Did a AMA (Ask me Anything) Some interesting questions. + Still can't stop brakes squeeling!!! [video]

BOTG

Active member
Oct 28, 2020
233
155
Edo
Squeeling brakes is doing my head in, new pads, new rotor, no spray. LOUD!
 

steve_sordy

Wedding Crasher
Nov 5, 2018
8,936
9,281
Lincolnshire, UK
This stuff works: disc brake silencer by Swissstop. But it is expensive.

Buy the small aerosol can. A little goes a very long way. I suspect the big can is for race teams or maybe motorbikes.

Shake the can well, shake it again! All the metal particles in the can may have settled during storage. If you have any doubt, shake it again!
Remove the pads, clean them up, place face up on a flat surface. Shake the can and give a half second spray with the aerosol. It comes out black and dries quickly to a dark silver. Refit the pads and go bed them in.
Beware! The pads will have zero stopping power at your first pull. Keep at it and once you start to feel some bite, things will improve rapidly.

This product also stops brake vibration, which is what I bought it for. (Vibration/squeal, normally one causes the other).
 

BOTG

Active member
Oct 28, 2020
233
155
Edo
This stuff works: disc brake silencer by Swissstop. But it is expensive.

Buy the small aerosol can. A little goes a very long way. I suspect the big can is for race teams or maybe motorbikes.

Shake the can well, shake it again! All the metal particles in the can may have settled during storage. If you have any doubt, shake it again!
Remove the pads, clean them up, place face up on a flat surface. Shake the can and give a half second spray with the aerosol. It comes out black and dries quickly to a dark silver. Refit the pads and go bed them in.
Beware! The pads will have zero stopping power at your first pull. Keep at it and once you start to feel some bite, things will improve rapidly.

This product also stops brake vibration, which is what I bought it for. (Vibration/squeal, normally one causes the other).
Thanks for the advise, what is it that's actually causing the squealing? water? dampness? it seems so random on the ride, but once it starts its bloody awful other riders don't want to come out with me lol.
 

R120

Moderator
Subscriber
Apr 13, 2018
7,819
9,190
Surrey
Could be a number of reason but in the UK its pretty much a forgone conclusion if riding int he wet and crap they will start to get noisy - if you are heavy on the brakes and its wet it can get pretty loud as the rotor heats up.

Presume you bedded in the pads correctly?
 

BOTG

Active member
Oct 28, 2020
233
155
Edo
Could be a number of reason but in the UK its pretty much a forgone conclusion if riding int he wet and crap they will start to get noisy - if you are heavy on the brakes and its wet it can get pretty loud as the rotor heats up.

Presume you bedded in the pads correctly?
I think so riding for a while while slight onthdn aggressive braking.. Repeat until noise stops.
 

steve_sordy

Wedding Crasher
Nov 5, 2018
8,936
9,281
Lincolnshire, UK
Thanks for the advise, what is it that's actually causing the squealing? water? dampness? it seems so random on the ride, but once it starts its bloody awful other riders don't want to come out with me lol.
Any noise is caused by vibration, which is mainly some sort of stop-start friction. I had a Kona Dawg Supreme that had the mother and father of squealing. Coming down the mountain sounded like a car was descending with the horn full on. The whole bike was shaking as though something was seriously out of balance. I tried everything, and I mean everything. I did all the usual stuff, then asked the MBR Forum (now defunct) and tried all their ideas. Then I logged onto the Kona Tech centre and tried all their stuff. I was corresponding directly with the Kona Tech guy. I noticed that the component on my bike that the rear calliper bolted to was a lighter version of the standard Kona, so I replaced it with the heavier version. When I was in the French Alps it was particularly troublesome and I consulted three different bike shops. Two had seen the problem before, one of them had a Kona that had the problem, the third guy had heard of it. None of them could fix it. I had to hire a bike for the rest of my week in the Alps. I had already tried swapping complete brake sets with my other bike and it still did it, which led me to believe that it might be the discs that were warped or ridged. So I fitted different discs (I'd already tried sanding down the discs, pads, facing the calliper mounts etc). Nothing fixed it!

The only thing that worked for more than one ride was the Swisstop disc brake silencer. But I had to treat it every 200 - 250 miles, depending upon the trail conditions. Copper-Ease on the back of the pads worked but didn't last and you have to be careful not to use too much.

In the end I stripped and sold the bike. I had no complaints from the buyer of the frame and shock. I transferred much of the bits onto my hardtail including the brake set and I had zero problems. I still have no idea what the problem was.

