Best Touring Brakes (rim only)

[531colin]

Best rim brake is a full-size Vee brake, but if you must have STIs then you can't have a full-size Vee brake without travel agents or similar to match up the cable pull.
If you must have STIs, then mini-vees are the best option, but why anybody would prejudice the brakes for the gear shift is beyond me.
Cantis will work with STIs, but the best job is a mid-profile canti, and they are difficult to buy....and cantis altogether can be difficult to live with. Shimano's expensive CX (70?) should work, and aftermarket pads should fit, but I would fit a separate straddle wire.
Have a look in "technical, too good to lose" for a couple of threads on brakes.

[fatboy]

What exactly is the difference between v-brakes and cantis?

V-brakes are simpler (the cable runs over the top and squeezes the two arms together) but need special brake levers to use full size ones and this rules out drop bar STI brake/gear shifters. Canti brakes have a wire between the two arms (in a v shape to be confusing) and the cable pulls up the middle some how (many different ways this is done some of which look to not be doing this). Canti brakes need something attached to the frame to pull against (called a hanger) but will work with road bike brake levers. The cable hanger on the front can lead to fork judder (which is really no fun at all) and can be another thing to steal braking power front of rear (I've had ones that bend a lot).
Mini vees are like V brakes but the right length to match road brake levers. Can foul on mudguards if are too short.

You won't find consensus on the best brakes for touring bike. If you want road bike STI levers I'd start with mini vee brakes (but measure clearance for mudguards). If you can have separate gear levers then full sized vees are probably best.

[Brucey]

V brake vs cantilever brake



the caliper MA is fixed with a V brake (although it will vary with boss position on the frame for Vs and cantis) but can be varied with straddle height (and with some models, arm angle) with a canti.

The V brake has a higher caliper MA and a lower lever MA. The canti has a lower caliper MA and a higher lever MA. As drawn the two brakes (with matching levers) would have a similar system MA. The V would be slightly more powerful in practice because it uses a lower cable tension, and thus loses a little less in cable friction.

The CX50 brake is a very nice brake that is let down by indifferent brake shoes. The CX70 model uses cartridge pads which are a better idea. You can of course upgrade a CX50 to CX70 spec using the original bolts and pad spacers combined with the right kind of 'road style' pad holder, with a built-in angle adjustment.

cheers

[Steveo2020]

Not relevant to the OP's options (in relation to which I have the CX50s, modified to accept cartridge pads and am v happy with them) but any views on the Compass centre pull brakes?

https://janheine.wordpress.com/2014/09/ ... ll-brakes/

Big commitment - requiring dedicated braze ons but interesting and perhaps less fiddly than cantilevers? Perhaps the power and ease of set up of dual pivots with the tyre clearance of cantis? I find cantilevers great when newly set up with new pads but then I lose power as the pads wear and the readjustment is a faff, for me at least.

Steve

[Brucey]

the compass CPs are essentially reworked MAFAC brake designs. Back in the day a pukka French touring bike would have MAFAC CPs on braze-on bosses, built-in racks made in tubular steel etc. Being a cynical sort, the first time I saw this I immediately supposed that it had been done from desperation, seeing as how the MAFAC yoke that supports the same arms in a bolt-on brake is so flimsy; (I am not altogether sure that I was wrong, in fact... ).

I don't think these brakes have anywhere near the clearance of cantis (or the high MA of many favoured touring brakes) but they are nice enough. Like most CP designs they lose MA as the pads wear, but not so very much, (the design has to trade MA change with wear against how wide the caliper goes when the cable is off). The pivot bushing design was always too short to be really robust and I think that feature may have been carried over into the new brakes too (the compass bushings can be used to rebuild MAFAC brakes). Like any similar brake the arms can foul one another (via mysterious deformation/slight bushing wear), or start binding on one pivot and causing you to tear your hair out trying to keep them centred properly.

