Originally Posted by
gruppo
And, keep the canti brake. V-brakes are inferior stoppers, are heavier and have a high fiddle factor, and no good in the mud or ice; but more importantly they won't work with road drop-bar brake/shift levers (Without using a hokey add-on inline cable pull contraption).
Huh? V-brakes are way easier to set up than cantis and have both more power and better modulation than the model of cantilevers shown in this thread. (in fact, i like my mini-V brake better than even wide-profile cantis). The OP isn't using integrated shifters so he could use standard MTB style long-arm V brakes, with no "hokey" add-on and the appropriate drop bar lever. If one wants to use integrated shifters like the campagnolo 10 speed shifters I use, then he just choses a v-brake with a shorter arm length and doesn't need a hokey travel agent add-on. I find 85mm to be the sweet spot, though with the latest shimano levers you could use the 90 or even 95mm lengths and still be ok. Or you can use a long-arm v-brake and just use the travel agent. It's no more "hokey" than many other parts on a bicycle.
V-brakes eliminate fork chatter issues and have better cable routing that would eliminate the OP's issue on this bike. I don't know why you question their effectiveness in mud or ice since they are basically just a correctly set up cantilever brake (i.e. 90 degree straddle cable) right out of the box with no fiddling needed. There was a reason MTBs evolved from cantilevers to v-brakes. It's only tradition that has kept cantilevers on touring and cyclocross bikes.
Here's a pic of my bike showing that the front brake cable would be to the outside of the shifter cables:
