Are all brake rotors born equal?

[Proto]

Putting together a second pair of wheels for my Cannondale Topstone Carbon, one for road and one for gravel and I'm short of a brake rotor. Decided to stick with 160mm dip on the front and 140mm on the back. Prefer centrelock over 6 bolt.

Before I splash out, what are folks experiences and opinions of the many different brands on the market? Do some stop you better than others? Do some run truer, or quieter, than others?

 

[Slick]

Its like everything else, a matter of personal taste and opinion. I have one bike that brakes perfect and completely noise free and another that sounds like an old diesel train pulling into a station. I have used different rotors on each bike but I think its more to do with use as the silent set is on the commuter and the noisy set is on the carbon bike. Turns out because I don't like to use brakes much on a weekend run, I can feather them leading to glazing and the dreaded squeak. The commuter gets blasted through all sorts and gritty puddles do their bit to keep the surface rough, so I reckon you could pretty much get anything you fancy, but be mindful of what type of use you will subject them to.

All pure conjecture, obviously.

 

[DRM]

Putting together a second pair of wheels for my Cannondale Topstone Carbon, one for road and one for gravel and I'm short of a brake rotor. Decided to stick with 160mm dip on the front and 140mm on the back. Prefer centrelock over 6 bolt.

Before I splash out, what are folks experiences and opinions of the many different brands on the market? Do some stop you better than others? Do some run truer, or quieter, than others?

I’d try to get exactly the same brand of wheel and disc combo that you already have, that way they will slot straight in, I found that I have to tweak the front calliper slightly when swapping between the standard 6 bolt Marin wheels with gravel tyres, and the Fulcrum’s with centre lock discs and road tyres

 

[Peter Salt]

Of course, there are differences between rotors. However, in the grand scheme of things, all of them are somewhat inadequate when it comes to heat transfer - which is a bit of an elephant in the room of the bike industry.