Paul Neo Retro Brake

Low maintenance, high power, easy to adjust

This review is upon installation of my second pair of Neo Retros as front brakes. First pair I bought 4 years ago. That pair has about 14,000 miles on it. I popped them off my good bike to move them to my winter bike today. No discernible wear on them compared to the new ones (if you ignore pad wear), only difference was dirt on old pair. So that's the low maintenance component. High stopping power - it's very easy to do an endo with these and the modulation is excellent. I'm running TRP drop bar brake levers on my Gunnar cross bike. I run salmon compound Kool-stops so they stop ok in the rain, not as good as discs, but fine for my commute. The Kool-stop salmons on the old brakes have 2500 miles on them and look like they have 2/3rds of their wear surface remaining - another measure of the low maintenance component. I commute daily with this bike, and do some mountain riding on roads out of Boulder with 14% grade, 4000 foot descents. They bring my speed down going into corners VERY smoothly and rapidly. These brakes are easy to get perfect on adjustment. With a 3mm rim-pad spacing the brake operation has lots of force and it's easy to blast-clean the pads with water w/o taking the straddle cable loose. Paul recommends straddle cable be 3 inches above tire and I used to run these on another bike (using Paul Canti-levers) with the 3 inch recommendation, but straddle 30mm above tire seems to provide more braking force. I have them mounted on a Gunnar steel touring fork. Moderately beefy, but not an adventure touring, thick wall steel fork.

Pros: Light, powerful, made in US, low maintenance, long lasting, easily adjusted

Cons: Paul doesn't recommend you run them as a back brake and you need to be a little careful about what kind of tubing you mount them on due to their immense crushing force ;o)

Would Buy Again: Yes
Would Recommend: Yes

Reviewed on: October 01, 2017
Reviewed by: Rick R.

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Waited a long time to get these and they work great

Great stoppers. Look good and work well. Hope to have these on the bike for awhile.

Pros: Looks, function, made in California

Cons: A bit expensive but not crazy expensive. Get what you pay for applies here.

Would Buy Again: Yes
Would Recommend: Yes

Reviewed on: January 14, 2015
Reviewed by: Rod C.

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