I dunno, it's all relative, hand finger effort. In the 90s I toured in the Pyrenees and my cantis were hard on the hands fingers at times, especially in multiple hairpin stuff when I did lots of repeated had braking, and did fade then a few times and had to carefully stop to let things cool.
But they worked, and my more recent canti and v brake bikes work fine generally as well.

All that said, my troll with BB7s that are from at least 3 years ago I think (bought bike used so unsure) stop it loaded with significantly less required hand pressure than my rim brakes. I don't know if newer ones or if diff models like spyre are even easier, but mine are perfectly fine to use and I'm a slight guy, so not strong hands but then light, so less weight to show down too.

I still think mechanical discs are the way to go for touring, for the various reasons. Hydros work great I'm sure, I'm just not crazy about a few of the issues that could come up traveling.

After a flight there must be a nervous moment hoping CATSA/TSA didn't mangle the hydro lines.

there is that, also with the front wheel off, if the spacer thingee you must put in so the pads dont get pushed out too much when the brake handle get squeezed, then apparently this can be a problem.
general rough handling of the bike also, depending on your trip type and situations that arise.

mech discs too will have possible disc damage to contend with, and learning the tricks etc of dealing with pad rub and how to avoid that sort of thing.

I just toured in Mexico with a LHT + v-brakes. They were okay most of the time but disc brakes are far superior and now I have them on my new bike I don't know how I managed without them. On gravel, loose terrain, etc they were a real pain in the ass.

I usually pull the brakes and rotors off when I pack, so it hasn't been a problem for me. I imagine if someone was running those cable actuated HY/RD brakes there wouldn't be much in the way of lines to screw up either.


I've got some messed up hands and that's another reason why I love hydros. They're just a lot more comfortable for me to use on rides where I'm going to be braking a lot, especially when it's bumpy.

there is clearly less finger pressure required to get a solid stop, even with my mechanicals, and I imagine that it is less with hydros, but frankly I found my BB7s to be fine and was/am quite content with the amount of force needed for stopping and the stronger braking force heavily loaded (although it bears repeating that I weigh 30, 40, 50lbs lighter than a majority of guys).

Today I went down a fairly short but very steep descent where one has to ride slow due to loose bumpy surface & intersection at the bottom...had to grip levers pretty hard. OTOH mountain descents wouldn't be as steep so for now I'll stick with BB7's.

I visited this question last year - I went with the Disc Trucker, given some of our long, steep descents in the Sierra Nevadas. I've not been disappointed.

How fast do you go on the big descents? The previous Novara Randonée felt nice at 55 kph/35 mph...Disc Trucker handling feels generally less secure at speed esp in sharp curves where I get bad understeer & in a fast cornering test actually got front-end shimmy. On a Skyline Drive day-trip the DT felt OK but that's with moderate descent grade & fairly easy curves.

Drop, I really do feel that there are so many factors that come into the equation for how a bike handles around corners, that it makes a discussion online very inconclusive.
Certainly what I've experienced is that various factors can make or break how a given bike goes around corners, not to mention the riders experience and bike handling skill set.

Buy the disc trucker. Long downhills on a touring bike mean really, really hot rims to the point of exploding tubes. Its a pita having to stop to let your rims cool down. Plus better stopping in the wet. People will say things about increased maintenance, but mechanical discs are as easy as anything else. (I probably wouldn't go with hydraulics if I was really in the middle of nowhere though fwiw.)

Lots of surly LHT fans here today. I too am a surly owner,,2009 LHT, in that hideous green color. I vote for disc brakes also. I had not ridden a bike in years, and upon my doctors advice to start biking to lose weight, purchased a LHT. Long story short, the first time I hit a long downhill stretch in wet conditions, I about soiled my underwear, due to the rim brakes seemingly being on vacation. I am ready to pull the trigger on another LHT, that I'll build myself, this time with a 64cm frame ( not available in 2009 ), disc brakes, and would really like to see Surly switch to thru axles on the LHT, . Surly are you listening?

Definitely disc. Having used both systems commuting, the disc provided more consistent, all-weather, braking The disc brakes also need less maintenance.

I'd wait and get a Disc Trucker, if its what you want wait and get what you want and not what is available now.

I'd throw a wrench in and say look at the Velo Orange Pass Hunter Disc, what a beautiful frame. I would go with a VO Piolet if I didn't have a new Ogre already.
Velo Orange Pass Hunter Disc with a little help from Campagnolo - Hope - TRP - TA - Brooks - King and some inevitable TI bits by freakforti, on Flickr

Maybe most of the time it doesn't matter. But you will get in some spot sometime where you'll be glad you had the disc. Do consider through axles with a disc.

What spot would that be?
I've run the biggest passes in the Canadian Rockies and Coast Range, many in the rain, and never had a problem with cantis.

The only benefit I see to discs is that you don't wear your rim so if you invest in an expensive wheelset discs probably make more sense.

While rim brakes work, discs really do handle mud and wet better, especially the mud part. Rim brakes (even the good ones) are just terrible compared to discs once you hit a lot of sticky mud. I realize that it's not a big concern for most tourists, but I got discs on my CX and mountain bikes the 1st chance I got because of that. Then they kinda took over almost all my other bikes.

For me the current BB7's stop a bit easier than cantis but still can require heavy grip...folks say hydros have far less effort.

^ The stopping power issue can be alleviated quite easily through either larger discs if using MTB-standard brakes or using road-standard brakes. I'm of course not saying there is an inherent issue to begin with, but if one should want more stopping power, it's quite easy to manage.
I've found that a Cane Creek Drop V lever, MTB BB7 and a 203mm disc gives quite enough stopping power for 330lbs from 50mph. I now have a Sram Rival 1 lever and a road style BB7 with a 160mm disc and it works fine with loaded rear panniers. Next time I'm going touring I'll use a 180mm disc just to get a bit more heat capacity.

That's a gorgeous bike right there.

I'm not arguing that discs may stop a bit better than cantis.. just whether that is a solution to a problem or not. It's like saying a Porsche is faster than a Honda which may be true but does that matter for commuting.

This fear based statement suggests a problem is lurking around the corner somewhere:

Like I said, I've run a lot of big hills with cantis and never felt I couldn't stop with them.

But then.. you know. I generally ride inferior gas pipe bikes that don't go fast and probably wouldn't recognize the difference quality makes anyway

Try those floating rotors if you can't fit anything larger, they do seem to help.