Did you use stock pads? They are not compatible with composite rotors.

 

Me neither. Wish I knew what who made them and the pads.

 

I'm sure there are others but LRB are composit and if you use any pad except LRBs they will fail.

 

I am sure that this owner used the proper brake pads because they would have sold him the full package deal along with you have no warranty if you do not use "Their" pads. There are much better pads out there if you know where to look that are Organic.

MMC is a material that melts on higher temperatures but that is not where the problem begins. There are different manufacturing processes to make MMC rotors. I am familiar with 2, squeeze cast and spin cast. Squeeze casting can cause air pockets and spin casting eliminates the air pockets by rototing the casting/ingot and the ceramic (silica sand) goes to the outside and makes the outside edges harder.

I doubt this is your case but I believe quarterbacking on Monday from the arm chair that your calipers were not centered on the rotors. I do an alignment process and make sure my wheel spins 1 1/2 rotations before stopping by the drag of the brake pads. When your calipers are out of alignment the brake pads drag, heat up the rotor, and cracking than explosion happens. There is no recourse for the vendor to protect themselves against operator error on installs. MMC works on race bikes but there are better materials that have a higher coefficient of friction.

Melted because you ran the bike too hard = extremely doubtful, exploded because of an alignment problem, the most likely explanation. I have no dog in this fight but I do have a lot of experience with MMC.

A different manufacturer's rotors with aligned calipers lasting well over 5 years with absolutely no wear and I guarantee I run this bike much harder than 99.99% of other HD riders into the corners. Your results may vary as this is not the same manufacturer or manufacturing process. Good luck.

 

Its kinda hard to not get these aligned and I think he already stated that they were at one point. Also said he used Z-Pads I think.

Makes me wonder if it was a failed wheel bearing on the rotor side or something that caused a side load maybe? I dunno.

Crazy though...

lp

 

Yeah, no kidding.

Repeat after me:
Use the front brake!
Use the front brake!
Use the front brake!

 

I literally laughed and woke up my wife...

I live in Colorado, we have quite the elevation and passes here. I hardly ever use my brakes unless I am slowing down for stopping traffic. I took my wife for a ride up Boulder canyon and back down Coal Creek canyon and used the brakes maybe once or twice until I came to the stop light at the end of the canyon. Need to use the engine to keep the bike at lower speeds.

 

Thanx for all the input guys, but yes I checked and double checked everything probably to the point of being ridiculous. I have done many brake jobs before, but this time ($1500 rotors) I took extra care and had the manual right there by my side. The wheel spun freely before the bike went on the ground, the rotor were well centered on the caliper. Not sure how to get the rear wheel to spin 1.5 times with a belt and all, I did not go as far to try it without a belt. I would think that because the rotors are semi floating and the pistons can accommodate some off centering, the caliper would have to be pretty far put anyway. As I am technical by nature, I don't work out of specs, so I don't worry about such things

I took several test rides, as I had done other work (suspension) on the bike that I was checking and each time I returned I would check the temps on the rotors they were between 38 and 42c each time. Then I went on about 20 mile ride and touched the rotors they were warm to the touch. After that is when I went to the mountains.

Since I put my stock rotors and new HD pads back on the bike, I am not having any issues with nearly 300 miles logged since.

 

I"d contact the manufacturer. Not for warranty but to find out if they've seen this before and what caused it. I'd have to know what happened just for my own peace of mind.

Happy Motoring!

 

Yep, I have and the owner is to contact me the middle of next week. Really I don't get why it is going to take him 10 days to contact me. A little disturbing, which is why I came to the forums for answers. I put on the message "Safety Alert" Failed Rotor they never answered 2 messages, so I called to see if they got the message, they said they did....