Why do road bikes still use caliper brakes? I’ve always found them a real faff to set up, and I’m sure they’re not that light? With all the advances in mountain bikes, you’d think road bikes would move along a bit too?

Reason I ask, I did a sportive at the weekend on my cross bike with slicks, and everyone was commenting on my canit’s saying they wished they had brakes as good as those. Personally I don’t think cantis are much better, but mini V’s would surely offer greater braking control and would weigh less I’d think?

Maybe its a UCI thing, I know they’ve banned discs from CX (for now) but it all just seems a bit odd to me that millions of pounds is spent on R&D, yet they’re still using old fashioned braking designs.

Any suggeastions? Is it just a case of if it works, use it?

direct pull brakes dont work very well with drop levers I believe.

Mini Vs which are designed to work with short pull levers give very little clearance.

Vs will transfer the braking force against the fork legs and seat stays meaning they will need to be significantly beefed up to avoid failure. calliper brakes dont do this and the only real force is where the bolt pulls against the frame/forks because of wheel rotation.