When I get brake squeal now, I ride with the brake on until the squealing stops; takes a few seconds. It is important to keep pedalling. This heats up the pad and burns off any contamination. Speaking of contamination, do you transport your bike on a tow bar rack? I now fit 8" square plastic sandwich bags over the discs when the bike is on the rack. Judging by the amount of oily brown watery crap on the bags, they do a useful job! Fit them on the return journey as well. My wife always had a box of these in the pantry, but I tend to use them after we've finished with them, as long as they look fairly clean on the inside. You will need to cut one side down half way to get the bag past the axle.
 

Mikerb

E*POWAH Elite World Champion
May 16, 2019
6,535
5,015
Weymouth
my experience has always been that brakes will squeal immediately after going through a deep muddy puddle but only once or twice directly afterwards.....suggesting the contamination which is mostly water, is quickly wiped off.
My use of brakes is normally both brakes applied together with more or less pressure on front or back depending on where I am in relation to the bike centre. It usually means the brakes are being dragged rather than firmly applied...at least at first in the braking phase. I wonder if that braking process cleans up the pad/rotor interface??
My other thought is that any form of contamination on the pad or rotor would worsen any tendency to squeal? I never touch the outer edge of a rotor ( or the pad surfaces) and always cover the callipers and rotors with shop towel when cleaning the bike, especially if using any spray. I only clean callipers with fresh water...never any form of bike cleaner.

There are rotors that have angled grooves cut in the braking surface and they act to give mud etc a chance to get scraped off pads. For those with persistent squealing problems maybe they would help resolve the issue?
 

BOTG

Active member
Oct 28, 2020
233
155
Edo
The only chemicals that touch the rotars is the pink muc off. The whole bike gets a spray with it after each ride.
 

pampmyride

Active member
Dec 28, 2020
124
161
Sussex Massif
Squealers.... As above brakes with heat in 'em usually don't squeek. So more noise riding snow!
Check properly bled system, slight air or leak = less power more noise.
Old school motorcyclists tip - lightly coat rear of pad with copaslip. Worked for me on one of my old cycles.
 

BOTG

Active member
Oct 28, 2020
233
155
Edo
Squealers.... As above brakes with heat in 'em usually don't squeek. So more noise riding snow!
Check properly bled system, slight air or leak = less power more noise.
Old school motorcyclists tip - lightly coat rear of pad with copaslip. Worked for me on one of my old cycles.
Copaslip? They sell on amazon? Iv herd these sprays and gels work on noise but reduce braking power masively.
 

Mikerb

E*POWAH Elite World Champion
May 16, 2019
6,535
5,015
Weymouth
The only chemicals that touch the rotars is the pink muc off. The whole bike gets a spray with it after each ride.
"Nano Technology" designed to lift dirt deposit at the molecular level..................suggests to me it probably also removes the sacrifice layer laid down on rotors by the pads. I would not use any chemically reactive product on a brake calliper/rotor!
 

Bigtuna00

Active member
Nov 27, 2019
556
337
CA
There are "normal" reasons for brake squeal that are often talked about, but less often I think there are scenarios where the squealing is due to the components being used as @steve_sordy said. That is to say, with a certain combination of components, things are resonating just so. I have this problem on my front brake. I swapped rotors *and* pads front to rear (meaning I tried pads, then I tried rotors, independently) and the squealing still came from the front.

I was able to temporarily reduce squealing with CRC "Disc Brake Quiet" spray, which is much cheaper than the SwissStop stuff and looks like the same product. It goes on like silver spray paint, looks ugly, but worth sanity. Note: braking power is severely reduced after application, make sure to bed properly.

In the rear I've been running these ceramic pads. They work shockingly well. No noise, good grip, no squeal. I still find it sketchy, I don't know anything about the company, and Amazon is the only place I found the pads. But damned if they don't work. They seem to be wearing quickly, so that might be a downside...
 

Zimmerframe

MUPPET
Subscriber
Jun 12, 2019
14,001
20,757
Brittany, France
Copaslip? They sell on amazon? Iv herd these sprays and gels work on noise but reduce braking power masively.
You put it on the back. You should also do this if you change vehicle brake pads in most circumstances. Or Ceramic grease if you have it - thought it costs about 100x more and your brakes shouldn't be getting to that temperature :)

Certainly not if they're squeeealing.

I find SRAM's Squeal (ScReAM) more though a soaked shimano can also do it .. it's primarily similar to what Steve said, but it's not vibration on an MTB it's resonance - so you also get less braking - or none !

Taping the alternate disk spokes can reduce it as the tape acts as a damper, but it won't always work.

It can also be slightly warped disks, so check that too.
 

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