I thought I’d try the hive mind…

My commuting bike is an ancient Marin with Shimano XT canti brakes and Dia Compe levers. Towing the baby trailer makes for truly terrifying braking, so I’d like to improve it. I’ve tried new pads and cables, which has helped a bit, but not enough for my liking.

The forks don’t have disc mounts, and I can’t swap the fork because modern ones all seem to be suspension corrected. So, I’m looking at V-brakes or maybe Magura hydraulic rim brakes. Any suggestions on what to go for? Will it make much difference?

Much of a difference, yes. I’d just get some half decent v-brakes, if the frames not built for them (which if it’s got cantis it probably isn’t) maguras will just flex the frame,

+1 for half decent v brakes, put some deore ones on an almost unrideable tandem & made it safe to ride again, the canti’s on it before were awful

What about a cx disc fork? Not sure what the axle to crown might be, but if you’re running skinny tyres anyway, it might be about right.

1st off, though. You might as well try a set of Avid SD5 Vs. If they work well enough, great. If they don’t, stick them on the back (they’ll still be an improvement) and try something else up front.

This could be another option, if you are feeling flush

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=62014&utm_source=Google&utm_medium=Shopping&utm_name=UnitedKingdom

V-brakes should be powerful enough if they are working correctly. Sounds like they aren’t. are they the old parallel linkage ones? Might just have worn out the pivots so they bind and create a lot of friction when the brakes are applied but feel fine when they’re not under any load.

plus 1 for the V Brakes. check fleabay for Shimano XT servo V brakes.

Magura HS33s are excellent, had a set on my old disc-mountless SS. Almost as much power as a small disc. Cheap off fleabay and pretty much zero maintenance.
However, they do eat pads in the wet/mud (much as Vs do really)

might be easier to sell it and just buy a new bike.

but surely you can get a cheap fork of a similar length ?

What is the old one 400 mm A-C ?

Bet anything up to 420mm would be ok seeing as its just of commuting.

Then get a disc brake for the front.

These look pretty short to me

ebay

Thanks for the replies everyone, I think I’ll try some XT v-brakes. I had some maguras back in the day, but I don’t remember them being all that good. That was 15 years ago though.

I’ll double check the fork length but the tyre is fairly close to the crown so I think anything new will be too long.

XTR v-brakes with M70R2 pads