I'm doing some reworking on the Burley tandem we bought a few months ago. We now have about 300 miles together. I'm thinking of going to a set of wide road bars rather than the mountain handlebar setup. Since I started riding mountain bars again the carpal tunnel symptoms have shown up once more in my right hand. I have a set of Shimano R-600 (Ultegra grade) brifters and could convert the bike to 9 speeds and brifters pretty easily.

Of course the brifters won't pull enough cable on the existing V-brakes without travel mates.

So if you were starting from scratch, would you put cantilvers or V-brakes on your tandem?

And, if you want calipers, would you use the newer shorter arms or the retro type with the longer arms that can be somewhat easier to adjust?

Thanks