real squeaky brake pads
 

so I replaced my brake pads 2 weeks ago with the orange ones. My friend told me to get them because my previous brake pads did nothing for me in the rain and they were new. The new ones stop just fine except the squeaking is extremely annoying. Is there any way to make it stop? My rims are smooth (I think nonmachined is the term) - I don't think I'm going to replace them any time soon.

I use Kool Stop Salmon pads on non-machined rims (Sun CR18 mirror polish) and I don't have a squeal/chatter problem, even in the rain. There's a few things you can do.

First, what kind of brakes do you have? There are some additional adjustments you can make to cantilever brakes that you cannot make with calipers.

On caliper brakes, you can try a few things:
- scuff the pads lightly with some sandpaper
- clean your rims with a Scotchbrite pad
- toe in your brake pads (angle them so that when lined up with the brake track of the rim, the leading edge of the pad contacts 1mm before the trailing end)

On cantilevers you can
- do all three of the above
- lower your straddle wire
- lower your cable stops (there's a crown mounted "uphanger" cable stop for the front that works wonders for reducing squeal).
Putting less length between the stop and the canti arm seems to help.

I just have stock rims on my Schwinn Caliente and caliper brakes.
they say "Continental Kool Stop" on them.
The exact ones

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=173570

Looking at those brake blocks I'm going to guess that it's an older Caliente (They made them starting back in '77). Single pivot calipers and possibly steel rims. If they're steel rims, they're going to squeal more than aluminium rims.