I am thinking of upgrading the old school shimano (circa 1990) cantis on my tandem.

I am considering both V-brakes or Canits. Not equipped for disc.

I know you need Travel Agents for the V-brakes.

Whatever option I chose will have the cartridge style pads (going to run Swiss Stop Green), so that is one variable gone.

Questions are:

How is the modulation of the V-brakes with the travel agents? I would like for the brakes to be precise in this aspect. I trail break a little bit, and like to progressively ease off the brakes through the apex.

Is the power of the V-brakes much greater than Cantis?


Main reasons for ditching my brakes:
- Post style pads, and old brake system leaves much to be desired in the adjustment department. Very hard to ditch the noise. Also, it doesn't seem like the angle of force for the pad/rim is consistent through the brake's range-of-motion.
- Play on the posts. The brakes can move around quite a bit on the posts when wiggling them.

For V-brakes I am considering the Avid Single Digit Ultimate

For Canti's I am still up in the air. I was thinking just the standard Shimano BR550s would be good. I think the wide anlge of my canti's makes more sense, but I think the play and pad adjustment is what make them suffer.

Here's what they look like now (sorry hard to see):