I recently picked up an extra set of wheels for a 2015 CBR600RR. My plan is to get them powder coated. While taking off the existing rotors, I noticed the previous owner installed the right rotor on the left and the left on the right. Obviously this must have worked for him, but I figure the engineers placed directional arrows on the rotors for a reason. My question is, when I put them back on the wheel, is there any reason I can't put them back on correctly? Wasn't sure since they were run "backwards" for a while if there would be any issue. I assume not, but I'd rather not guess with the front brakes. Thanks.
Id be measuring the min rotor thickness & runout before reusing them for starters. Id also revirginize the rotor surface by hand, lathe, or media blasting. Is it possible the wheel was on backwards?? Not a fan of powder because of the blast media in bearing race & rotor bolt thread areas.
to add to this, a wheel should only be powder coated <3x in its life. the furnaces aren't well controlled and can impact the heat treatment of the aluminum
I would definitely deglaze them somehow before reinstalling. Thanks. Not sure if the wheel was on backwards or not. They were off he bike when I got them, with no tires. Thanks for the thoughts on powder coating. I may be rethinking that now. They are not that bad and it's just a track bike.
I had 3 sets of wheels due to some endurance racing; I went the cheap route and used Rust oleum "professional" high performance enamel I picked up at Lowe's for like $10 a can. It held up well for me.
Emory cloth is a good material to use for pad & rotor scuffing & easy to keep in your tool box. Acetone is a common brake cleaner ingredient and about $15/gallon. HF has those nifty $38 presurized spray bottles you can refill. Lots of DIY options for refinishing. Also you may want to look into or build some transport racks so the rotors arent banging around during travel.
My powder coater cooks at 180F, I have a hard time believing that would affect the material. Those wheels regularly hit 140+ on the track, dozens of times.
Could be an old wives tale, but I got that info directly from an engineer in the off-road racing wheel industry. Of course 180F isn’t going to do shit to them if that’s the temp your guy is running sounds pretty safe. YMMV
I'd be more worried about the powder getting soft and runny if it only takes 180f to bake it on. You could see temps that high inside a box trailer in a hotter climate.
I heard Durrani wheels were tested and outperformed the competition in cyclic high temperature testing.
That's not how it works. There's a chemical reaction taking place. Very generally speaking, most motorcycle wheels won't have any negative side effects from being baked to about 300F. It's a time/money thing. If the coater is willing to let wheels sit in the oven long enough, 180F is fine. It's not chemically possible for it to "melt".
