What type of brakes for 26" touring bike

[smegballs]

Well it looks quite likely that I'll be taking my touring bike back to Portugal in the spring.

Before I go, I want to improve the brakes! Currently fitted are a set cheapo plastic canti's off of a no-name raleigh that are marginal at best. I managed to get around the place without dying, but round two could def do with improving.

My dads old mtb has some solid billet ally canti's and they do a fine job, and will easily lock his wheels, unlike the plastic ones I have whereby the arms visibly deflect under braking.

So what is the best option in terms of toughness? V or canti? Given I'll be out in the stick for lots of it, it's not unthinkable that I may get a buckled wheel or such, so whichever system is most resilient to out-of-true wheels and other battle damage will be the one I go for.

[Irezumi aka Reuben]

V-brake are a dying technology although widely used on cheap bikes. Cantilever is widely used on cyclocross still so I'd probably go with that. Having said that neither of a relatively decent type is likely to fail so it's just the pad and cables (which are universal) that are likely to need changing.

In terms of rims buckling/problems you need to get them fixed regardless of what you use, and you shouldnt have a problem with rims anyway.

In summary, doesnt really matter.
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Pictorgraphicalfantastical

[G]

If you could go for disc, they completely sort the 'buckled wheel' issues.

I got a cheap hydraulic front caliper when my cable discs needed new pads on my hybrid - still stops pretty well when I had an extra 50kg on the back, over the extra 8kg or so I normally carry around.