I have a friend in my riding group that loves to be different. Somtimes he does things just to make you go "huh?". He has been running his Hayes rotors in the wrong direction on his Bullit. He has an 8"disc rear & 6" front. I thought that you had to run the rotors in the correct direction to distribute the braking forces evenly. Is this a laugh waiting to happen or is this harmless. Please be candid as I will print out the reply's and give them to him.

Thanks,

BB :rolleyes:

Risking collapse or rapid warp of the rotor when braking hard, if the rotor is mounted backwards.

The stress of locking the brake to the rotor is distributed around the rotor when the rotor's spokes face curved forward, as designed for lightweight strength without fully triangulating the directional stress with the hub. In the correct direction the locking brake tension would spread the rotor spokes and expand the rotor if it wasn't for the stronger round circle of the rotor surface area preventing the spread. In the opposite direction, mounted backwards, the locking friction to the rotor pulls the directional spokes towards collapse, with no counter directional shear tension in the rotor's spokes to prevent collapse.

Besides the (probably fairly low) risk of collapse, the rotor would warp much easier during hard and hot use when mounted backwards without the correctly directional rotor spoke's expanding tension helping to keep the rotor contact area tight and true.

- ray

just tell him to turn the wheel around for an even better "HUH" and all of the sudden the rotors would now run in the right direction.

He will eventually warp his rotors... no problem we make more

Brakemeister