akexpress 

In the interest of lightening up this thread
For Sale
One slightly used Shimano Ice rotor only ridden by couple of tandem riders out for leisurely Sunday afternoon rides. Great shape except for small area of melted aluminum. cheap or b.o.
Thanks for looking
Mark

Chris_W

I agree, a rear rim brake and a brake lever on the stoker's bars is great for adding a lot of extra heat capacity at very little weight cost, especially since the rim is where the mass/heat capacity is, and that is already there regardless. My stoker uses our rear V-brake on major descents when I ask for it during the straight sections. That plus a Formula 220 mm rear disc and a front V-brake has gotten us safely down many of the biggest descents in Europe, plus a few in NZ and Canada. It's great being able to rotate the braking between THREE independent braking systems.

PMK

I'll buy it...would love to see if I can determine the melting point and also see how it is made.

I should be able to program the small heat treat furnace in small increments and watch for it to flow the aluminum.

I agree, all the formulas and science can not overcome the failed part. A quick google search sees this has happened on singles also. More common if the Shimano finned pads and Ice caliper are not used.

PK

mkane77g

We will abuse the new rotor on the flats and gentle downhills and see how it holds up. We have been using a disc on tandems since the early 90's and are quite familiar with there quirks.

brons2

Has anyone ever looked into temperature sensors on rims? If it could be done without severe weight penalty, that would be interesting to me.

I actually stopped coming down the north side of Slumgullion Pass in Colorado on my single to check the rims but they were merely warm, so I kept going. I wonder how it would go on my tandem with 500 lbs instead of 300 as on my single. (me+bike).

akexpress 

Sold to PK It will be interesting to get hard numbers data to see the actual melting temps of the aluminum or adhesive . Hopefully the alu spider does not melt first.

waynesulak

There are round stickers made that change colors at various temps. They can be applied to rims. Unfortunately I don't think there is room on a disk to apply them.

https://www.omega.com/pptst/TL-S_LABELS.html

sine

What happened to the EBC Gold pads? Did they glaze our were you able to use them with another disc.

I'm just fascinated how one is able to put so much heat into a rear disc. In the photo's you posted, it shows the melt occurring between the spider arms. Is this consistent around the entire disc.

Bent In El Paso

I believe it. I made the mistake of touching the rear disc after just a mile of descending while pulsing between the front and rear brakes. The blister on my finger was evidence.

akexpress 

The EBC gold discs were still useable, I did a quick rotor change at lunch and finished the days ride but I did change them two days later as they were quite worn as they had about 1000miles on them. Almost every team that did the longer descents changed pads at least once and sometimes more depending on the brake used and the compound of the pad. I know of people with winzips that changed twice, avids once and bengals once. I think the EBC semi metallic pads are very hard and long lasting but may contribute to the high heat generated. The rotor only melted in area shown in the pictures the rest was not affected, at least visually.

sine

Yes, I did the same after the steeper part of a 10 mile descent.......though I knew not to touch. But, I could touch the al spider. That's what I was interested in-how much cooler the spider was. Al dissipates heat faster than steel.

joe@vwvortex

So after reading this whole thread so far - I've determined that using ICE rotors and not listening to any of Shimano warnings about using them without Shimano brake calipers and brake pads might not be a good idea. Go figure.

That being said - I've got em on my Tandem simply because of the aluminum spider. I was going to go with the Hopes - but couldn't quite figure out which ones would fit my BB7's. Now with the TRP spyre out there - I'm likely going that route and may switch to Hope vented rotors at that time (if they fit). Although I haven't had a single issue with my ICE rotors - i'd like to have the vented rotors if possible. If the vented ones don't fit - i'll run the ICE rotors until I either melt em or wear em out :-)

