Touring - Touring bikes and brakes....

Instead of spending money to buy a quality pre-assembled bike, I am going to take the route of building my own.

I'm curious to know the amount of people that use Disc Brakes on the front of the bike and v-brake/cantilever brakes on the back.

From what I have heard, this is strong method for braking, but I am hesitant to put disc brakes on the front and have them break while I am on a tour....

I use an Avid BB7 mechanical disc on the front, but also leave a Deore v-brake attached so if something were to go wrong with the disc (which is unlikely given the quality of the Avids) then I still have two brakes. The Deore costs and weighs so little I figured I may as well have it there.

I wouldn't use a hydraulic disc for touring.

The only real issue to overcome with mechanical discs is that it can be difficult finding a lowrider type rack that fits round them. Not a problem for me because I use an OMM Sherpa on the front.

I just bought a BoB Yak so I don't have to worry about the racks.

Thanks for the suggestion amaferanga

Just in case you change your mind and consider using racks... there a few tricks frame builders can use to free some space for rack by moving the brakes a bit further.

Have a look at the Devinci Caribou for instance: http://www.devinci.com/english/carib.html

I am not an expert but their system looks ingenious, at least on paper.

If you have a frame built for you, I would at least make sure you have all the braze on you need for other types of brakes... just in case you change your mind or that you suffer from brake failure in the middle of nowhere.