Turning motorcycle rotors?

[utlonghorn343434]

I have a few small, raised "imperfections" (about the size of ball point pen tip or so) on my front rotor that seem to be causing a grinding feel when I use the front brake... looks like the pads have some heavier radial score marks where these imperfections are catching, too.

Figured I'd replace the pads and try to either sand these things off my rotor or just get the thing turned. The rotor isn't warped or anything, just don't like the sound of that grinding noise.

Recommendations either way? Would O'Reilly or someone else that does automotive rotors be a reasonable place to take bike rotors to? (provided there's enough material to turn the rotor and remain within the stamped service limit, of course).

Thanks for any advice out there -

Rob
(yes, I'm a noob at this motorcycle thing)

[scratch]

How many miles on your bike? Have the imperfections in the rotor always been there, or is it the result of possible damage? If it's still under warranty, and it's likely to be a manufacturing defect, you should talk to your dealer about fixing the problem.

I don't think it's recommended that you ever turn motorcycle brake rotors because they are so thin to begin with. They should be marked with a minimum thickness somewhere on the disk carrier, and once you get down to that point they need to be replaced.

[HotChickenStrips]

Like paul said, they are so thinI would not recommend turning them, besides, they are made of a different alloy than automotive rotors and if they manage to mount them on the brake lathe the bits the machine uses will cut the rotors, but you will not like the end results, thats because for some reason the rotors will chatter so bad the surface will get severely scored. Don't ask how i found that out. :oops:

[utlonghorn343434]

Thanks for the responses. The bike only has 7400 miles on it.

If I remember right, I think the grinding started after I had a shop put a new tire on a few months back (Don said the grinding might have been due to improper caliper installation, but I can't see any evidence of rubbing/scraping on the caliper housing).

The grinding is only noticeable when I'm slowly pulling up to a light, and it seems pretty uniform (ie: 360 degrees of grinding, if that makes any sense).

I'll hold off on getting the rotor resurfaced, thanks for the tip!

[utlonghorn343434]

...I went ahead and put the original pads back on, bled the front (and the rear for the heck of it)... and it doesn't seem to be doing the grinding thing anymore, at least in preliminary parking lot testing.

??? Weird.

Hopefully it doesn't happen again for a while.

[scratch]

Did the noise start after you put the new pads on? The EBC HH pads on my front brakes are quite a bit noisier than the OEM pads, but that's just their normal characteristic. Perhaps that might be what you were hearing?

[utlonghorn343434]

A guy at Zabor's said the same thing, the pads I had were just noisy pads and that the surface scoring was normal (but seemed like after they changed the front tire the grinding was almost ABS-like sometimes when coming up to a stop light).

Probably my imagination, who knows :)