turning rotors
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- quasi2008
- Posts: 126
- Joined: Fri Oct 05, 2018 12:18 pm
- Location: morgantown wv
- Motorcycle: 1982 GL1100I INTERSTATE
turning rotors
considering that new rotors are about $215. ea, anyone had theirs put on a brake lathe and dressed up? mine aren't real bad, just some light grooving.
man can't live on air alone!
- WingAdmin
- Site Admin
- Posts: 19869
- Joined: Fri Oct 03, 2008 4:16 pm
- Location: Strongsville, OH
- Motorcycle: 2000 GL1500 SE
1982 GL1100A Aspencade (sold)
1989 PC800 (wife's!)
1998 XV250 Virago (sold)
2007 Aspen Sentry Trailer
Re: turning rotors
Bike rotors are not like car rotors. They are extremely hard, and not designed to be turned. Not only will most automotive lathes not fit the rotors in the first place, most of the lathes won't actually machine bike rotors, because the rotor material is so hard.
There is one place online that has specialized equipment to machine bike rotors, but it's not cheap.
Because bike rotors are so hard, they are designed to not wear the way automotive rotors are. And because of this, the tolerances are very small - it does not take much wear on a bike rotor to bring its thickness below minimum limits.
Incidentally, this high carbon content steel used for bike rotors is one of the main reasons for their high cost.
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- Posts: 110
- Joined: Sat Aug 11, 2018 9:26 pm
- Location: b.c. Canada
- Motorcycle: 1982 gl1100 interstate; resurrection complete.
1980 gl1100 interstate; resurrection underway.
Re: turning rotors
good golly, miss molly ... so glad i read this !
i have a set of wheels that i was going to let go for very little money, with rotors still attached.
i think i am going to store them under my mattress now until i need them !

i have a set of wheels that i was going to let go for very little money, with rotors still attached.

i think i am going to store them under my mattress now until i need them !
- virgilmobile
- Posts: 8744
- Joined: Sun Sep 19, 2010 5:39 pm
- Location: Denham Springs,La.
- Motorcycle: 1988 GL1500 I
Previously owned
78 GL1000
81 GL1100
82 GL1100 I
83 GL1100 I
83 GL1100 standard
84 GL 1200 I
Re: turning rotors
This is the reason to use OEM brake pads.Cheaper to replace them often rather than one rotor just once.
Same for my truck.
Same for my truck.
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- Posts: 1101
- Joined: Fri Jan 02, 2015 7:28 pm
- Location: Amity. Ar
- Motorcycle: 2010 GL1800
2004 Suzuki DR200
Re: turning rotors
If the rotors are not warped and still above minimum thickness use them, grooves won't hurt anything.
- CrystalPistol
- Posts: 572
- Joined: Wed Mar 10, 2010 9:07 pm
- Location: Shenandoah Valley of Virginia
- Motorcycle: 1985 GL1200A
1997 GL1500SE Lehman Trike
Re: turning rotors
Even with car rotors on my several police cars, never turned them to smooth out grooves, pads will wear to fit grooves fast anyway.
Only time I have had rotors turned was when warped bad … and that was a short fix. Still had to replace them.

- DenverWinger
- Posts: 583
- Joined: Thu Jun 23, 2011 2:20 pm
- Location: Denver, CO
- Motorcycle: 1980 GL-1100 STD Vetter (2005-)
1993 GL-1500 Aspencade (2017-)
1983 Trav-Lite Camper (2010-)
Past rides
1972 CL-350 (1980-1988) sold
1978 Suzuki GS-550 (1985-2005) sold
1977 GL-1000 (2002-2006) sold
Re: turning rotors
A little off-topic, but a race-car driver friend gave me a hint to stop brakes from squeaking on my 1100.. I guess they do this on race cars.... The '80 1100 has solid rotors (no slots or holes in the brake surface) and the brakes would squeal like hell when applied. I guess the slots and holes help with the squealing. I suppose OEM pads wouldn't do that on solid rotor but those are scarce. He said to take a die grinder and put some serious radial scratches in the brake surface on one side. I took the front rotors off and scratched them up on the inside surface, and the rear brake I just scratched up where I could get to it with the wheel on the bike, looks kinda ugly but rotor is mostly hidden by saddlebags and whaddya know - IT WORKS!. Lasts a couple seasons until you finally wear out the scratches and the squeaking returns. Just do it again, you will probably be replacing pads at that time anyway.
♫ 99 Little Bugs in the Code, ♪
♪ 99 Bugs in the Code. ♫
♫ Take one down, Patch it around, ♪
♫ 127 Little Bugs in the Code. ♫ ♪
~Mark
♪ 99 Bugs in the Code. ♫

♫ Take one down, Patch it around, ♪
♫ 127 Little Bugs in the Code. ♫ ♪

~Mark