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Mixing rotors & calipers? (Hope 203mm with saint/formula)

- seb

Turbo Monkey
Apr 10, 2002
2,924
1
UK
Right, I've been putting it off, but will shortly be buying at least one new brake, because the lever assembly on my Hopes is screwed, and a new one is almost the price of a whole Saint brake.

I currently have the Hope spidered 203mm rotors that look like


I'd like to keep them because

a) I don't want to rebuild my wheels onto Shimano centrelock hubs
b) I've never warped/bent them, which is more than I can say for any non-spidered rotor I've ever owned
c) As far as I know they're the lightest 200/203mm rotors you can get (I weighed mine at 166g and compared to http://www.sicklines.com/weights/rotors)

If I buy a 203mm saint will it work fine with these rotors? I don't know if the saint has a much deeper pad so I won'd be getting full contact, and/or whether it'll hit on the "rivets" where the rotor joins the spider?

Similarly I'm considering Formulas The Ones for the light weight and bling factor (I know I know, I suck) - I'm guessing since they're 200mm that my rotors will be a no-go with them?

cheers
 

potta

Chimp
Feb 18, 2008
9
0
I am running the hope rotors with xtr calipers and levers.
I had to file a touch off the bottom of the caliper to get them to clear.
They are very light and now they have bedded in have great modulation and power.
 

Jimmy_Pop

Turbo Monkey
Mar 1, 2002
2,030
0
Phoenix, Az USA
rotors are rotors. swap em at will so long as they are the correct diameter. my last bike had hope rotors and magura stoppers. no problems. a friend of mine uses hope rotors with juicy's.

 

muddy beast

Turbo Monkey
Nov 26, 2005
1,815
0
You can swap almost any rotor for almost any caliper. I say almost because I'm sure there's some weird case out there that doesn't work (like a 9" or sumn). The differences are so close it doesn't even matter, just move your pads in before you do so and squeeze the brake a few times to adjust them.
 

DirtyMike

Turbo Fluffer
Aug 8, 2005
14,437
1,017
My own world inside my head
As it has been said many, MANY times here at RM. A 203 rotor is , more the most part, a 203 rotor. My onkly suggestion, is to measure the actual contact area to make sure it is wide enough for the system you will be using. IE Hayes Strokers pads are about 19.5mm deep for the contact area, when used on a rotor with a 15mm wide contact area, they will ride on the spokes of the rotor. Other than that, go for it
 
DirtyMike is right.... but that is not a major problem... it could give your pads a working over in that little section, but you will still have plenty of braking surface.... and either way, those rotors look like they have plenty of room on the stopping surface....

i run a 203 Hope wavy rotor on a Hayes mag and have no problems if that helps at all... i'm soon to be running it on a Grimeca system 17...
 

- seb

Turbo Monkey
Apr 10, 2002
2,924
1
UK
Or you could buy Shimano 6-bolt rotors like everyone else.
Which will be more susceptible to bending/warping, which I mentioned in point (b), which you purposefully edited out of the quote, cos you're weird :p
 

- seb

Turbo Monkey
Apr 10, 2002
2,924
1
UK
Bollocks, just double checked my rotors and they're 205mm, not 203mm. Curse you, Hope!
 

mandown

Poopdeck Repost
Jun 1, 2004
20,128
7,679
Transylvania 90210
dang, that was almost a fit.

the only issues i've run into are rotor thickness - i went to a hayes rotor with magura brakes and noticed it didin't feel quite right and i couldn't tell if it was because i had gone down from a 210 to a 203 or if there was some other reason. magura tech pointed out the magura rotor is thicker than the hayes rotor, but i figured the self-adjusting feature would account for this.

the other issue would be if there is any pad material from the old brake pads on the rotor that would result in an incompatable interaction with the new brake pads. this is another point raised by magura tech, and i'm not sure how much of a real-world issue this is.
 

- seb

Turbo Monkey
Apr 10, 2002
2,924
1
UK
That's not actually a bad idea. Would probably need to be slightly more than 2mm though, due to the direction of the post-mount. Would also effectively rotate the pad-disc contact area a smidge, but I can't see that being a MASSIVE issue.

Would certainly be cheaper than buying a pair of 203mm versions of my rotors.
 

donnieDarko

Chimp
Apr 16, 2008
1
0
hi,

i have a cannondale lefty fitted with xtr 160m calipers (6 bolt rotor fitting).
i purchased the bike of a friend and currently have a pair of shimano SM-RT61 rotors attached. after going to a shop and having the bike checked out, they said that the rotors are no good for the calipers as they are too thick and too wide and the calipers dont get the full grip of the rotor.
i have checked ebay for xtr calipers and all of them are center locked - im sure that my hubs are not center-locked and can only fit 6 bolt rotors.
i saw the A2Z Stainless Steel Disc Brake Serrated Rotor #SP3 160mm on ebay and they look awesome! though would they be a good suit for my cailpers, if not what would be the best fit? also by the serated edge of the a2z - would this wear my metal pad down quickly?
please help :)
 
May 6, 2004
253
0
Seb,
I ran Formula Oro with formula rotors, shimano saint rotors, shimano xt rotors, avid rotors, alligator rotors (crazy light but kept bending them so ditched the idea) and aztec rotors. I have not run formula brakes with hope rotors though.

I think you should have no problems with mixing. The only variation I noticed is minor differences in rotor thickness but in such case I used thinner brake pads.

As for 200mm and 203mm sizes, I use extra spacers and it works fine. never had a problem before
 

- seb

Turbo Monkey
Apr 10, 2002
2,924
1
UK
I'm just using standard formula rotors now, cheers for your input though!

To those who are mocking me for asking such an obvious question, the thing I was concerned about is that the hope rotors aren't flat discs, they have the rivetted alloy carrier. I was worried that since my Hopes are 4-pot, and the Formulas 2-pot, that the "deeper" pot on the formulas would mean the pads were trying to sweep the rivetted area, which would obviously be bad.
 

HighMinion

Chimp
Dec 4, 2007
87
0
I run Ultimates on 6Ti rotors. The front is fine, though the rear spacing between the carrier rivets and the adaptor did rub (7inch rear). I had to file about 1mm deep and 2mm high of the adaptor so they would clear. As for the caliper lining up on the rotor , I haven't had any problems with that, nor the caliper sitting low enough f/r to hit the rivets (though it is close).

http://www.pinkbike.com/photo/1925143/

sorry I'm an e-newb when it comes to posting pics, but that's of the front. The rivets do just miss it.