I heat treated my rotor

The brakes on my “road” bike (2017 Salsa Vaya GX) haven’t felt strong for a while, and have gotten loud enough to scare pedestrians over the last month or so. The brakes are Avid BB7 mechanical discs, and the bike has about 3500 miles on it.

Step one to try to get them back into shape - suggested by both the local bike shop and the internet - was to pull the pads and rotors, clean everything with alcohol (in case of contamination), and sand it all lightly to remove any glazing. Then make sure the calipers are positioned and adjusted properly. The front went well, other than the socket of the Torx bolt that immediately stripped when I went to pull the rotor. Luckily I managed to remove it, and my habit of keeping old parts meant I had another bolt on hand. I haven't road tested yet, but the lever feels good and strong.

The back brakes though... before cleanup, I noticed my rotor had a nice rainbow discoloration to the inside of the braking surface. Apparently this indicates these got really, really hot at some point. The internet's suggestion in general was to sand the rotors to remove most of the "polished" braking area, which took significantly more work than it did for the front - these were pretty deeply pitted. Finally, once I got them back on the bike, I realized how warped the back rotor actually was as I tried to get the caliper adjusted. I would not be too surprised if the overheating caused that, or perhaps user error taking the wheel on and off to put the bike on the trainer.

Clearly, it's time for a new rotor, and I'l swap the pads at the same time. Hopefully that gets me back to good enough - apparently mechanical discs don't seem to be well loved, I can't say these ever felt amazing. I'd love to replace them with hydraulics, but that probably means a whole new drivetrain - and at that point it might make more sense to consider a new bike.