Disc rotors

I'm building up a couple of wheels. It's a touring/gravel bike but 99%+ of the time used for road.

I can't find much information on the quality of disc rotors. There's loads on ebay for £9-15 from Chinese sellers. Are these fake, or poor quality? There's a big discrepancy in price between them and wiggle.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/185028015391?epid=12052398160&hash=item2b1487751f:g:8bYAAOSwf5RisLsX&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAAwCW9cOSUr%2BZM7rUMsA44q%2FVNb31c6SxA3SkKgqz3lN4DVMr1KBDhd0PZAl3372OBfqTC0NAY8pcJZXWf2uuYn0XKUpYTugYAXUP1WyOQSzBP59QTO0SXIS6PBA1xmvSBhPmkjCRsjx5h4W5iI7UotivIZz7XkJrYypwxnY%2F9XrZwPF2CxhfqMHy9s2Thh94iClV6hqNoo8LGE5%2BAPQc28nUJlM766Yt3GfjJXEqMHw5aEF0aEcfd%2BFqeI7osTlYS7Q%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABlBMUKjyya-KYQ

vs:

https://www.wiggle.co.uk/sram-centreline-rounded-rotor-6-bolt

tldr: just get the cheap ones

Rotors are rotors tbh...
Stick with the the entry level sram centreline or the 105/slx level shimano equivalent.
High end stuff like xtr/dura-ace have fancy manufacturing processes that claim to give better heat heat dissipation but its tiny gains really.
I use centreline rotors, albeit massive 220mm rotors, on my mtb and they stop me fine.
I have really fancy 160mm sram rotors on my road bike and cheaper ones on my gravel bike, virtually no discernible difference in performance. fwiw I'm 102kg right now and they slow me down the way they should!

edit - don't pay £33 to wiggle!
I think the ones on ebay are just very old stock

Clarkes and trp are more than good enough.
Hope good but 50 quid a pop.

Those ones on eBay are almost certainly fakes, if you compare the smaller oval shaped holes they're not the same as a legit SRAM one

However, you will notice absolutely zero difference in performance. In fact, two friends recently bought £5k+ eMTBs, which came specced with the same £10 rotors I'd bought on eBay. They were a bit miffed, but quickly realised they work identically to £45+ rotors so it really isn't an issue

I’ve always found the pads matter more than rotors. I have a stack of rotors that I never seem to get through

Saying that, try and avoid Promax rotors because they truly are absolutely awful

Maybe psychological but I believe I noticed a decent difference in performance between the standard Magura rotors and the MDR-P ones. I think just more contact area on the chunkier rotor may be the reason.

I bought a cheap Clarke rotor from eBay and it’s thickness varied so much you felt the pulsing in your braking. Seller refunded me once I’d sent him proof I’d destroyed it.

Good info, thanks all!

More expensive ones will generally have tighter manufacturing tolerances, so more likely to be round and flat.

But whether or not that difference is noticeable when everything is covered in mud is debatable.

One component that really makes this noticeable is track chainrings. Cheap ones really aren’t that round and will give the chain tight and loose points during rotation.

It's a massive wind up when a rotor fresh out of the packaging isn't straight

I’ve been using these recently and they are just fine. Middle of the road price wise, but I can’t tell the difference between them and the ICE rotors I have on another bike.

https://www.tweekscycles.com/aztec-stainless-steel-fixed-centre-lock-disc-rotor-2013696/?sku=MADPBR4140&istCompanyId=56f52ebf-49f3-492a-9cbb-cb6ab0fc1bf0&istFeedId=33b89177-5114-4491-9c2a-09a3a7cb23b2&istItemId=imlxtmxxa&istBid=t&gclid=Cj0KCQiAmaibBhCAARIsAKUlaKQMFeve2fLncRqRgdmcQ78DCgb5F_yevCLHOqLbYF2cD7NbQSUH528aAokmEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

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