Cantilever or V Brakes on a tourer

[stephenjubb]

Most tourist bikes come with Cantilever Brakes, yet from what I've read V Brakes are much better despite their being fewer accessories (i.e. brake levers for drop bars) available.

My questions are on a tourer would you prefer V Brakes or Cantilevers on a tourer and secondly why do tourers mostly always have cantilever brakes?

cheers
steve jubb

 

[hubbike]

v brakes have more stopping power, but the blocks wear out more quickly than cantis. cantis are reliable and staightforward and perhaps that's all you really need for a tourer?

 

[Kirstie]

I use neither!
Best by far for my bike, which doesn't do V brakes, are the cyclocross 'frog leg' style cantilevers eg the Tektro CR520. They are just fantastic.

 

[Cranky]

Most tourist bikes come with Cantilever Brakes, yet from what I've read V Brakes are much better despite their being fewer accessories (i.e. brake levers for drop bars) available.

My questions are on a tourer would you prefer V Brakes or Cantilevers on a tourer and secondly why do tourers mostly always have cantilever brakes?

cheers
steve jubb

I think it's to give enough clearance for the wider tyres and mudguards of a tourer and, as you suggest, V brakes need adapting to be effective from drop bar levers.

 

[Nigeyy]

Both brake types are more than capable when they are good quality brakes, with good quality pads and well setup.

The big difference at the lever end of things is cable pull; cantis pull less cable to work correctly, v-brakes need more cable pull. This means that for your usual short pull levers such as those on road style handlebars, cantis work. You can make v-brakes work with short pull levers (such as STI) with travel adapters, and you can find long pull road brake levers as well that will work with v brakes. Usually v-brakes don't have a problem with fenders either. Generally speaking, v-brakes offer better rim clearance (in terms of a rim becoming out of true) as they travel from an initial position farther out than cantis.... Likewise generally cantis usually offer less "digital" style braking and offer better modulation. These are big generalizations though!

Either example of a well setup quality brake will be fine. My personal preference is for cantis -particularly more modern examples that offer v-brake style pads that are (very thankfully) much much easier to setup than the old style. But I'd use v-brakes as well -it just so happened I was gifted the brakeset (good quality) and I had some old style brake levers I could use on my trekking bars.

One last thought: mini-V's. I've never tried them, but they are supposed to be compatible with short pulls, but for some reason have never been popular with short pull road brake levers; I can only guess they do not work as well as you'd expect -plus they would more than likely give trouble for fender clearance.

 

[simoncc]

I ditched the hopeless, noisy Avid cantis on my Dawes Ultra Galaxy for a pair of long reach dual pivot brakes. They work fine, not as sharp as the short reach dual pivot brakes do on my road bike, but sharp enough. The only modification required was to drill out an 8mm hole in the back of the forks to take the countersunk Allen nut.

 

[samid]

If I were choosing brakes, I would also consider old-style center pulls. They have more than enough stopping power for a light tourer, have good clearance for reasonably wide tires and mudguards, are light, do not require any braze-ons and - to me at least - look much nicer that either cantis or V-brakes. (Dual-pivots are good but have less clearance for mudguards, and are a bit heavier.)

 

[Tim Bennet.]

Kirstie has given the definitive answer. If you are using drops and mudguards, the best option are

the cyclocross 'frog leg' style cantilevers eg the Tektro CR520. They are just fantastic

People's reservations recently about cantilevers stem from Shimano's decision to 'castrate' the effectiveness of the design about ten years ago over fears of the wire bridle becoming snagged on very knobbly mtb tyres. Manufacturers like Avid followed suit so the choice was between different brands of the same ruined design. Only little specialist manufacturers continued to make workable designs (including Frogs Leg) for the cyclocross market, but now Tektro have introduced the CR520 (and the . . .?) so there is no longer any need to cobble together V-brakes with Travel agents or go around drilling anything.

 

[Kirstie]

now Tektro have introduced the CR520 (and the . . .?)

I think it's the 720 - posher, lighter version.
The original froglegs you can get on ebay (can't remember who makes them) from the US but they're about £120 a pair.

 

[andym]

One last thought: mini-V's. I've never tried them, but they are supposed to be compatible with short pulls, but for some reason have never been popular with short pull road brake levers; I can only guess they do not work as well as you'd expect -plus they would more than likely give trouble for fender clearance.

Mini-vs are intended to work with long-pull levers (eg 287vs) but will work successfully with short-pull - but the set up is more critical. They work fine with mudguards.

 

[PpPete]

+ 1 for the old style (frog leg) cantis.

I'm still using some Deore ones from before Shimano messed about with the design.
I've tried these and not really noticed any difference in performance, and they are fiddly to set up, so for a tourer those Tektros look the way to go.

 

[psmiffy]

Depends on how heavy you are and where you intend to cycle - I cycle heavy - after my first trip into the alps I ditched my canterlevers in favour of Vs - much easier on the forearms and more control - now using Magura HS33 - however if light

 

[asterix]

In the Pyrenees I used cantis. About half way I replaced the blocks with some I bought at a French bike shop and they were vast improvement over the aztecs.

Nevertheless, with either the cantis were adequate in being able to stop a fully loaded tourer on such roads.

 

[Tim Bennet.]

Magura HS33s have to be a combination of all the worst bits of bike brakes.

You've got the complexity of hydraulics but still the wear and heating of a rim brake!

 

[psmiffy]

HS33 work a treat esp in rain, simple to adjust. very easy to maintain and my rim wear "appears" to be less