Squeaking V brake help

[ishaw]

Well I'm stumped. Never before have i failed to set up a brake without squeaking but the front brakes on my 7 year olds bike just won't play ball. I've tried everything i can think of:

Toe in
New cable
Sanded pads
Cleaned and degreased rim
New pads
Sanded new pads

Nothing at all seems to solve the issue.

The one thing that is unusual to me at least is the noodle has a spring mechanism inside it, presumably to prevent a child from pulling the brake too hard and flying over the handlebars. I've left this up until now as in theory it seems a good idea. Could this be preventing the brakes being set up properly and causing the squeaking? Any other ideas?

Cheers

 

[KermitGKona88]

Re:

You could try lightly sanding the brake surface on the rim

 

[ishaw]

Re: Re:

You could try lightly sanding the brake surface on the rim

True, was trying to avoid that though. Bike is practically new so no real wear to speak of on the rims so a shame to artificially induce this if i can avoid it.

 

[KermitGKona88]

Re: Re:

You could try lightly sanding the brake surface on the rim

True, was trying to avoid that though. Bike is practically new so no real wear to speak of on the rims so a shame to artificially induce this if i can avoid it.

I can understand that

 

[paddlingpool]

Never tried it myself but I've heard that putting talcum powder on the pads helps?

 

[xerxes]

Re:

I had a set of cantilever brakes that kept squealing, I would clean the rims and sand the brake blocks and it would cure it for a while, but they'd start doing it again after a few weeks. In the end I replaced them with a set of V-brakes and that solved the problem for good.

Is the brake arm snug on the pivot, or is it a bit wobbly? That can be an issue as it allows the brake to judder a bit and that can make them noisy.

 

[ishaw]

Everything is tight, I'm thinking the spring mechanism in the noodle is causing judder as it prevents the brake from ever being tight, and will always have some give in it.

 

[FluffyChicken]

Never tried it myself but I've heard that putting talcum powder on the pads helps?

I heard liberal spraying of GT85 over the pads and rims also stops the squeal :twisted:

 

[themountie]

Re:

u could try a different pad may be a bit softer ones

 

[ishaw]

I've tried a brand new set of pads, it hasn't helped. I'll try removing the spring in the noodle i think and set the brakes up soft so that there is little chance of an endo when the anchors are pulled hard. Unless there are any other suggestions of course.

I'll give the gt85 option a miss though, it will stop the endo scenario, but may have the unwanted consequence of preventing any braking at all