gracehowler

I have come to the same conclusion, keep us all posted
R&J

p2templin

After a complete (I mean COMPLETE) overhaul, our mechanic put a set of Ice-Tech rotors on our daVinci with Avid BB7 calipers (don't honestly know which brake pads were used). It's been a very "off" year for us riding the bike, so it's seen maybe 250 miles this summer. On a "steady" (12-14mph) 30-mile ride two weeks ago, we came upon a somewhat steep descent (a residential street that drops less than 300 feet elevation over the course of a few blocks). Like too many other descents in the Seattle Eastside, it ended at a stop sign with plenty of cross traffic. I was on the brakes to bleed off 25mph and felt like I didn't have much to work with, and continued to squeeze both front and rear somewhat aggressively. There was some questionable if not scary grinding sound coming from the brakes, and the usual dragging rotor sounds afterward (typical of a warped rotor). At the end of the ride, I checked the front rotor, and it had sharp spots at almost every inward depression. We rode it again, and I decided to swap the rotor to a spare.

Our mechanic, who in a former life designed cookware and is therefore experienced with layering metals, is convinced that we melted the aluminum. Our bike probably weighs 50 pounds with Garmins, lights, and small panniers (with contents), and we're a 470-pound team, but this was no Mont Ventoux or Alpe d' Huez. I think we're done with the Ice-Tech rotors now.

Ritterview

The Hope Vented's don't fit the Spyre. I too am running an ICE rotor until it melts.

The Spyre is real nice. I eliminated some redundancy in the brake cable, and used Nokon cable housing to eliminate as much housing compression as possible (these are also lighter, and look nice). No more brake booster, and brake engagement within a half-inch of lever action. The Spyre has been a major advance over the BB7.

mkane77g

Our ice is still in good shape after 400 miles. Performance seems to improve as the rotor and pads gel with each other.

SaddleSoar

I too have noticed a performance improvement over a similar distance since new. Have you (or anyone) noticed a coincident change in braking sound as the two components were broken in? Using my best phonetical typing skills, I would describe it as having changed from a steady shhhhhh noise to more of a shhhh noise with a simultaneous pulsating shh shh shh noise. Part of me thinks it might just be the wavy O.D. of the disc, and part of me thinks it could be from an unclean spot on the disc. Brake performance is still good, and nothing seems to be loose or rubbing. This is with a BB7 caliper and is only noticeable under moderate to hard braking. Ideas?

uspspro

Ordered a new Hope floating rotor.

Will replace the Ice Tech upon it's arrival.

Thanks to AKExpress and others for posting your findings!

akexpress 

"Our mechanic, who in a former life designed cookware and is therefore experienced with layering metals, is convinced that we melted the aluminum. Our bike probably weighs 50 pounds with Garmins, lights, and small panniers (with contents), and we're a 470-pound team, but this was no Mont Ventoux or Alpe d' Huez. I think we're done with the Ice-Tech rotors now."

Thats at least 5 melted Ice rotors =maybe a trend?


"I too have noticed a performance improvement over a similar distance since new. Have you (or anyone) noticed a coincident change in braking sound as the two components were broken in? Using my best phonetical typing skills, I would describe it as having changed from a steady shhhhhh noise to more of a shhhh noise with a simultaneous pulsating shh shh shh noise. Part of me thinks it might just be the wavy O.D. of the disc, and part of me thinks it could be from an unclean spot on the disc. Brake performance is still good, and nothing seems to be loose or rubbing. This is with a BB7 caliper and is only noticeable under moderate to hard braking. Ideas?"

The pulsing could be consistent with varying thickness of the Ice rotor which should be manufactured to a very close thickness tolerance unless you have started to melt the core in a spot or two,

uspspro

FYI Shimano makes a nice 2-piece non-Ice-Tech rotor. I believe it is the RT76.

SaddleSoar

Found the source of the noise... I noticed a slight scoring of the spider on the outside edge that appears to have resulted from the trimmed arm of the inner brake pad grazing the spider under hard braking. I'm not sure if this was the result of the pad slipping downwards in the caliper, or just the brake pad arm being moved closer to the spider as it was adjusted for wear, but a further trimming of the brake pad arm elminated the noise.

dwmckee

No.