TESTED: Galfer Disc Shark Rotors

Words: Hayden Wright
Photos: Mike Blewitt

Spanish brand Galfer specialise in one thing, making high quality braking components for motorcycles, mountain bikes, road and gravel bikes. As a company with over 70 years of industry experience, their products have proved to provide powerful and reliable stopping performance comparable and even better than OE equipment any time we have mounted them up to one of our bikes for testing. Their newest offering, The Disc Shark rotors, are claimed to exceed these expectations by providing increased braking performance, heat management and pad life over their previous designs. With recent experience on Galfer’s Fixed Disc Wave rotors and pads, along with the venerable Shimano XT Ice tech rotors I was keen to mount up the Disc Sharks and see if it their bite matched Galfer’s bark.  

The Details

Developed with direct input from both the the Commencal Muc-Off downhill team and EWS winner Martin Maes, these rotors have been created specifically for use in gravity style riding conditions and have already been piloted to World Cup podiums and World Championship wins while still in prototype form. Their namesake comes from the small fins placed circumferentially around the the rotor, which are claimed to help dissipate heat during use to keep the rotor and pad at the optimal operating temperature. To further increase the thermal capacity of these rotors Galfer has manufactured them with a thickness of 2.0mm, rather than 1.8mm which is seen from both SRAM and Shimano. This, when combined with the small holes found in the braking surface should help to keep operating temperatures down even in the harshest of conditions. As these rotors are gravity specific, they’re only available in 180, 203 and 220mm variants with a 6-bolt pattern. Galfer do provide their own centerlock adapters, but they will cost you an additional $50 per end. 

What’s really nifty is the inbuilt magnet for eMTBs. It’s a small touch, but given the braking needs of a gravity bike and a burly eMTB are the same, it just makes sense!

On the trail

Mounting up the Disc Shark Rotors and a fresh set of Galfer Pro compound brake pads was a straightforward affair with my Shimano Deore XT M8120 4-piston brakes. I did intentionally forego my typical process of completing a brake bleed when completing this change, as to ensure that I was doing my best to provide an apples-to-apples comparison between the Galfer products and the Shimano Ice Tech rotors and sintered pads they were replacing. I did have to take a little more care to ensure the pistons were completely reset due to the Disc Shark’s slightly thicker braking surface, but this is nothing out of the scope of any home mechanic. 

Included with these rotors were Galfer’s own stainless steel T25 rotor bolts. A minor inclusion yes, but it’s worth mentioning that they’re a much nicer looking fixing than those typically included with rotors from Shimano and SRAM. Throughout my testing I did my best to ride on trails of varied lengths, grades and in varied conditions to really get a feel to how these braking components performed. Across the board, I felt a marginal but noticeable improvement in biting power across the entire length of a run. On my first few rides I had to re consider the typical braking points on my local trails, as I found myself slowing down a touch early and, in some cases, breaking traction on corner entry particularly on the front end. I also noticed an improvement in braking power at the end of a trail when I would typically experience a little fade from the Shimano equivalents, showing that Galfer’s choice to move to a 2mm rotor thickness was a good one. 

Increased thickness also proved to have added some durability to the rotors itself, as across 3 months of use the Disc Sharks have stayed straight as an arrow with no warping under heat or bends due to impact. 

Verdict

The Galfer Disc Shark rotors are a worthy upgrade for any gravity driven rider who is looking for the highest performance from their stoppers. Their power and longevity proved to be an improvement over products I have used previously, showing that Galfer’s claims are 100% justified. While being an expensive upgrade at almost double the cost of some other rotors, the performance benefits over OE braking components cannot be ignored. If you take your gravity riding seriously and don’t want to leave braking performance and therefore your overall riding to chance – I do believe these are a worthwhile upgrade.

Check out another Galfer pads and rotors test here. 

RRP: $179.99 (203mm)

Available through: fesports.com.au

Hits 

• Improved bite 
• Decreased fade
• No end of run wobble
• E-bike speed sensor included
• Great looks

Misses:

• No direct centrelock mounting option
• Expensive