Squeaky brakes

[peterswim]

Anyone have a simple fix for squeaky brakes?

[cotterg3]

Cantilevers, I presume?

Best of luck. Try adjusting the brake pad angle or using different brake pads. If there is excess gunk on the rims giving them a quick wash may help as well.

Using properly adjusted koolstop pads, my cantilevers now only squeal in the rain.

[John Nelson]

One or more of:

1. Clean the pads and rims.
2. Adjust pads so that you have toe-in (leading edge hits rims before trailing edge).
3. Replace the pads.

[Pat Lamb]

In the vein of Click and Clack --

Turn up the radio!

Think of the benefits when you're on a MUP; you don't need a bell or horn, all you have to do is hit your brakes, and everybody within 50 feet will turn around and look, then get out of your way.  If the brakes are loud enough, you can even be heard over the ubiquitous Ipods!

[PeteJack]

My Trek 520 front Vee brake was deafening using Kool Stop high friction pads (orange). I changed to regular Kool Stops (black) and they were a bit better but not much.  I cleaned the rims with alcohol using a Scotchbrite pad and that helped a smidgin more.

Kool Stop recommend no toe in which is why I haven't tried it yet. Before Kool Stops I used Jagwire pads that were silent but Jagwire pads seem to be hard to come by these days.

I agree Kool Stops do not seem to collect pieces of metal like other pads do. I guess I'll live with the noise

[John Nelson]

Yes, a squeak is much better than the grinding you get when a piece of aluminum from the rim is stuck in your pads. I had that grinding, which is why I switched from Shimano pads to Aztec pads.

[Westinghouse]

Occasionally I've had annoyingly squeaky brakes. I checked and realized there was no solution for my problem. The only thing that stopped the high-pitched sound was using the brakes to the extent that whatever was causing it wore down and stopped it. There was nothing obvious I could see that was causing it.