Forums >Cross Training>squealing brakes on bike
- Anya
Why is it sideways?
It's easier to point you to a site than describe it myself. Check out this one: http://www.bikeman.com/content/view/704/115/ Now with clickable action I do something like the matchbook trick described in that link. Kirk
He's pretty close to being right. Except.......DO NOT lube your chain with WD40. WD40 is actually a piss poor lubricant. It will also eventually turn to a thick gunk. It was originally designed to break loose rusted parts and it doesn't work very well for that either. A can of Tri-flow will be fine. It has teflon in it. Try cleaning the brake surface on your rims.......a little time / more use too....sometimes it'll go away. There are much better brake materials today so new brakes may help. A bike shop will charge around $15.00 plus cost of brake shoes to replace but will probably find loose cables, rims out of true, etc......Much like the oil change shops.....always something else. The rubber on the shoes has most likely hardend so I'm guessing new brake shoes. BTW......After reading his response I can see why you divorced him.
Son, when you participate in sporting events, it's not whether you win or lose; it's how drunk you get. -- Homer Simpson
. BTW......After reading his response I can see why you divorced him.
Consistently Slow
Run until the trail runs out.
SCHEDULE 2016--
The pain that hurts the worse is the imagined pain. One of the most difficult arts of racing is learning to ignore the imagined pain and just live with the present pain (which is always bearable.) - Jeff
http://bkclay.blogspot.com/
rectumdamnnearkilledem
Getting the wind knocked out of you is the only way to
remind your lungs how much they like the taste of air.
~ Sarah Kay
DH has like 6 bikes
Wow.
Team HTFU NCTR Driver
Hullo, he of the 6 bikes here... (and it's 2 roadies, 1 mountain (29er), 1 'cross, 1 old mtb for kid-hauling, and 1 crash-o-matic tandem, with ditch-seeking steering) So, yeah, 13 years old, your brake pads are hard as rocks now, and almost as effective at slowing you down. Go dig your fingernail into the tread on a car tire - your bike's brake pads should only be that firm or a little firmer. You need new ones. Some folks put in new ones every year; that's probably excessive (assuming they haven't worn down too much). I just replaced mine on my good road bike after about 4 years and 10,000+ miles, and the difference was pretty remarkable. Now, some of the stuff your ex said wasn't too bad. You can actually improve a brake pad by filing its surface, and by digging out whatever bits of rock and sand have embedded themselves into the pad itself. As for the rims, they can get some glaze on them, but you shouldn't be more aggressive then lightly sanding them. Rims wear from braking, there's little sense in accelerating that process. Sqealing is indeed caused by vibrations ('cuz that's what sound is, yo). The root cause of such vibrations is hard to trace, though. Take one pair of brakes that wail on one bike, put 'em on another, and they're silent. Some types are worse than others, though; cantilever brakes are usually the worst offenders. My old cheaps cantis on my cross bike would howl like a tomcat with it's nuts stuck in a mousetrap. Santa brought me some nice Avid Shorty 4s, and they're quiet as can be even when they're wet. In any case, have a bike shop install them for ya. Bring the wrench-dude a beer as a tip, he'll be your friend for life. But WD-40 on a chain? That's unforgivable. WD-40 is better for cleaning a chain than for lubricating one. Use something made to lube a bike chain, like Dumond Tech Lite, or Pedros, or, criminy, put some motor oil on the thing. Anything but WD-40... did
Zoomie, wish we were neighbors too!