Originally Posted by
joel1952
And you’re all correct, I do look like a big dumbass. A 2 mile 6% grade is no big deal. What I could/should have explained is:
The noob OP (no offense meant) asked if he should upgrade his cantilevers to V-brakes to go touring. He doesn’t state the distance, the terrain or his experience, yet denys that he is a noob. I’m worried that he would go down a 2 mile 6% decent at 40 mph, find a car turning left only 100 feet in front of him and being inexperienced, start braking, find out that cantilevers that work great with moderate pressure at 15 mph are not half as effect at that 40
Also agreed there’s nothing better; descending at 45mph in the Ozarks, but when that fisherman’s trailer comes around the corner and that boat starts drifting into your lane…
Your hyperbole is ridiculous. Sorry, but I have no problems stopping with my cantis from 45mph, when I am actually going that fast. I can reach the point of braking threshold with my brakes, which means the point in which the tire begins to lose traction. Any more than that, and you are skidding, which in turn makes you lose some control. That is all I need in a brake. Yes, V-brakes have more power, generally speaking. That doesn't mean though that the OP will go down in a fiery crash as he loses braking as his one carbon fiber accessory bursts into flames, if he or she decides to use cantis.
Please. I have no issues creating down a big grade if I so desire, and in many ways, as stated before, I would feel better doing so with cantis or V-brakes than with a lot of the disc brakes available for bikes, because they will dissipate heat better, therefore, less chance of brake fade, in fact, I have never experienced brake fade with cantis, or V-brakes, or any other rim brake, but I have with disc. Disc brakes though, generally speaking, work better in wet weather, although good pads enable rim brakes to perform very well in wet weather. Mine stop perfectly fine in wet weather. I toured in a lot of it last summer. Discs are great in rain though.
There is nothing wrong with cantis, they stop fine, even in an emergency situation. I can do stoppies on my Long Haul Trucker, with it unloaded. I did it yesterday with eh bags on. There are always some things in the bags, but essentially they are unloaded. The dire warnings about cantis are absurd. People safely toured with them, and yes, even stopped with them for many years before V-brakes became popular. By the way, V-brakes are actually cantilever brakes, more specifically, direct pull, side pull cantilever brakes.
I love disc brakes, but for my touring bike, I prefer rim brakes, and at the moment, cantis. I will most likely be replacing my brakes at some point, since mine are a low end model and I would prefer something a little better, mine flex a lot, and they are not really tight on the mounts, the arms wiggle a lot, but they stop well. I will replace them with...cantis. Because I like them, they work very well with wide tires and wider fenders, whereas V-brakes don't always fit well. That, and I simply like them. They work.