infamous brake squeal due to alignment of wheel??

[airbrush]

Well I just put on a new tire on the back and a katana shock. Readjusted everything made sure my alignment marks were spot on. I noticed my rear brake doesnt squeal nearly as much as it used to....anyone else noticed this? That infamous squealing may be due to the alignment of the rear wheel...what do yah think?

[gsJack]

I think you may be on to something.  I put on new rear pads about 1500 miles back of a type I usually get minimum squeal with and soon as they were beded in they began to squeak badly and have since till today.

Put on a new 150/70/17 rear tire yesterday to replace a 130/70/17 and took extra care in alighning the wheel since clearance between the wider tire and the brake torque rod is very limited.

Took bike out for a 50 mile tire break-in ride today between rains and after an initial light squeak or two it didn't squeak again.  Brake usually squeaks worse in damp weather.  I'll see how it goes in the coming week between the almost daily scheduled rains.  

[rritterson]

my experience is the opposite. From 600-3000 miles my brakes squeeked like crazy. Then it stopped and only squeeked occasionally. At the 4000 mile service the chain slack was removed and the wheel carefully realigned, and the squeek started back up again.

[airbrush]

yah well...havent changed the pads..same ones...and before i put the new tire on and aligned again, it squeaked all the time...now i just get an occasional chirp now and then.

[gsJack]

my experience is the opposite. From 600-3000 miles my brakes squeeked like crazy. Then it stopped and only squeeked occasionally. At the 4000 mile service the chain slack was removed and the wheel carefully realigned, and the squeek started back up again.

Well that all makes sense, by 3000 miles the pads had worn to fit the rotor and squeel was gone.  Changing wheel alignment again at 4000 miles brought back misalignment between pads that were worn on angle and rotor.  More miles should eliminate squeel again.

In 100,000 miles on my GSs I have changed many rear pads and some come off more worn on one end than the other.  If pads and rotor are not aligned perfectly together then front of one pad and rear of other pad will be making contact first and other end will be free to vibrate a bit with squeeling sound.  Pressing on brake harder stops the squeel, it is worse with light rear braking action.

I will be trying to eliminate any future squeeling with wheel and resulting pad to roter alignment and taking more care to get good alignment anytime wheel is removed.