Rotors do not typically warp from normal heat the way the phrase implies. Something else is usually going on.
Pulsation under braking — a pulse felt in the pedal or through the steering wheel when slowing down — gets attributed to 'warped rotors' almost automatically. It is a convenient explanation and it is usually not the accurate one.
The far more common cause is rotor runout, meaning the rotor is spinning very slightly off of true, or an uneven deposit of pad material transferred onto the rotor's surface. Either one causes the brake pad to contact the rotor with varying pressure once per wheel rotation, which is what you feel as a pulse.
Pad material transfers unevenly onto a rotor most often from riding the brakes lightly on a long descent, or from a caliper that is not releasing fully and is dragging the pad against the rotor even when you are not pressing the pedal.
Uneven deposit can sometimes be corrected without replacing rotors. Genuine runout usually means machining or replacing the rotor. A caliper that is not releasing needs its own repair, or the pulsing returns no matter what happens to the rotor.
Long canyon descents and bench-grade commuting put more sustained heat and brake use into a set of pads and rotors than flat-city driving does, which speeds up whichever of these problems is already forming.
Checks rotor runout and caliper function before recommending a rotor replacement, and can show you the reading rather than asserting the diagnosis.
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