Well I have been taking time to do maintenance on the road bike and now it is time to spend some time on the tandem. We have a Co-Motion Speedster. I will give everything a good cleaning before storing for the winter. I was wondering about the disc brakes. I will clean the pads with alcohol but what about the discs? I thought I read somewhere about deglazing the rotors?
Any advice would be welcome.
I am doing this to postpone time on the trainer!!

I clean my rotor with alcohol every few weeks. It is surprising the black gunk that comes off the rotor.

Sheldon

While alcohol does get some stuff clean, use automotive brake cleaner for best results.

PK

If they're not squealing or exhibiting any other performance issues you don't really need to do much of anything since it's a mechanical disc brake system.

Isopropyl Alcohol (IsA, aka, Rubbing Alcohol) or brake cleaner can be used to clean your rotors when your disc brakes exhibit brake squeal. Ideally, you should remove the wheel, lay it flat and then apply a light coat of IsA/cleaner to the rotor face, working it into the rotor with your finger so that it can loosen up the embedded material in the pores of the rotor before you begin to wipe it clean with a sturdy cotton or microfiber cloth. Flip the wheel and repeat on the back side of the rotor, then reinstall the wheel. After re-installing wipe down both sides of the rotor with a clean section of your shop rag that has a touch of IsA/cleaner on it, and then use a dry section to "buff" the rotor. It will take a few stops with the brakes to re-season the rotor with brake pad material before they work properly, noting that you may find your brakes are prone to a bit of brake squeal, are a bit grabby and may even have a little less stopping power during this process. A few good stops should make all things right with the world again.

If you believe you've cooked your brakes and have glazed the pads to the point where the glaze doesn't come off through normal use you can deglaze them with 180 or 200 grit sandpaper sitting on a flat surface. Just remove the brake pads, put them face-down the sandpaper and move them with a circular motion until all of the glazed material is removed. Bear in mind, you can end up removing a lot of life from the pad when you do this if you go overboard.

After "refinishing" the face of your brake pads you'll need to spend some time getting the pads and your rotors "bedded-in" again; that is, working the brakes so that the surface of the pads will once again match the face of the rotor as the rotor is also re-seasoned. You do this by using the brakes during normal riding being mindful that you have somewhat reduced brake performance during the process.

Now, if you're so inclined, you can accelerate the process during a post maintenance brake bedding exercise where you use water to flush the pads after each of several hard braking stops, noting you'll need your stoker's weight on the bike to keep the rear brake from skidding the rear tire. You'll know by feel when the brakes have returned to their full stopping power and it shouldn't take more than 10 minutes / 10 hard stops to do.