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That's good advice. Though factual, it was slightly off topic. I would appreciate it as well, if I heard no further insinuation that there's something wrong with my kid, based on my wanting to put rotor guards on my bikes. I will keep it to the detail and limit my posts, how's that.

Hey if anyone knows if an Avid BB5 brake caliper can be moved on its' mount or otherwise adjusted to ride higher on the brake rotor I would appreciate learning that, if possible I would rather make a larger disc but as MR says, at this point the brake pads contact just below the innermost edge of the braking circumference and slightly into that space that I am trying to close. It isn't critical. I've looked it over and haven't found an adjustment, seems like it's a function of the lug position on the frame. Thanks!

Thanks. That's right, also the carbon fiber is super slippery so it's hard to cut a straight line, so the circle kept getting smaller... It ended up a bit smaller than necessary. I will impregnate the cloth with epoxy first on the next try, so it will be much easier to cut a perfect disc. The disc fits within the caliper space but it seems like my pads are hitting too low on the rotor. I am hoping to adjust that. The thickness of the CF disc is about 1mm so it won't fit between the pads but passes through the caliper fine. The next one will be something like .5mm because I am going to press the disc flat as the epoxy sets up.

You nailed it. Obviously I'm trying to write persuasively, to influence people to see this in the way that I do. Can you blame me? It isn't about disc guards, it's about riding, balance, technique, planning, etc. This guard is a small thing. A few guys have a passing interest in what I'm doing so I'm still posting. I hear what you are saying, I call it "risk management." It is part of the responsibility of a father. It doesn't stop with "what did I tell you!" blaming them in some sort of angry tone after the fact just because you thought to mention it once. That doesn't avail you of responsibility for everything that happens to your kid. When there's nobody else around but you or the 10YO to blame, guess what - it's your fault

No problem and thanks for your opinion on the matter. It's not rape when you can choose to unfollow the thread. Seems to me that you are making a much bigger deal of it than I am. You're going off on hypotheticals, I'm trying to stick with the detail of the exercise.

Well thanks for that, man. I do see your point. I am learning trials to save my life. So that something can matter again. Anyhow it's personal. I wear some protective gear but I'm not concerned about getting injured falling off of a bike, I'm rugged, I just don't think it fair that I have to keep in mind those dual spinning meat slicers. The guard idea is a passing thought to follow through with for my personal bikes. Some little guy may lose a fingertip at the skate park but tell you what it is not going to be on one of my rotors. Me 1, fate zero and I want for it to stay that way. I have great respect for people with trials skills. Trials bikes are amazing, fine machines. Not sure how wise it is to run one without a guard though. They are something to admire, pretty fierce, with or without a guard. And something to respect. There is a discipline to the sport. Knowing disc brakes and their use, is a part of that, I get that now. It wasn't great to get bit by that rotor, could have been a lot worse. LIke if it had happened to one of my children. I'll leave fate no quarter there.

Okay. Best practice, is what it is. Doesn't imply anything else. I am reading a lot of suggestions along the lines of, "Trials is inherently dangerous therefore lessening the danger of one minor aspect of trials, is pointless." This is logical fallacy. The fact that trials is inherently dangerous, does not in any way make pointless a lessening of the dangers involved. Not that I mind the criticism. I value learning what others think of the idea, particularly when there is detail. The thread began as a warning to newbs like me and it has served that purpose. I can't move further forward until the Gflex epoxy arrives. That should be tomorrow. I have already created the solution and it is on the bike. It just needs mega-refinement. It's working already.

I respect your position on this, and I do see the irony of it. My shins are all cut up and I'm not going on about a need for pedal guards. The spokes are dangerous, but I'm not taping them off. Part of this is opportunism I suppose; There's a slim chance that this is a niche product that could keep itself afloat, in some circles. Mostly though, it's about possibly saving some fingers. Why not beat up the idea a bit, to see how it holds up. Would saving a few fingers, be worth the effort? How would we ever know that the fingers were really saved? Would the visual deterrent of the guard, be sufficient? Let me get back to you on this.

Fair enough. Barnett's manual cites 55 in-lbs in a sequence of 1, 3, 5, 2, 4, then 6 for rotors with Loctite 242 on used bolts. I was citing best practice. Probably not difficult to hit that torque by feel, once you have stripped out a few rotor positions in practice. A torque wrench is not terribly expensive, I use a small Venzo VPT socket wrench. It came with allen key heads & a T25. It is NM so I have to look up the in-lbs in a chart however.

