Noisy Brakes

[groberts]

New 26" front wheel with slightly ribbed rim finish + new Kool Stop brake pads with cantilever brakes, producing a horrible squealing noise when applied. Any solutions please?

[rmurphy195]

Not enough toe-in of the brake pads. Not sure if the kool stops have the little tab onn the trailing edge to help with this, but in any case what I usually do is take a bit of the card from the blister pack the pads came in (its probably between 1 - 2 mm thick), fold it over.

Use the fold to hang the bit of card onto the trailing end of the brake pad (so you dont need another hand to hold it in place) then trap this between the pad and the rim, with the front end of the pad touching the rim, while tightening up the nuts. and hey presto, enough toe-in to do the job.

[groberts]

Thanks, after much adjustment I thought these were set up OK but you may be right and need to take a look again at toe-in etc.?

[Brucey]

toe in would be the first port of call but

- brakes sometimes wear (in the pivots) and will always squeal with certain pads

- if the mounting points of the brake blocks are too far forwards or backwards on the brake mechanism, the brakes may squeal

- until the rims/brake blocks have bedded into one another the brake may squeal; it may help to clean the rims

hth

cheers

[robgul]

Toe in is most probably - put a medium thickness elastic band round the trailing edge of the pad to get fairly accurate toe-in (or use the Tacx gadget for brake setting)

Rob