staehpj1

While I think Cantis are fine. I don't agree with a few negative things that have been said about discs. Opinions are just that, but...

I find that discs are easy to adjust and maintain, maybe easier than rim brakes. Different, but not harder to deal with. I have found the ones on my MTB to be completely trouble free. Yes you do need to learn a different adjustment procedure, but it is an easy one.

Oh, and the idea that changing a tire is some big ordeal because of disc brakes... It really is no big deal. It seemed annoying at first and then quickly became a total non issue. I pretty much never need to fix flats on the bike since I went tubeless but I do take the front wheel off all the time to put the bike on the rack and the back wheel once in a while to haul it in a car. It just isn't a problem.

The notion that all real touring bikes come with cantis... How do you figure? You mention a couple models including the LHT and the Atlantis. Why do they make a disc trucker? As far as the Atlantis, what do you expect? Rivendell is targeted at a retro-grouch market. I think all of the CoMotion touring models have discs. For fun I looked up a few touring models to see how many had discs or didn't. I found nothing but discs, Specialized AWOL Expert, Trek, 520, Salsa Marrakesh, Tout Terrain Silkroad, Kona Sutra, Jamis Renegade Escapade, Giant Toughroad, and even the Velo Orange Polyvalent frame set that is billed as a classic touring bike has disc mounts. It actually seem a little hard to find a new touring model that doesn't at least offer a disc option.

So yeah, I agree that cantis are fine and I'll tour on them or other rim brakes (definitely my 105 dual pivots) again, but discs have become the norm on new touring bikes and are pretty much state of the art these days as far as I can tell. I don't really keep up on all the latest trends, but that is what it looks like to me.