Is now the time to cut down canes?
Autumn varieties yes... sumer ones, yes if you can tell old from new... :-\
I wouldn't cut them down just yet, wait 'til first signs of new shoots growing.
I had a look at mine yesterday and on most you can still see the canes that fruited, these can be pruned out.
try not to do it in a frost as it makes a soft wound.
x sunloving
My observation is that if you wait until new shoots start growing, a lot of them start partway up the cane and you are going to have to cut them off. If you cut the canes off before the shoots start growing, that stimulates them to grow from the ground instead, and you don't waste the plant's energy. Just a thought.
Mine are autumn fruiting. Maybe it's different for summer ones?
I cut down my Autumn fruiting ones on Sunday just gone. I always do it in Feb some time and they always come up just fine. I thought the point of cutting them down was to encourage the new growth in which case would make sense to do it early on. Also doing it in Feb gives me a chance to rake out all the dead grass etc that accumulated underneath them the previous year and give them a mulch.
But summer fruiting ones are different!