Originally Posted by cyccommute

Stopping power has almost nothing to do with the brakes. The limitations on braking are where the rubber, literally, meets the road. The amount of grip that you can get from tires drops precipitously with water and ice. Having more powerful brakes doesn't make that situation any better.

I don't even agree that discs give the best stopping power. I have bikes with cantilever, v-brake, mechanical disc, hydraulic disc and a bike with mechanical disc on the front and a v-brake on the back. No a single one stops any better than any other one. There is difference between the brakes on the disc front/v-brake rear bike just as there no difference between the way that my cantilevers and the hydraulic stop the bikes. If anything the hydraulics are incredibly touchy and difficult to moderate.



There are lots of bikes that run cantilevers. Cantilevers are a very good braking system. They aren't even that difficult to set up. Discs are more difficult to set up and maintain. Disc rotors are a pain to get straight and they bend easily. I futz more with rubbing disc than I've ever had to work on any other brake.