Originally Posted by
DubT
My opinion is that for most teams good wheels with good caliper brakes provide good stopping power.
I ended up with Bontrager tandem wheels and Ultegra calipers with Kool stop Salmon pads. Our brakes work great.
Like DubT, we use Ultegra calipers (with Mavic CXP 33 wheels) and they have worked great in Seattle and other rides in Washington where we sometimes encounter hills and rain. We do do not do extended high speed runs down the mountains so the calipers have been sufficient.
I don't know if things have changed since we purchased our tandem 4 years ago but at that time most tandems came with v-brakes, although an adapter was required to use them with brifters. It seems some folks like to outfit their bikes for the worst case scenario, thinking, for example, maybe I'll want to do some nice mountain rides or tour with heavy panniers so maybe I should get a drum brake or some form of extra stopping power. As
zonatandem mentions, many riders have decended long steep mountain roads with caliper brakes and their knowledgeable use. If we ever end up on a long steep decent I'll just be overly cautious and check rim temp if I am concerned. We have no plans for such a ride.
Disc brakes have their own shortcomings. I like the simplicity and effectiveness, for us, of the calipers.