Originally Posted by cs1
Yes, I have riden bikes with V-Brakes. They work well. They really don't work any better than canitlevers IMO. The biggest advantage of V-Brakes is in setup. It is easier for the average rider to dial in V-Brakes. Canti's are more time consuming to setup properly. That is why most people complain about canti's, they aren't setup correctly. A properly tuned cantilever brake is all the braking power the average rider needs.
"Properly set up" is a biggie. If you look at a random selection of bikes with traditional cantilevers, I doubt that 10% of them _are_ properly set up.
See:
http://sheldonbrown.com/cantilever-adjustment
"V-type" brakes also solve cable routing issues for a number of frame designs. In particular, bikes with rear suspension can often be challenging/impossible for traditional cantis. Many recumbent designs also have issues with them, issues that are very neatly solved by V-type brakes.
I personally like the elegant simplicity of the "V type" brake design better than the more complicated traditional center-pull cantilever.
The only problem I see with "V type" brakes is that they do require special brake levers that pull more cable. These are widely available for straight bars, but none of the options for drop bars is much good.
Sheldon "V" Brown
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