GPVN Disc Brake Rotor
Rotors are something that many of us don't think often. Most of the time we're just replacing them when we get a new bike that has rotors which are too small from factory, what's with that? They can be pretty spendy too, if you want a decent 220mm rotor you'll be paying over $100.
The other thing about rotors is they're actually a consumable. If you've recently bled your brakes and replaced your pads but your brakes are still performing poorly, have a look at your rotor thickness. As a rotor decreases in thickness its performance decreases. Most brands recommend that after 0.3mm of total wear you replace your rotors.
We tested a wide range of rotors to figure out which would have suitable performance for sale. These were our favourite. The performance of these rotors was found to be on-par with SRAM centerline rotors. We named these rotors GPVN which stands for "Great Price, Very Nice" - a name which really amuses us.
These rotors are 1.8mm thick (the 220mm model is 2mm) and are a standard six bolt design. If needed a centerlock adapter can be used to fit them to centerlock hubs, see more info here. They are made of SUS-410 stainless steel which means you can use any pad compound. The swept cutout pattern allows efficient clearance of debris, water and mud. There are also some handy wear indicators, when the indicators are no longer visible you need to replace your rotors.
If you're changing rotor size you will need to get an adaptor at the same time.
Performance Guarantee:
Put simply, these rotors will perform well for you. We will refund you if you disagree. Easy as. Just let us know if you’re unsatisfied and we’ll sort the rest. Further details about the Performance Guarantee can be found here.
Sometimes a rotor may turn up a little warped. If yours turns up like this please let us know. We've endeavoured to send rotors in some actually protective packaging but sometimes that's just not enough...
Rotor Size:
The age-old debate... We're going to speak about the facts and then share our opinion.
Compared to smaller rotors, larger rotors:
- Provide more braking force for a given lever pressure. A 10% larger rotor will give 10% higher braking force for a given lever pressure
- Are significantly more effective at cooling and take longer to heat up in the first place (more thermal mass)
- Weigh more
Getting the same braking force with less lever pressure means that your hands and forearms will fatigue less. This also means that brakes feel less modulated with larger rotors. A higher cooling rate makes your rotors run cooler and you're less likely to experience brake fade.
This is all a game of trade-offs and it's up to you to pick your poison. The way that we think about this is:
- We want reduced fatigue
- We want maximal braking power
- We want sufficient modulation to prevent traction loss
- We don't mind weight penalties
The person writing this has Shimano XT 4 piston brakes and runs a 220mm rotor on the front with resin pads for maximal power and modulation (thanks resin!). They found that resin pads on a 203mm rotor would sometimes get fade on the most extremely long and steep descents. They prefer a 203mm rotor on the back with metal pads which allows their rear wheel to lock up more easily (thanks metal pads). Whilst they like locking up their rear wheel, they also want a small amount of modulation and found a 220mm rotor on the rear meant they struggled to keep traction on the back when applying the brake.
In our opinion, a lot of gravity riders have rotors that are too small. If you're having fade issues, forget fins and get bigger rotors. If you're having fatigue issues and you're not having traction issues, get bigger rotors. If you're having fatigue and traction issues, consider a bigger rotor with resin pads, the resin pads give you a lot more control and with a larger rotor shouldn't have fade issues.
Weight
160mm = 136g
180mm = 167g
203mm = 206g
220mm = 269g
Want even cheaper good rotors?
We temporarily have some similar performance rotors here which are about $5 cheaper. These were some other rotors we liked during testing but the rotors on this listing were equivalently good and we could deliver them to you cheaper in the long term. These are all brand new samples which are unused 😊