Quick question: Squeaky brakes

Ro: maaan!

Anyone know if there is any easy way to stop brakes from squeaking?

uberwolf

typically this is caused by brakes that aren't lined up properly, followed closely by some brakes that do this because of their own design. In an ideal world the your brake pads should be nealry parallel to your rims, the front of the pad making contact just before the rear of the pad.
Also make sure your brakes are tight enough that you can pull a skid if you want. Thats just to make sure there's enough play in the cabling

Alkers

http://www.parktool.com/repair_help/FAQindex.shtml#brakes or http://www.utahmountainbiking.com/fix/ it's somewhere on one of those. They're very usefull sites anyway.

jman0

Ro: maaan! wrote:

Anyone know if there is any easy way to stop brakes from squeaking?

This can also be caused by dirty/oily rims.
It happens to me sometimes after i oil my chain.
I find cleaning the rim with a kleenex usually does the trick.

Trojan

Always fixed by toeing in for me.

Sheldon Brown wrote:

Toe In

When a brake shoe hits a moving rim, the pull of the rim causes the brake arm to flex a bit. If your brake shoes hit a stationary rim perfectly straight and squarely, the flex of the brake arm will cause the rear edge of the brake shoe to do the brunt of the work. The front edge of the shoe may not even be engaging the rim under hard braking.

Good practice in installing brake shoes is to "toe them in", so that the front part of the shoe hits the rim first. As the brake arm flexes under real braking, it will permit the whole surface of the brake shoe to engage the rim.

Toeing in of brake shoes can also reduce the annoying squeal some brakes make when in use.

Most newer brake shoes have special washers with curved surfaces to allow you to adjust the angle of the shoe to the rim. Older brakes relied on brute force, typically bending the brake arm with an adjustable wrench.

roadmanmad

Brake Squeek or noise is a function of the surface resistance between the rim and the material in the brake pad. Pure rubber pad will squeak a lot more that fibre types.

Just for the record: as i met a few people who had actually done this to remove squeak.

do not lubricate rim surafce.

Pure Rubber in wet gives less friction (stopping ability) to a highly polished surface. Fibre types (more common and cheaper these days) grip a bit better.