Originally Posted by cyclintom

Let me paraphrase that for you - "In my experience standard brakes can't match the stopping power of power brakes."

There are certain advantages to using a brake with more leverage - you can use most of your hand to hold yourself steady and use just one or two fingers to actuate the brake. This is very handy when mountain biking since you need to maintain control at all times.

The problem is that more leverage doesn't change the fact that there is a limited amount of room to pull the brake levers back to the bar. And since this distance is fixed, more leverage means that you have to place the brakes closer to the rim since more leverage equals less travel.

If you look at V-brakes you'll see that the pads are only about half as thick as road or cantilever pads. This allows you to place them closer to the rim. They also wear out faster. And because they're closer to the rim, they drag sooner as the rim goes out of true. And on touring bikes rims GO OUT OF TRUE. You are riding over rougher roads, carrying heaviers loads and not watching the road nearly as well since the entire idea of touring is to see something other than asphalt.

V-brakes have some slight advantage on mountain bikes but they have no place on a touring bike especially if you aren't mechanically inclined and can adjust brakes, replace pads and true wheels.