Well I had a mobile tire guy replace my front tire on my bike and now he says my rotor was bent when he went to balance it. I didnt have any problems/ vibrations before the tire was changed and now my brake lever goes almost all the back like I dont have any front brakes. Should a tire change cause your rotors to go bad and what is the average lifespan of a rotor? I have 23,000 miles on my 06 Street glide. I am wondering if he bent it mounting the tire and now trying to blame it on "bad rotors"

 

If he wasn't careful when he changed the tire he could have bent your rotors . I have close to 54000 miles on my rotors . I change my tires myself and I remove my rotors from the rims before I change my tires for that very reason . But than again I don't have a commercial tire changer .

 

it is hard to guess from here.

rotors last until they are warped ( overheating, and when you are stopped release the brakes if you can, rather than have hot pads sit at the same place on the rotor) or by being hit- which i have never seen, but if a wheel was dropped- I guess it could damge it, but you'd see signs of impact.

rotors also need to be replaced when grooved to the point where there is not enough meat to resurface by taking the highest points to the lowest level, to get an even surface within a few thousands of an inch.

my ex-chp bike has the original rotors and over 80,000 miles- they last a loooong time.

mike

 

Find the high spot and hit it with a hammer and punch. Steel has a memory and it should spring back to the original condition. Got 103K on mine.

 

He could have bent it.
Do you have a front brake if you squeez the handle a few times?

Rotors normally last longer than 23K.

 

Thats the thing he doesnt use a tire changer, he does it by hand with 2x4 to keep pressure off the rotors. My point to him was it didnt have any problems from a bent rotor before he did the tire change. He said heat would make it weaker and could cause the problem.

 

I bent a rotor when the commercial tire changer I was using let go of the rim unexpectedly, so yes it can happen. And was my fault that it did happen.

That doesn't explain why your lever is pulling back to the bars. If it was OK before he touched it, he did something wrong.

 

Yeah, if I pump it comes back.

 

If you let it sit for a while then grab the brake,it goes to the bar?

 

It could be sticking brake pistons. My 04 did it after the pistons were pushed all the way in when putting new pads on. Cleaned the pistons and it worked fine.