Was on hols during the recent cold flurry, so took the chance to get some practice riding on ice and snow. excellent fun, nothing too exciting, but fun nonetheless…

however, my discs (shimano XT br-m765 160mm) started “howling” whenever I used them. really really loud, too! riding with them held on for a short while cured it temporarily, so I was wondering if they simply don’t like the cold? I was also wondering if the pads might be contaminated from driving with the bike on the roof along the motorway (road sludge getting flicked up etc..)

one long descent (tarmac, boo!) gave me a chance to warm them up, to the point where any snow that fell onto them was quickly turned to rather impressive plumes of steam!

and then the howling came back when they cooled down again.

I’ve not had any problems with them up to now, so am almost certain the cold has upset them…

I’d really appreciate your thoughts…

thanks.

Shimanos are generally noisy IME, esp in wet conditions. Aside from all the normals (pad change, rotor clean) try some copper slip grease on the pad backing.

Hadn’t thought of copper grease, thanks, I’ll give that a try!

In the shimano docs, they say to not use brake cleaners, do you know if this applies to *all* brake cleaners, eg, the Muc-Off brake cleaner and pad re-hydrater…

…and what’s “re-hydration”, should I be regularly cleansing and toning my pads as well? can anyone recommend a good pad exfoliant? 🙂

I my experience putting anything (cleaner or whatever) on pads or rotors reduces brake performance.

I never touch them.