I’ve been upgrading the Homer for the past 3 years as the time and money becomes available.  I have always admired Paul products from a distance, and recently realized I had a Riv dividend that would pay for a set of Paul Racers.  I finally got the time to install them, so I’m all set.

A couple of notes/thoughts.  The new brakes don’t feel stronger to me than the original Silver sidepulls.  There is more modulation with these, but I’m guessing it’s just related to cable stretch.  There is more exposed cable on both front and back.  Both the Silvers and these Racers have great breaking power, so no net gain/loss there.  Perhaps better feel.  I do like the looks of the Pauls slightly more, but the Silvers were no slouch in that category either.

The cable hanger was interesting, and one downside to the center-pull brakes.  I didn’t have much room for a fork crown mount as I have a rack and brakes mounted already, so I used a drop hanger, also a Paul (Funky Monkey), mounted to the stem.   It leaves more exposed cable, and I’ve heard from a few sources (here is a good one) that this may cause shudder as the brakes may grab the rim, the fork flexes back as the tire grabs the road, and the cable tightens, until the pad breaks free, and the process starts again.

The good news is that this doesn’t seem to impact me with these brakes.  It seems to be more of an issue with canti brakes on bikes with flexy forks.

Time for some real riding to break them in…

 

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