How to stop brake disc from rusting?

[T0MMY]

A friend of mine has a bike which he has to store outside and which he currently can't ride. It's a Honda Bros so the front brake disc is mega bucks and he's worried about it rusting to the point where it's unusable and needs to be replaced. Obviously he can clean the rust off from time to time but is there an easy way to stop it rusting whilst it's stood? Has anyone ever tried coating their discs in something (non-oil based presumably) to protect them?
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ZX6R + CBR600RR

[fra-zzr]

if hes that worries about it, you could remove it and store it indoors
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[iooi]

How long is he not going ot be able to use it.

Would take a long time for a disk to rust to the point of being no use.
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[T0MMY]

It will be stored until he gets his licence so not sure exactly. As for removing the disc, I did suggest that but he has no tools and isn't much of a mechanic. I can't help him out as I'm 400 miles away now

How long does it take for the disc to start becoming pitted? I've never left a bike stood that long.
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ZX6R + CBR600RR

[uniuk2000]

He's obviously not going to be riding it for a good length of time by the sound of it. How about giving it a good thick coat of grease (yea, I know it's a brake disk). He can then give it a damn good clean when he's ready for riding. Nice and shiny and rust free.

[alun111]

Personally I'd say the best bet was to just buy a bike cover, this will pretty much stop the disc from rusting at all (no rain will get to it).

Second option... buy/borrow/beg/steal a socket set and take the front caliper/s off and remove the pads, coat the disc in something like ACF50, FS365 or regular applications of WD40 if he can't afford the others.
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[SoND]

I'd give it a wipe with WD40 once in a while. Just avoid spraying onto the brake pads and give them a good clean with brake cleaner before you need to use them. (DON'T FORGET)
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[alun111]

[lozzypop1]

Take front pads out, push pistons back into caliper, spray disc with WD40.

Leave the pads in a 'safe place', (preferably somewhere he will see them before he jumps onto the bike without re-fitting)

When he comes to use the bike he MUST THOROUGHLY de-grease the front disc and THEN re-fit the pads or he will die.- Then Sickpup, being a complete vulture will buy the salvage, strip it, and make a fortune on Ebay. (Possibly TMI, but hey, it's late )
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[Skudd]

When he first uses the bike the rust will go from the disc. The main thing is to keep the pistons free from rust,
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[lozzypop1]

[Ste]

[T0MMY]

I gave him a cover with the bike (it's my old Bros) and it is covered 24/7 but it's still rusting apparently. I was thinking along the lines of removing the pads and greasing up the disc then cleaning but I was also wondering if there was any alternative that isn't oil based and avoids having to take anything apart. That said, it is spectacularly easy to take the pads out of the calipers
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ZX6R + CBR600RR

[alun111]

[Wafer_Thin_Ham]

Don't coat your discs with WD40.

Since it's a steel disk it won't rust much anyway. The first time you press the brake lever when you first ride it will burn all the rust off.

If you were using iron disks then it would be slightly more of a problem.

To be honest as long as when you last rode it there was no moisture on the road and it's being stored in a garage it shouldn't rust in any case.
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[Cigaro]

[the grim reaper]

Just ignore it, it'll be fine. I had cast iron PFM discs on my old blade and those rusted faster than a Suzuki. Occasionally the pads would weld themselves to the discs overnight but a quick bump backwards and forwards soon sorted that.

Cheers

Grim
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[SoND]

[MarJay]

The usual advice from bike mags and the like is simply to leave 'em.

When you use the bike, the brake pads will take the rust off of the important areas anyway...
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[Pie-Roe]

Idk why people get so stressy about grease on discs, even a spray of chain lube takes less than a road's length of braking to wear off?

Ok ideally it shouldn't be done, but then a lot of other things shouldn't be done also.

Pyro
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[Wafer_Thin_Ham]

[Ste]

yeah sure it can be cleaned off, but there's no reason why it'd ever be necessary, you don't get any benefit and there's the risk that you'll end up causing problems.

by all means people can coat their brakes with grease or WD40 if they really want to, i hope they'll enjoy having to clean it all off