Brake squeal; help!

[Brandane]

This is driving me nuts now! My MTB has Shimano Vee brakes, fitted with kool-stop dual compound pads. All was well when I first fitted the kool-stops but recently the front pads have started to screech, quite loudly.

Things I have tried.......

Cleaned rims.
Roughened contact surface of pads.
Toe-in adjustment.
Toe-out adjustment, purely out of curiosity!
Swapped pads between front and back; result is I now have screeching front AND back brakes......

I have kool-stops on 2 other bikes and normally I would swear by them; now I am swearing AT them. Any ideas?

 

[Portex]

I thought from year's back that screeching brakes were the most efficient. It's caused, I think, by resonance between the rim metal and the brake material. The only way around it is to check the alignment of the brake shoe against the rim. If you move it very slightly out at the trailing edge so the rim and the pad are not quite parallel it might solve the problem. Personally I just live with it - see my first sentence