Originally Posted by
BradBB
Thanks for the discussion! I didn't consider it a thread hijack at all, because I'm keenly interested in the disc V canti debate. Discs seem superior from an engineering perspective, but well-maintained rim brakes (and rims) do a good job, too.
The advantage of cantis is you can maintain them very easily and with tools you should have available during rides. The downside is that you'll probably spend a fair amount of time doing so.
I very much like cantis, considering they give good power, great modulation, and great mud/fender clearance. But I really like my disc brakes. They seem more powerful and they're very reliable. Only thing I have to do to them is occasionally wedge open the calipers if one gets a little off-kilter. And I think I need to bleed them soon, which I'm not exactly looking forward to (they're hydros).
All in all, if my ride were going to involve lots of wet or especially mud or snow, I'd go for discs. Especially snow, any rim brake will become nearly useless when packed with snow. The main reason I still have cantis on my hybrid is that the fork won't take them, and because I don't know of too many 1" threaded forks with disc tabs.
For reference, my disc brakes are Hayes Stoker Trails. The cantis I'm running now are Tektro CR720 wide profile arms.