Mountain Biking - disc brake squeal without braking

When i spin my rim slowly i can hear a slight squeal in some spots like the inear pads are touching! Is there a way to give more space for clearence??

What kind of brakes? Sometimes mine do this when the rotors are dusty. A simple wipedown usually solves the problem.

What kind of brakes? Sometimes mine do this when the rotors are dusty. A simple wipedown usually solves the problem.

So...when your rotors get dusty, you wipe them down. Do you stop on the trail to do this? As soon as you apply the brakes, the dust on the face of the rotor and pads will go bye-bye.

What a silly comment, mike.

So...when your rotors get dusty, you wipe them down. Do you stop on the trail to do this? As soon as you apply the brakes, the dust on the face of the rotor and pads will go bye-bye.

What a silly comment, mike.

Touche, ed. I actually only hear it when it's on the stand, and when I wipe the rotors it goes away.

You need to develop a caliper squeegee attachment.

Ooooh! With silicone scrubbers to get between the cut-outs...

What brakes are you running?

Hydraulic? Mechanical?

Ooooh! With silicone scrubbers to get between the cut-outs...

Don't they make toothbrushes like that?

you can use an old credit card or something to adjust hydros. the pads set to what ever they are forced to clamp on.

I have hydraulics! Shimano deore! If using a credit card works how do you go about using it as a spacer??

Slack off the caliper mounting bolts. Take a business card and fold it in half. Slip the card over the roter and push it into the caliper. Tighten the bolts and the rotor will be centered.

Also if it is only rubbing in some spots your rotor could be slightly warped. You could try to straighten in out and that could help.

Don't touch it! This is normal for disc brakes, and one of their disadvantages. If it is a minor annoyance while not riding, just let it be. If it really loud and bugging you take it to you lbs and they can probably adjust the caliper to lessen the sound.

Surely don't listen to the guy who says straighten out the disc. Unless you have a special tool (fairly expensive) you'll end up making the problem much much worse. Plus disc brakes do not warp easily - thats the whole point of using them over v brakes right?

Thanx for all the advice! Not really annoying when riding the bike! Can live with that! If going to try any thing then will try the spacer trick with a credit card!

Surely don't listen to the guy who says straighten out the disc. Unless you have a special tool (fairly expensive) you'll end up making the problem much much worse.

Hmmm, that's odd. I've taken some fairly bent rotors (i.e., from crashes, bad loading, etc.) and made them almost perfect. I didn't even use a special tool or any tool, just by hand combined with some patience and common sense.

common sense.

I hate that stuff.

Surely don't listen to the guy who says straighten out the disc. Unless you have a special tool (fairly expensive) you'll end up making the problem much much worse. Plus disc brakes do not warp easily - thats the whole point of using them over v brakes right?

Disk brakes can warp. The heat from a longer downhill run can make them easier to deform and setting your bike down or bumping the with you leg can cause them to become slightly out of true. I had friend who was a little over dependent on riding his brakes and he warped two sets in the first couple weeks he had his bike. The solution to this was, instead instead of dropping $25 on new rotors, to bend the rotors back. Similar to truing a wheel. If it going to far one way give it a nudge in the other direction. Not a huge problem. And that really sounds like the solution because the OP said the brakes weren't rubbing the whole rotation only in certain spots which indicates a slightly out of true rotor.