[K-max]

My wife's bike is a Giant Trance 1 and I set her up with some bling brakes. I was pretty careful to install the brakes properly, making sure the spacing was dead on. They were good for a while, but have since been making the most god-aweful racket. I thought I'd heard that this was common with Hopes, but I'm wondering if maybe it's just the stock pads that may be too hard. Any advice?

 

[LyNx]

Well there's a whole Looooooooooong thread on this very topic if you dig a bit. BUt here's a bit I gathered from it - I too own and ride Mono Mini with no problems except in the wet, then they squeal)

Make sure that the fork tabs are faced/square to the rotor or this might produce noise. All brakes produce vibration, which is essentially what noise is so depending on what your frame or fork are made of can either increase this tendancy or help reduce it. Look for the thread, it is very in depth with lots of opinions, experimentations etc.

 

[BipedZed]

Given up on Mono Minis

I've had 2 different sets of Mono Minis (regular and 2 piece rotors) on 2 different bikes, and on both bikes the rear brake squealed horribly on descents. Both bikes were IS mounts on the rear and I took the time to properly face and center the caliper.

After trying everything (facing, deglazing pad, cleaning rotors) I came to the conclusion that while Mono Minis are light, look great, and most importantly feel great, they are prone to overheating and therefore squealing. To achieve the stopping power in such a small caliper the Mono Mini design uses metallic pads and puts quite a bit of pad against the rotor. On long steep descents the caliper/rotor interface overheats and squealing ensues. In my case it would resonate my frame to the point I would lose concentration. The only solution I found was to use Kool Stop pads on the rear which are non-metallic - but then you lose all modulation and it becomes an on/off rear brake. With the Kool Stop pads the rear was silent but I'd lock up the rear wheel all the time.

Mono Minis seem to work fine as long as they do not overheat. A typical ride for me climbs and descends about 2000ft. The brakes would be fine while climbing and in rolling terrain, but as soon as it pointed steeply downhill it would start squealing like crazy. I imagine UK and east coast riders have less problems with squealing than those in mountainous regions. FWIW I'm 155lbs and can descend with the best of them, so it's not like I'm huge or riding brakes all the way down.

Good luck. I switched to Magura Marta SLs and they are absolutely SILENT on the same frame. The modulation isn't quite as good as the Mono Mini, but I'll take the silence over the squealing anyday.