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I can't take the screaming on my Tektro Oryx cantilevers anymore. I've heard that Swissstop v-brake pads instead of shimano pads will cure the squeal. I've also heard the best bet is to bin them and use mini-Vs instead.
The main thing I'm worried about with the mini-Vs is mud guard clearance (Surly Cross check and it looks like I might need to either change mud guards or do modifications to the attachment clip to run mini-Vs).
My preference is for new pads but I'd like to hear people's experience, especially with the Oryx as I've heard that these are particularly bad for squealing.
are you using cartridge pads? I found them less squealy on cantilevers but there are a lot of variables at play so it's not guaranteed. FWIW I found the shimano road cantilevers (CX-50?) to be pretty good, at least as good as cantis can be.
Swisstop BXP cure a great many ills, but I eventually binned my cantis and went mini V.
No issues with muguard clearance when using 90mm arms (e.g. TRP CX9) but needed to buy a longer drop hanger for my PDWs when I moved to 84mm arms (e.g. TRP CX 8.4s).
More rim clearance with shorter arms I believe, thankfully I've got singlespeed brake levers so can just push a wee button to release the lever a bit more, means I need to reach further to the lever but also means loads of pad clearance at rim.
Finally, I still have to toe front brakes in a tiny bit for truly silent braking.
Have you toe'd in the pads or are they completely flat when they touch the rim?
I used to get horrible vibrations in the fork with cantis on my old CAAD-X - changed to mini-Vs and it completely cured it - only downside was the spongy feel in the brake levers. (Best cure is disc brakes obv 😉 )
you can get nasty vibrations when the front cable hanger is mounted on the stem / headset. When the fork flexes back on braking it pulls the cable slightly taut and you get a kind of feedback effect. The solution is to fit a fork mounted cable hanger - or Vs - or discs...
I got a slight improvement changing the stem mounted cable hanger to a fork mounted one with Kool Stop pads on my Singular Kite.
Then binned them for Pauls Motolites. They're a bit tight on a Surly Knard 42, but anything smaller is fine.
It's since been retired to road bike duties with a Kona Rove ST for the rough stuff.
Just be careful with fork mounted hangers, I overtightened one on a aet of alloy forks, resulted in some horrendous creaking coming from fork, assume I had squeezed the steerer tube/crown interface a bit out of shape...
Thanks for the replies. I don't really want to start going down the rabbit hole of buying bits to make the cantis work, especially since the Oryx seem to have a bad reputation.
Since there hasn't been a cacophony of people saying 'The Swissstop will solve all your brake problems and more, guaranteed!' I think I'll just give the mini-Vs a chance. Looking at it, I think I see a way of mounting the mud guard so that it won't foul the brakes. Worst comes to the worst I'll chop the front of the mud guard off (I'm only changing the front brake).
Looking into it a bit more, given the fact I can get a set of mini-Vs for the same price as a set of Swissstops, it's kind of a no-brainer.