The annoying sound of SQUEEKY (V) BRAKES!

[Robin252]

As I'm putting the finishing touches on a custom 1995 Kona Hahanna single speed city conversion I took her for a test ride last night and the sound of the brakes woke up the entire street.

I guess it might be the orange ("razorblade") brake pads?
The rim surface was clean (maybe too clean) and
I've tried several different pad positionings as that always does the trick on my Kilauea but this Hahanna won't stop squeeking.

Care to share your tips, tricks and theories on how to get rid of squeeky brakes?

 

[novocaine]

lubricate the brake surface? (sorry, that wasn't funny, but it did make me chuckle)

toe out on the pads, so the trailing edge contacts first. we used to use a bit of card on the leading edge to set this.
uber clean braking surface is also a good idea.

 

[konacarl]

Leave them to squeak it acts like a bell

 

[sunympholepsy]

These later XT v brakes always drove me nuts with being squeaky. It’s the play on the pivots that does that. In my experience the only thing that helps is to pack the pivots with thin open-ended disc brake washers to eliminate play. But even that was only 80% successful. Hope you’ll sort it out one way or another. Good luck

 

[Paul R]

cool build, its the cleanlyness thing sometimes, a wet gritty ride usually sorts it out on mine if you brake lightly.

 

[Stressed]

Sandpaper.

 

[CassidyAce]

Clean pads and rims help but it's usually toe-in, not toe-out, that's recommended for reducing squeal. In other words, the front of each brake pad should be slightly closer to the rim than the rear of each brake pad. If you use your imagination to extrapolate an imaginary V shape from the angle of the brake pads, the rim should be rotating from the open end of the V to the pointy end of the V. At the top of the wheel, where the pads are, the rim is rotating/moving forward relative to the bike, therefore the pointy end of the imaginary V should be at the front. (If you had some weird bike where the brakes were at the bottom of the wheel, it would be the reverse, because the rim is rotating/moving backwards relative to the bike at the bottom.) The idea is that this reduces vibration.

I'm not sure that's my clearest explanation ever but there you go.

 

[legrandefromage]

you may have the wrong compound pads

 

[novocaine]

Clean pads and rims help but it's usually toe-in, not toe-out, that's recommended for reducing squeal. In other words, the front of each brake pad should be slightly closer to the rim than the rear of each brake pad. If you use your imagination to extrapolate an imaginary V shape from the angle of the brake pads, the rim should be rotating from the open end of the V to the pointy end of the V. At the top of the wheel, where the pads are, the rim is rotating/moving forward relative to the bike, therefore the pointy end of the imaginary V should be at the front. (If you had some weird bike where the brakes were at the bottom of the wheel, it would be the reverse, because the rim is rotating/moving backwards relative to the bike at the bottom.) The idea is that this reduces vibration.

I'm not sure that's my clearest explanation ever but there you go.

He is right i am wrong. Head was on the wrong way round as i was thing rotation rather than front of bike, back of bike.

 

[Robin252]

Thanks so much for all the suggestions!
I watched the RJ the bikeguy video about this as well earlier.

The Hahanna squeeks alot less now after I:

Toe out the pads - didn't make a difference
Toe in the pads - didn't make a difference

Again cleaned both brake surfaces and pads with everbuild wonderwipes - didn't make a difference, then with contact cleaner - didn't make a difference, then with white spirit - didn't make a difference

Then I sanded down/roughened the pads- didn't make a difference

Then I changed the pads for black ones - didn't make a difference

Then I changed the front wheel for the one from my Kilauea - didn't make a difference

Then I swapped the front brakes for BR-M570
LX parallelogram brakes...- and the squeeking became alot less. Probably some 75% less....

So I'll prob change the rear ones for LX brakes too and try the XT ones one more time once the build is finished.
I found a thread about squeeky Xt BR-M750 brakes from 2014 as well, never quessed the actual brakes could be the problem:

https://www.retrobike.co.uk/threads/shimano-xt-br-m750-squeal.298922/