One residual concern is that the bosses are mounted high up on the forks, right where the bending stresses are highest. I have wondered if this might cause the forks to be less fatigue resistant.

BTW one reason for liking 70mm cartridges for canti brakes is that the inserts are thin rather than thick. Why is this a good thing? Well it automatically limits the reduction in brake MA between pad changes, and pad changes are easy.

If adjusting the brake to compensate for an MA change is tricky, one way of dealing with this is to change the inserts out when they are half-worn. Then when you have several sets of half-worn inserts, adjust the brake to use those in a high MA configuration. This way you minimise any fiddly brake adjustments.

cheers

[gaz]

Suntour/Cunningham Roller Cam?

[bikes4two]

Best? My Campy Super Record dual pivots but of course being race parts you aren't gonna get a particularly big tyre in the gap but i only have 25mm Paselas on that bike! I have looked at the Magura hydraulic rim brakes - maximum braking potential but i'm guessing rim attrition is a potential drawback!

I have Magura HS31 on the tandem as does a friend on his MTB - absolutely awesome braking and no noticeable rim wear on either the tandem or MTB after many 1000s of miles (and on the tandem that's with camping kit too).

[rogerzilla]

Tektro CR520 are easy to set up but it's not easy to stop a fully-laden bike (camping gear) with them. Better pads help a bit. You can't improve the leverage by lowering the straddle yoke as the mudguard limits how low it can go.

[Brucey]

Tektro CR520 are easy to set up but it's not easy to stop a fully-laden bike (camping gear) with them. Better pads help a bit. You can't improve the leverage by lowering the straddle yoke as the mudguard limits how low it can go.

That is because those cantis are 'wide profile' ones; lowering the straddle wire has little or no effect on the caliper MA with such brakes (which is one reason why they are easy to set up...). If you want a higher system MA then you need to fit mid-profile cantis (with a lower straddle, where a lower straddle makes a difference) and/or to use levers with a higher MA.

cheers

[webber]

I have a set of magra hs11 that I could let go pm me if your intrested

[mercalia]

what type of touring? these days if I was to buy a touring bike I would want to consider off road capability and that means when it is wet and lots of puddles and mud fouling up any rim brake? I would go for some kind of disc brake. Just road touring is so boring

[Tangled Metal]

Try to get a good disc brake tourer with racks and 'guards for up to £800. I'd love to find such a bike that's suitable for my 6'5" frame (excuse the pun).

If rim brakes were suitable for MTBs once then they'll still work now. Not the best but I guess I'll have.to live with them.

TBH I'll just be glad to be back on a bike again no matter what brakes they have.

[foxyrider]

Try to get a good disc brake tourer with racks and 'guards for up to £800. I'd love to find such a bike that's suitable for my 6'5" frame (excuse the pun).

If rim brakes were suitable for MTBs once then they'll still work now. Not the best but I guess I'll have.to live with them.

TBH I'll just be glad to be back on a bike again no matter what brakes they have.

Kona Rove Al is @£650, 59cm might be too big for you, add rack and guards and you could be disc-braked on a touring hybrid for £700!

[Tangled Metal]

Did consider that but which is more important the benefits of steel frame / forks or disc brakes?

I did consider the Rove but always think Kona is over-priced for what you get.

[ChrisButch]

Just as a footnote to Brucey's run-through of the pros and cons of the various brake types, an intriguing recent development is the introduction of direct-mount DP calipers. In these the two pivots bolt directly into the frame, and the central mounting bolt disappears. At the moment they're limited to a few shallow-drop calipers and close-clearance frames. But they do seem to have rather more adjustment than standard shallow-drop DPs, and if a a deep-drop version were to emerge it might have potential for touring. They certainly ought to be stiffer, and would eliminate the one bugbear I always have about DPs - the ease with which they're knocked out of centre when you take out a wheel etc. Need a special frame of course, but in that respect no different from cantilevers and Vs. Worth keeping an eye on anyway.