ShartRate

I've been trying to set up the brakes on my Long Haul Trucker and I've had varying degrees of success. I put some Kool Stop salmon pads on and I've finally toed them in so they don't squeal, but now I get chattering when braking from the hoods (but not from the drops interestingly).

I tried tightening the headset a tad, centering the pads, toed in the pads, but the chattering is still there. I've seen talk of fork-mounted cable hangers but I thought I'd see if anybody else with the same bike had the same problem and solutions.

HillRider

Are these cantilever brakes? If so, and the cable hanger is at the top of the headset or stem, then, yes, that is a common cause of chatter due to the steerer flexing under braking loads. However, that is usually a problem with carbon steerers, not so much with the steel steerer you have on your LHT.

ShartRate

Yup, cantilever brakes. I'm a big dude so I think that may be exacerbating the problem.

HillRider

Yes, your size probably does have an effect. The recommended cure as you mentioned above is a fork crown mounted cable housing stop.

brons2

I have the same problem with my Paul Taylor front brake at slower speeds. I have 105 short reach caliper brakes. The chatter is not noticeable at high speed but when I am coming to a stop it's pretty noticeable. I've gotten so used to it though that I pretty much ignore it. But if there were an easy fix I would probably implement it.

I am also a big guy, 6'7" about 270ish.

For a caliper brake though would a cable housing stop on the fork do any good?

Hibonite

Before recabling your bike with the fork crown housing stop, which should eliminate the problem, try going with even more toe-in first. I have the same problem on my bike with the very long head tube and I find that the cantis move quite a bit with the rim when applied and eliminate the toe-in if I don't toe-in a lot. Make sure to look at the brake pads under load with the wheel moving forward and you may see that the toe-in is eliminated resulting in the chatter.

ShartRate

Another disadvantage of being fat I suppose

I'll try the extra toe-in before anything else since that's the cheapest option right now.

I've seen mention of people trying the fork mounted cable hanger on the LHT without as much luck (mounting the hanger that is). Right now I'm pricing out an upgrade to V-brakes, as I have these on my hybrid and they give me fantastic stopping power without all the chattering or finicky setup of the canti brakes.

But, if I can get the cantis working satisfactorily that'll save me a few bucks

fietsbob

sandpaper face out, scuff the mold release face off the new Pad.

It only happens at slow speed , ? Wont need to ring the Bell on the MUP then. it's a feature not a Flaw..

ShartRate

Hibonite gets a gold star. After putting about 3mm (!!!) of toe in on the front pads. No more noise or chatter in the front brake. I'll have to ride it around a bit more in order to decide if they are still strong enough for me.

HillRider

Don't be surprised if the chatter comes back after a while. The front of the pad will wear down to the point that the rest of the pad sits flat on the rim and the noise may reoccur.

HillRider

The cable housing stops on caliper brakes are on the calipers themselves and there is no other place to locate them. As above, try toeing the pads in a bit more and check to be sure your rims are clean and relatively smooth.

ShartRate

Yeah, I'd already considered it. I consider the current state to be a sort of kludge so that I can ride the bike if I want. Satisfied that it _could_ be fixed, I just ordered the fork-mounted cable hanger. I figure that's the cheapest solution for now, every time I started pricing out a V-brake conversion it got close to $100 right quick!

Right now I'm just happy that I may be able to get max braking out of this bike. So far, between the chatter and the squealing I've been very cautious with the brakes.

ShartRate

FWIW, I installed a fork crown cable hanger and toed the brake pads again. Still getting a little noise, but the chatter is all gone. I'd also like to think that the braking power improved as well, but that may just be because I can use the brakes a bit more confidently now.