Originally Posted by
waterbugg
I'm dreaming up a touring bike to buy and am debating between disc and V brakes. I'm planning on shipping this bike around quite a bit, and someone told me disc brakes don't hold up well to shipping. I've never had a bike with disc brakes, but it seems like a valid concern. Any experiences with that or opinions on one vs the other?
Disc rotors are easily bent in transit. So it would be wise to pull them from the bike and tape them to a stiff bit of material and put them somewhere protected. If you do that there shouldn't be a problem.
I'm not a huge fan of disc brakes on touring bikes. I have both v-brake touring rigs and disc brake rigs. They both work. The disc brake lovers will overstate the benefits and the v-brake lovers will overstate the problems.
I ride both so I can continue to get experience and evaluate the options. I prefer v-brakes in general, but if you gave me a pimped out disc brake touring rig for free I would ride it happily. I'm at the point where I really don't think too much about what brakes my bike uses since they all work fine - wet and dry, uphill and downhill.
Personally I would see what touring bikes you like not worrying too much about the brakes. Look at the top 1 or 3 choices. Test ride if possible and then start getting down to the nitty gritty like what your brake options are and what racks/fenders to use.