Chris,
Thanks for your reply, I've been there aswell. I'm probably going to give the 287 levers a try as I already have the V Brakes. C+ reviewed them twice and they scored an 8 and a 7 saying performance was as good as well set up cantis, but not as good as V-Brakes with straight bar levers. I'm currently running 35 mm tyres and dont know if they'd fit with mini-V's. Canti's are out as I don't have a rear brake hanger.
I've recently changed the brakes and bar set up on my XTC from Comfort bars and LX V-Brakes and levers to Drop Bars and Shimano Ultegra brake levers with Suntour XC Pro Cantis and the performance is Equal if not better now.
Steve