Why Stoptech rotors come with new HW
 

Well, after all the heat cycles the floating rotor pins take during the life of a rotor, they are brittle and don't hold up to being unscrewed, and removed very well...

That is kind of unsettling. I know that brake hardware sees extreme temperatures, but I wouldn't expect the pins to become that brittle and fall apart on disassembly. But even with super high-temp hardware, I'd always replace the bits with new ones.

Just to be clear, they were fine with the rotor on, and after the rotor was removed. They are a light press fit in the hat, and require a small amount of persuasion to remove. It is that persuasion in a direction they are not normally under load in that broke them.

I would also tell you that this is less than a third of the total pins. (12 per rotor)

For god sakes Dean.................Righty Tighty, Lefty Loosey!

I guess buying my brakes was a good idea.

Yes, your's are on, but that is not why I bought them. I have spare rotors with hardware that I could have put on, but my calipers have enough heat cycles as well that they probably need a rebuild which I can now do at my leisure, and I wanted a spare set of hats so I could have an available set of complete rotors/hats to put on at short notice if needed.

Knowing now that it probably takes about 30 minutes to an hour or more depending on misc. issues to move the hats from one old to new rotor, I'm double glad I bought them.

Spare parts are a good thing...