Bent rotor question re: mushy brakes

[BADS197]

I just replaced a caliper that was bad from what I could figure out.

I assembled the front end and in trouble shooting the brakes more determined that the front clutch side rotor is bent pretty bad. I don't know how it got that way, maybe a bad caliper putting undue pressure on it?

suffice to say as it turns the pistons get pushed back in and when you pull the front brake you have to pump it to get the pistons on the clutch side to come back out.

Is there a way to straighten a rotor? It's an EBC rotor (new) with maybe 5000 miles on it.

can I disconnect and plug the bent side and run with just one rotor up front for now?

Is that even safe?

I do 75-80mph on the freeway and don't run right up on offramps braking at the last second...

Any ideas what bent the rotor enough to be really noticeable?




2002 bandit w/ hybabusa conversion.

[Red01]

I am doubtful you could straighten the rotor out to to kind of runout tolerances it requires.  You could disconnect and cap off the discrapant side, but you will suffer in the brake performance department.  No telling what bent it in the first place.  If you didn't notice a change in the front end while riding, it's unlikely something hit it while you were riding, which leaves something happening while the bike was parked, like falling over and the rotor hitting something, or vandalism.

[bullet5]

I would not attempt bending it back. That sort of item is meant to be that shape once and once only. If it gets bent out of shape as much as yours has then if you ever got it back to vaguely the within tolerances it would be very dangerous as it won't be anywhere near as strong. It would most likely fail at some point down the line with severe consequences.

You can run it with just one brake disc, however as Red stated, your braking performance will take a big hit. It doesn't matter if your a "last second" rider or not, as what happens when you need to do an emergency stop? Sods law will hit you when you're at your weakest, and that would be with insufficient braking.

All the best,
Bullet5.