What is rotorburn?

When you brake your rotor gets hot, After a lot of braking, it gets REALLY hot, and when you touch it, typically with your legs (or face, as a friend of mine somehow managed to...) you get burnt.
 
Australia said:
seriously, never heard it before
Click to expand...

Never mind the silly posts above.

Rotorburn is what happens when pro DH riders go really fast. As they reach terminal velocity the air pressure combined with friction results in a tremendous amount of heat. There is a photo of Sam Hill somewhere in which you can see his rotors have become white hot due to this frictional effect. In very severe cases of rotorburn the disc may become slightly molten and soften up to the point of falling off the mounts. This is clearly a very dangerous situation and one which fast riders seek to avoid by using knobby tyres. The knobs on the tyres act like a fan when rotating at high speed and direct a cooling breeze onto the hot brake rotors thereby preventing excessive heat build-up and the dreaded "rotorburn". There has been some tendency amongst US riders to revert to V-brakes this season in an effort to maintain braking efficiency and safety even when terminal velocity has been reached by the rider.
 
Rotorburn

Rotorburn sounds like it could be a real risk cause I reckon I go downhill even faster than Sam Hill. I wiegh quite a bit, and my bike is a bit porky too.

My Avid BB7/w Roundagon rotors sounds like a prime candidate for rotorburn...

I wonder if I should contact SRAM?
 
Here is a picture of someone that has had contact with a hot rotor.
Looks pretty bad. Sorry about the tiny picture.
 

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