Originally Posted by JAHowe

Has anyone thought up a crud scraper for the rim brake? Seem like an obvious must have. Hard plastic, like a cheep ice scraper, spring mounted to the pad, or the brake that will contact the rim, when brakes are engaged, and take off the majority of the grit, ice, and snow, before it gets to the pads and loads them up with nasty stuff.
I road last year with canti's and did not really have much of a problem with stopping power, but the springs did get loaded with snow/ice. I have a new bike for rain/winter this year and the short V brakes will not allow the touring fenders on the cross fork. I have a two pair of canti's in my Amazon basket for $20, and they have sealed springs. Brake cables did not freeze last winter, only shifter cables, so I not really worried about that this year.
The wife has decided to get a winter bike too and she liked a model with a disc brake on the fork and a roller in the rear. Both cable, we will see how they preform. And you can guess who will be fixing any problem/discomfort that happen to plague the bikes.