Originally Posted by Nigeyy

Gosh, I guess I missed out on this (contentious) thread.

I have BB7 road disc brakes on my tourer; and I love them. However, I've also used cantis and v-brakes too, and to be honest, I do judge the BB7s to have marginally better performance in terms of stopping and modulation (especially in the wet). But... if I was going to build a tourer, I'm far from convinced I'd include disc brakes -probably only if money were no object. In terms of value, I do think discs are a poor value proposition. It's great for me (in my opinion) to have discs, and I'll be keeping them thank you very much. However, it's also interesting to note that people have toured many times quite happily on non-disc brakes with perfectly adequate performance too. For the major brake designs, I think the quality and setup of the brake and levers is far more important than its actual brake design.

Based on my own experience with brakes, I'm not sure some of what I consider to be salient points are well high lighted in this thread; I do think some people seem to be exaggerating stuff to make a point (on both sides for and against disc brakes), but hey, this is the internet. Both discs and non-disc brakes can be excellent (but again, only if quality and appropriate components are used with good setup!).

My take to someone who is interested in discs but hasn't tried them: if you have the money, try them. If you are tight with money, stick with whatever 'traditional" design you have, and/or upgrade to the good quality pads (e.g. Koolstop), use new cables and housing, the right levers, and make sure your brakes are setup appropriately!