Hi everybody,
I own a Surly LHT with cantilever brakes. I have squeaky brake pads that could use some “toeing in.” (They are reasonably new). I tried doing this a few days back. I stuck a folded up business card under the rear three-fourths of each pad and then tightened the pads. After repeated efforts, my front pads looked the same as when I started. One of my rear pads seems excessively angled in & the other insufficiently angled in.

I also tried to make the rear brakes a bit tighter by adjusting the transverse cable that stretches between the brake anchor arms and hooks into them. It seemed like no matter my efforts I either ended up with squishy brakes or brake rub. (The rear wheel is reasonably trued). The difference between squishy and too tight seemed to be a couple millimeters.

Does anyone have tips on how to deal with these issues? Thanks!

To toe in your brakes , use anything from your business card to a rubber band on the rear of the brake pads . squeeze the brake lever ( or tie the brake lever to the handlebars ) as you tighten the hardware on the pad . once done all four pads will be toe in . To adjust the transverse cable , first twist the adjustment barrel counter clockwise so 6 or so of it treads are showing , hold the pads to the rim with a thirdhand tool or something , loosen the bolt , pull the cable tight , tighten the bolt , release the pads , and then twist the adjustment barrel clockwise until the pads clear the rim . also true the wheel if needed.

I use a dime on the back end of each pad, and seems to work pretty well. Just make sure you loosen them completely, before you tighten them up. Loosening them completely seems to let all of the interfaces adjust.

This is a bit of a skill and experience thing.

It also depends on the shoes. For example, KoolStop have a built in Toe-in plow point in the back and will tend to squeal until this breaks in. Adding enough toe-in on top of this "plow" results in excess toe-in and spongy brakes.

On of the easiest ways to deal with squeal without resorting to excess toe-in is to remove the wheel and use a coarse file to remove (chamfer) the back corner of the shoe so it skis above the rim rather than dig in. (imagine the difference between pushing a sled or a box through the snow). This and natural break in will manage squeal very effectively, and odds are the brake will only squeal occasionally when the weather changes. (mine sometimes squeal on damp mornings, and stop within an hour or so).

many of the recent vintage v-brake and canti brake pads have built-in mechanisms (some sort of swivel stuff on them), to facilitate toe-in. i adjust the pads with as much toe-in as i like, and then tighten. the pads stay that way without any fuss.

I never use a shim to establish toe in. Always hold/position by hand and check as I tighten the pad. But some brakes develop a notch where the pad was clamped and there can be a tendency to have the new attempt slip back into the old position. The brakes that don't use concave/convex washers/spacers are prone to this. So sometimes one has to position the pad in a different enough spot within the arm to get past the indents from the previous position. There are times where I file/grind the pad to establish toe in.

On my own bikes I set up the pads flat against the rim and then either ride the pads in or dirty them up to prevent squealing. Andy.