Trek Remedy (Avid elixir) brake squeal

A couple of months back I bought a Remedy 7 as my "pedalling" bike. So far I love it except for the horrendous noise and vibration from the rear avid elixir brake. I've ridden hayes, avid and shimano (my personal favourite) and apart from the occasional squeal with new or contaminated pads have never had this problem. This is LOUD squealing and vibration that makes my feet and butt vibrate (not as fun as it sounds).

I've tried all the usual tricks, cleaning with alcohol, aligning, scuffing the pads, lightly sanding the disks etc to no avail. I tried a different compound of pad and again no luck. All pivots on the frame are tight, as are the rotor bolts. I'm really starting to get frustrated with this because otherwise its a great bike for its intended purpose.

I've been told the elixirs always squeal in the wet. I have a set of juicy's on my Norco and they rarely squeal despite regularly getting soaked on the local trails, plus the elixirs seem to squeal wet or dry.

A mechanic at one of the shops in Whistler suggested this was a problem with frame resonance on the trek and that others were experiencing the same problem. This seems unlikely to me but I don't know anyone else with a Remedy to confirm or deny this "fact".

Can anyone confirm or deny this rumour, or offer any other suggestion on how to rid my bike of its noisy affliction?

Thanks!

I ride an '09 Remedy 7 with stock Juicy 5's, no problem with squeal. The resonance theory sounds suspect to me.

My remedy makes no such noise.

The solution?:

Rotor alignment.

I've run Avid brakes for 4 years now. Recently I had a really hard time getting rid of a nasty squeal/howl.

All it took was a very small adjustment to the alignment of the caliper to the rotor. It is a very simple fix, but very hard to diagnose.

I did notice that one piston moved faster than the other when the lever was squeezed which then moved the rotor over to one side when the brakes were applied. I am talking the the thickness of a piece of paper, but that much movement made the difference between silent running brakes and a howler monkey on the back of my bike.

The squeal due to the frame story is BS. I have no such issue with my Remedy.

Good luck finding a solution.

Rotor alignment.

I've run Avid brakes for 4 years now. Recently I had a really hard time getting rid of a nasty squeal/howl.

All it took was a very small adjustment to the alignment of the caliper to the rotor. It is a very simple fix, but very hard to diagnose.

I did notice that one piston moved faster than the other when the lever was squeezed which then move the rotor over to one side then the brakes were applied. I am talking the the thickness of a piece of paper, but that much movement made the difference between silent running brakes and a howler monkey on the back of my bike.

This is exactly the problem. I have an Intense SS that howled with Elixir R on the rear. I have Elixir CR on my AM bike and no noise ever. I could not figure out the problem for the life of me. But, when I took the caliper off of the bike while the wheel was on still, I noticed the adapter was not parallel to the rotor. I had to shim to PM adapter square to the rotor.

I also put a new set of the Avid washers on and now the brakes are dead silent with no brake drag or howl.

Really spend some time making sure your adapter and caliper is aligned correctly and you will not have a problem with noise.

I've got an '09 Remedy 9 with Elixers and had the same problem. I've had Juicys that squealed before, but the crazy vibration from the Remedy/Elixer combo was something new and completely intolerable. Others have had the same issue, if you search MTBR you'll find a couple of threads. Anyway, I switched to organic pads and the problem mostly went away. I still get the occasional crazy vibration, but not nearly as bad as with the stock metallic pads. The solid rotor, as posted above, apparently helps also. Good luck and post anything you get to work.

I have a set of Elixers that do the EXACT same thing on my 09 stumpjumper comp hardtail. There are many reports of my exact combo in the specialized forum on MTBR. The exact same "resonance" theory is mentioned alot and in many cases reported to have good results if you change the resonance. One dude wired up a couple of lead fishing weights to the caliper and it stopped the noise supposedly. I have personally tried a few different pad backing compounds and caliper greases within the pistons in effort to quiet it down, but there was only a small improvement.

I have faced the disc tabs, and adjusted it a million times. It only happens under firm braking and the rear doesnt get much action anyways, so I have been tolerating it for a couple years now. I have tried new pads, and intend on trying others when my current set wears out.

It'll rattle your fuckin nuts if you drag it hard on a dh.

What a shitty problem. Sram is hardly to blame in my opinion. The brakes work on many bikes without problems, but it seems trek and specialized didnt test in large enough numbers to catch this quirk. Boooooooo

Elixirs. 'Nuff said. Why avid. They are awful howlers. Why avid. Juicy's are great. Elixirs and some frames just aren't a great combo

throw some wd-40 on there

The rear Elixir on my wifes Giant Trance howl like a banshee. Same brakes on my Tranny and they are silent. I replaced her rotor with a roundagon I had and the howling decreased but it is still there. Probably will try to align the caliper better than the loosen the bolts, clamp the brake on and tighten the bolts method.

I have the same rig with Elixir CRs and I have a shit ton of hours on it and haven't had a single issue. Luck of the drawr with rotor alignment.

I have the same rig with Elixir CRs and I have a shit ton of hours on it and haven't had a single issue. Luck of the drawr with rotor alignment.

Guys should check out the video on the Hope site for alignment of the caliper. Hope insist that the simple method of loosening the caliper bolts, squeezing the brake lever and tightening those caliper bolts while holding the brake on is not good enough. Hope claim using your eyeballs to get the rotor absolutely centered between the pads and straight is the best way. That way you don't get the leading edge of one pad flicking along the vent holes in the rotor and the brake pistons will be coming out straight instead of a little cockeyed so power and efficiency is maximized. I don't know if it that critical but alignment jobs are free so why not do it?

My rear Codes sounded like Chewbacca being raped, despite doing all the usual checks (including making sure that the caliper was centred over the rotor, and even putting copper slip behind the pads, which I was pretty sure was an old wifes tale….and proved to be….). A mate had exactly the same problem. Selling them proved to be the best way of curing the problem for both of us.