One advantage I seldom see mentioned for the newer style brakes is the increased cable travel. Because the travel is doubled, and the force halved, the effect of cable stretch at the hand is reduced by 75%. Now, to be sure, things had evolved to where cable stretch really wasn't a problem for traditional brakes on most bikes, but there was a really noticeable improvement to the rear brake when I went from cantis to the direct pull brakes on our tandem. (due to the long cable run, stretch tends to be much more of a problem on long bikes) Note that use of travel-agent devices located at the caliper end of the cable run negates this advantage. On our tandem I use the in-line travel agent located at the front of the bike...levers with the correct ratio would be a better solution, but that would require seperate shifters on our drop bars.