Mountain Biking - various brake advice for Backwoods

As it says above I am trying to decide on some brakes for a older Gt Backwoods frame. I have cantis on right now and they do work but it seems to be nearly impossible to eliminate the squealing. I also have new deore wheels with disc ready hubs but due to the age of the bike, it is missing a bracket, or hanger (nomeclature escapes me) to attatch the caliper to the rear. I suppose this leaves me with v-brakes. The possible problem here is the routing of the cable liner/cable. It must pass through two rather odd shaped small holders on it's way to the rear of the bike. New liner does not fit. I was forced to reuse the original liner in that area. I have thought about a disc in front and v or canti in the rear but am unsure if this is the best route to take. The bike ios used to ride trails, all sorts but never used in the street. can anyone help with the best possible brake set up for this bike? I should also mention I have re adjusted the brakes until I wanted to melt the bike with a blow torch in order to alleviate the squealing, no luck, also the amount of force to activate the breaking seems to me to be excessive given the results. Thanks.

You've pretty much answered your own question. Assuming you can fit a disk to the front which it sounds like you can then a mechanical disk there and a decent V at the rear is going to be the best you can do with that frame. I dont know which V to recomend though xt gear is cheap these days. As for the disk I use a cheap tektro set that still manages to be better than any V Iv'e used. Most people here will probably recommend Avid BB7's and their probably right, again some shimano gear like deore mech disks are cheap right now, could be a reason?

Avid BB7's and their probably right, again some shimano gear like deore mech disks are cheap right now, could be a reason?
Deore Mechanicals aren't worth the powder to blow them back to hell

Yeah, maybe I did answer my own question, but not on person. I was positive someone would tell me how ridiculous it would be to install one disc brake. Raiyn, what's the problem with the Deore mechs? Too much problem for price? Flimsy? I am going to the LBS to see what is instock that I can walk out with today, but I'm not hopeful. I was looking at Lx in the rear and an avid mech in the front from a online part store. Pricepoint i believe it was.

Yeah, maybe I did answer my own question, but not on person. I was positive someone would tell me how ridiculous it would be to install one disc brake. Raiyn, what's the problem with the Deore mechs? Too much problem for price? Flimsy? I am going to the LBS to see what is instock that I can walk out with today, but I'm not hopeful. I was looking at Lx in the rear and an avid mech in the front from a online part store. Pricepoint i believe it was.


Lots of people install one disc up front only. The setup works well. Deores dont work as well as the Avid BB7 for the price. Also, for the back, the Avid Single Digit 7 is a really nice V-brake. Stiffer and more powerful than Shimano parrallel push V-brakes. They are also really cheap at only 20-30 bucks.


Get good cables too while you're at it. Something fully sealed would be nice.

well the winner is..... CANTI!! The Avids just don't fit. I had to drill out the shock holes, to accomadate the larger bolts and then the mounting bracket does not line up with the holes exactly enough to put two bolts through. The idiot rear brake set up just won't allow the v brake. It's hard to explain, but you'll have to trust me, the j shaped unit causes all sorts of havoc in the way the cable flows. Not possible that I see. Thanks for the help. Maybe next bike will get discs.