Valid point to be sure. Trials is dangerous and those moves compound the danger. Still it is so worth the risk to try. I think it also worth mitigating unnecessary risk. Chain/sprocket jambs, also risky and I'm not doing anything about that. All I'm working on is denying brake rotors a free lunch for 2 trials bikes. And having fun with people here, working out the bugs in an hypothetical product idea. This is one of those things, isn't gonna be worth it for everyone but so far it's worth it to me.

Basil Brush, huh. He looks just like Star Fox. I mean that adding material between the rotor and the bolt head might affect the performance or shear resistance of the rotor assembly on the hub, depending upon the material. Aluminum as you suggested would probably be less of an issue than epoxy and carbon fiber. The bolts might have to be tighter - but then the aluminum of the hub will only handle a certain torque before the tapped threads weaken or strip. And adding more dimension between the bolt head and the hub than what was originally there, might lessen the shear resistance of the assembly. Also the bolts could loosen with the addition of softer material in there. And, as the distance between the bolt head and the threads that it screws into increases, the lateral strength of that bolt is going to decrease. Would that matter in this instance? I don't know, what do you think.

This is all good. The edge of the rotor, that is a tough one. Horrid pic but thanks for posting. The Avid guy said that they try to bevel the edges of their rotors, but my rotors are Avid and they don't seem very beveled to me. Making a rotor perfectly safe isn't what I'm trying to do though that would be a noble undertaking. Fox, by the way is that stuffed animal fox supposed to be the StarFox video game character, anyhow isitafox, I thought of the standardized bolt pattern and just adapting to that, but the torque spec is serious on those, and longer bolts and adding material to the join, would probably require some re-engineering. I'm pulling my rotors off in the next couple of days since I've got a torque wrench to bolt them back on. I might try something like that at that point. I like the idea of the solid connection to the rest of the assembly, but to achieve that it would be heavier. What some manufacturer needs to do, is mill a thin countersunk slot to the inside of the openings, fuse some lightweight temperature resistant plastic material to the inside of those openings and put this issue to bed before somebody puts it to bed for them, IMHO. They are the ones who can solve the engineering issues and the product liability issues. It doesn't have to look shoddy and who knows, it could help with heat dissipation or rotor strength so they could market it from other angles, perhaps not at all from the safety angle. Solve the safety problem as a side-issue. It would take away from profit a bit, or they would have to make them more expensive, but if they give consumers a choice, then maybe nobody such as myself could whine about the exposed rotors. They could say, if you don't like the exposed part, you should buy the filled in ones. As far as an aftermarket product is concerned, what makes the most sense to me are thin, stiff, sticky-back adhesive discs in standard sizes that will just adhere to the outside of the rotor such as in my example. THIS is what the woman buying her son a bicycle is going to go for when the lbs guy suggests it. They would fly off the shelves and probably work okay, too. Bike shop makes a few bucks cleaning the rotor and sticking them on, everybody is happy... Nothing wrong with that.

Okay that's cool, I'm not clear on whether I ought to clarify or not, but I appreciate your not meaning to be hostile, I certainly don't mean to be hostile. And I've been called a moron 2 or 3 times here, for trying to close the gap on a brake rotor. A 10 YO is not generally considered to be competent to adult understandings due to his brains not having fully developed, I guess that was my point. Anyhow I appreciate the points that have been made about the overabundance of caution, and labels to protect the commonsense-challenged, but I still think that this is an issue worth addressing.

Two Crocodiles were sitting at the side of the swamp near the lake. The smaller one turned to the bigger one and said, "I can't understand how you can be so much bigger than me. We're the same age; we were the same size as kids. I just don't get it." "Well," said the big Croc, "What have you been eating?" "Politicians, same as you," replied the small Croc. "Hmm. Well, where do you catch them?" " Down the other side of the swamp near the parking lot by the Capitol." "Same here. Hmm. How do you catch them?" "Well, I crawl up under one of their Lexus cars and wait for one to unlock the car door. Then I jump out, grab them by the leg, shake the shit out of them and eat 'em!" " Ah!" says the big Crocodile, "I think I see your problem. You're not getting any real nourishment.See, by the time you finish shaking the shit out of a Politician, there's nothing left but an asshole and a briefcase."

It's proven that I've taken it too far for some. My son is excellent at chess and currently teaching me how to play "Axis & Allies." However mentally acute a child may be, at 10YO his reasoning skills are still in development and he is still subject to distraction. This guard is about kids, but it is also about anyone else who might encounter a spinning bike disk rotor. It is mostly about not having to explain away to stupidity or Darwinian evolution, some good person's having lost a fingertip. Thank you for your thoughts. Hey, like that clip on idea, love to hear your thoughts on it but it's a tough crowd