noisy brakes

[gavroche]

The brakes on my Specialized Allez are very noisy when applied. Is that normal of should I use different pads? The bike has only done about 300miles so nothing to do with wear and tear.

 

[Norm]

Noise can come from a million things, it would help if you said what sort of noise.

Squeaking / squealing can come from the toe-in / toe-out of the blocks on the rims. I can't offer much more than that, I'm afraid, beyond a little personal experience.

After a bit of fettling a few weeks ago, I had really squeaky brakes on my Tricross and a quick check showed that the rear of the block was much closer to the rim than the front (toe-out). I adjusted the angle so that the front was just touching before the rear (toe-in) and the noise went away.

However, noise can also come from contamination on the rims or the pads, loose calipers, metal-on-metal, headset issues... etc

 

[smokeysmoo]

+1 for toe in. I have a zip tie set so I can hook it over the end of the pad when I set my brakes, this gives just enough toe in IME and my brakes run silently.

Pads can help too, but set up is more often than not the cause IME

 

[Trevrev]

My sons BMX has "vocal screech" blocks on it. They're meant to be noisy!
Sure you haven't got these fitted to yours?? LOL.