a re-testing. Pretty easy to get a rotor flatter, pretty hard to get a rotor to within a tight spec.

 

Let me tell you a secret...

Heat warps rotors.

When you come to stop your disks are very hot because they have been converting your momentum into heat via friction. Now you sit at the stop light with the front brake pistons pushing these incredibly hot disks into your rotor with great force. A large amount of heat is being transferred to 1 spot on the rotor while this happens. So is it any wonder the rotors often warp?

Don't worry though. The fix is easy. Every time you stop do this simple thing. As soon as you come to complete stop let the bike roll forward or backwards about 6" before stopping to wait out the light. The heat bleeds off the disk very fast (it is designed to do that) and those couple of seconds and 6" are all you need to prevent warping.

I warped the front on my RGU at 7000 miles. Fortunately someone told me about this and 50,000 miles later I have never had another one.

 

How exactly did they determine they were warped? Ive never seen a shop take a runout gauge to a rotor during an inspection. Unless they actually rode the bike? How would they know? Better yet, did they FEEL warped to you? I bought my EG used and the front brakes would squeal and pulse at higher speeds and downright grabbed at lower speeds. They (warped rotors) are hard to miss if you are riding, but I cant imagine anyone noticing during a visual inspection.

 

Gotta chime in here. Brake rotors often give a grab and slip type feel when they are warped AND heated up. After they cool down sometimes they return to a less warped configuration and feel okay until they warm up again and the metal fatigue overtakes the machined shape. Very noticeable as you coming to a stop and almost stopped and catches on a "high spot" and you stop more abruptly then you were trying to modulate the stop. Hate it actually as I pride myself on being as smooth a rider as possible, that includes stopping.

 

They didn't feel warped to me, there was no pulsing or catching that I could feel. The service guy said the runout was out of spec so I assumed they used a gauge to check it.

I put a set of new OEM rotors, bolts, and brake pads on since I was there. I had to buy them from another shop because the dealer inspecting my bike didn't have any rotors in stock. Probably due to an overzealous inspection process

 

Probably not worth the fight, but in looking at the PA inspection requirements, there is nothing there about runout. Groves in the rotor cannot be deeper than 0.015", linings no thinner than 1/32" and not broken or loose, rotor no thinner than stamped spec on the rotor. Nothing about runout.

http://www.dot.state.pa.us/Public/DV...ubchapterh.pdf

 

You are correct, they shouldn't be failing a PA inspection based on rotor runout. I have a 2013 challenger that had warped front rotors for 3 years that passed with no issue. I have had them fail because of thickness.
This must be the dealer doing this to make money.

PPearl, who was it? 1stCapital HD?

 

Very good advice right here if you have been riding hard on the brakes. I don't find the need to do this on casual rides unless there are a lot of lights.