due ruote 

I'm tired of hearing my Kool Stop pads squeal, and I don't want to bend the caliper arms. I know some of you just replace the cartridge with modern ones that actually work and make toeing in easy, and that's what I intend to do. So, which ones? Ideally they will be reasonable cost, will stop the bike and won't squeal. And they have to be silver. TIA

lostarchitect 

Dang. I was going to offer you some of the Kool Stop ones I have that I don't need.

bloom87

Tuff pads, found on ebay.
Great stopping power & durability and more classic look (well, depending on the color)

due ruote 

The ones I'm seeing look like Kool Stop Continentals.


I was thinking more along the lines of a cartridge, with a ball joint bolt that allows easy toe-in. Like these, but not gray.

Pars 

I was thinking about going a similar route on mine as well. I've got a set of Kool Stop Salmon, and am currently running a set of the KS black. Couldn't get the salmon to STFU reliably, and still occasionally have trouble with the black. I have bent my arms a little, but having pads that the toe in was adjustable would be nice. Haven't tried the pop can tab trick someone pointed out recently in another thread though.

miamijim

Grind toe into the Kool Stop cartridges versus bending the arms.

due ruote 

I guess I'll try that first. Nothing to lose, after all.

kroozer 

Could you get some sort of wedge-shaped washer that's thicker on one side?

due ruote 

I think ideally you'd need one on either side of the caliper arm. I wouldn't know where to obtain such a thing. I thought about making some but couldn't find alloy washers (not that I looked real hard) and the thought of filing down 8 washers just didn't appeal.

[edit] OK if anyone's interested, McMaster Carr has 1/4" alum. rivet washers with a 1/2" OD. Those would probably work. But again, I don't feel like filing them and I don't own a bench grinder.

lostarchitect 

You could sand down some nylon ones in a few minutes, I'd bet.

rootboy 

I did this on my old Campy pads. Worked pretty well. It doesn't hurt to de-glaze them from time to time on a piece of sand paper laid flat.

noglider 

Just keep riding. The squeal will eventually go away.

due ruote 

You may be right, but it's so annoying I just pick a different bike. Poor Moto is feeling left out.

noglider 

OK, I know this is going to sound insane, but you could try oiling the rims. I'm not kidding. You can wipe off the excess, and certainly ride gently until braking returns to an acceptable level, which won't take long. This has been known to work at times, and there isn't really any harm in it.

repechage

Not for me. I have found that on one bike there is no squealing. The reason? the mount hole in the front fork is drilled slightly rotated, like 2 degrees, maybe 3, the angular contact of the pads to the rim keeps that bike quiet, for an A-B test I even traded calipers from one squealing bike to the other. the bike with the miss drill stayed quiet.

Grinding or sanding a slight taper in the pads should do the same thing. i have a belt sander, the easy method.

Charles Wahl

I like the Kool-Stop Thinline pads, though they're not vintage-looking. They're one of the types that come with cup + dome washers, so that you can toe-in when fitting/tightening them. Super-adjustable, though as harpsichord designer David Way observed, "Infinite adjustability provides an infinity of wrong adjustment—and only one right one." This is also true of a lot of bike stuff, as we debate it endlessly.