MTB solution to Brake squeal

[Skylark]

Some cool tricks here, just a bit weary of the copper slip migrating onto the brake pad material?

[Jigghead]

I moved from Avid Elixir 7 to Shimano XT and all squeaking stopped. It was new rotors as well. I believe the Avid make more noise in the wet as well. I must say tho, alothugh very ugly, the Avids worked well.

[JXV]

Squeal is caused by slight mis alignment between disc and caliper which allows the pad and its backing plate to oscillate very rapidly between the two when brakes are applied while the disc is turning. New discs and pads and caliper alignment will nearly always fix the problem. If it does not, your caliper mounting posts might not be in line with the disc and this is a difficult problem to fix.

 

The other approach is to apply a damping material between piston and backing plate of the brake pad. Sometimes the backing plates are painted and this should help. Copaslip also helps but put it on very very thinly.

I would always recommend going as far as you can with alignment first, then try copaslip as a last resort.