Review: Ashima Ai2 180mm Rotor

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Noise is a sign that something is wrong or malfunctioning on your bike. Having noisy brakes is irritating not to mention the loss in braking power. Most of the time, the noise is caused by contaminated rotors and pads. This can lead to irregular brake wear.
world's lightest 1PC stainless steel rotor
I have been experiencing noisy front brakes. This is extremely noticeable during wet rides when water comes to contact with the rotors. My front brake is a 180mm Alligator brand rotor. This rotor is the noisiest one I've used so far. My rear rotor is an Ashima Airotor doesn't make this irritating noise. Since I've had good experience with my Ashima, I decided to replace the front with an Ai2 Ashima rotor.

On Paper

The Ai2 is an upgraded version of the Airotor. It weighs 97 grams based on its label. It uses less mass so Ashima warns on fast rotor heat up but if proper brake application is used, this is not a big issue. The low mass enables it to cool down faster so alternating between the front and rear brakes on steep descends will not cause any brake fade due to rotor overheating.  The Ashima website claims that the 180mm rotor is 80grams while the rotor packaging I got says 97 grams.  I'm not sure if there is a newer and lighter version of this rotor and I got the old version or the 97 grams is the weight with the bolts included. Anyway, its super light and I can't complain about that.
97 grams
It comes in a plastic bubble pack with 6 pieces of torx screws for mounting. The package comes with instructions on how to properly mount the rotor and the screw tightening directions. All information is located on the backside of the label. The packaging gives a premium feel to it.

Performance

red and black theme
On a 26km ride, I noticed that the braking power is less compared to the Alligator rotor. This can  be attributed to the lesser contact area compared to the old Alligator rotor. The brake power reduction is not really that huge, it still performs well.
notice the wide braking surface of the Alligator rotor.

I did not notice any brake fade when freewheeling on long downhills. I alternate the front and rear brakes so the rotors could cool down in between brake applications.

The most important part of this upgrade is that my front brakes is noise free.

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