About canti's failing- it's only when the straddle cable pops loose somehow that it can catch in the tread of the tire. Broken brake cable or something like that. You can solve that by adding fenders, or adding reflectors or adding racks so the straddle cables can't drop onto the tires. At least the front- the back tire locking up won't send you over the handlebars. It doesn't happen very often though.