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Shop | Components | Brakes | Cantilever Brakes | Neo-Retro

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Neo-Retro

The Neo-Retro is a wide-profile cantilever brake with a design based on the geometry of the famous Mafac Tandem brake. Where the Neo-Retro differs from its classic heritage is in its modern materials and adjustability.

$145.00 – $185.00Price range: $145.00 through $185.00

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Technical Information

  • Material
    6061 Aluminum
  • Weight
    100g
  • Finish
    Anodized or Polished
  • Anodized Color
    Black, Purple or Silver
  • Cable Pull
    Short Pull ↓

    Short pull brakes have less leverage than long pull brakes and require a shorter amount of cable to be pulled when they are actuated.

    They are intended only for use with short pull brake levers such as our Cross Levers or Canti Levers, or short pull drop bar brake levers.

  • Included Brake Pads
    Salmon Kool Stop Thinline
  • Additional Information
    Download
  • Brake Pivot - Exploded View
    Download
  • Exploded Assembly Drawing
    Exploded Assembly Drawing
  • Spring Placement
    Download

Product Story

The arms of the Neo-Retro are machined from lightweight 6061 aluminum. Their T-shaped cross section prevents the brake from flexing too much under load.

The brake pads mount to slots in the arms that allow for vertical positioning. The toe-in and angle can be fine-tuned thanks to the spherical washers on the brake pad threaded posts.

The long arms give the Neo-Retro lots of mechanical advantage and supreme mud clearance. However, for smaller frames and those with panniers, we will often recommend our narrower Touring Canti brake.

Like all of our brakes, the Neo-Retro has a sealed pivot mechanism. Rubber seals and a stainless steel bushing keep the brake arms turning smoothly no matter what you’re riding through. The spring tension can be adjusted in both pivots to center the brake and to adjust the strength of the return swing.

The Neo-Retro stands out with its stopping power, high adjustability, low easy maintenance, and classic looks. The brakes come with their pivots pre-greased and with all necessary hardware. The Moon Unit cable carrier is not included.

Please note that all of our brakes are sold per wheel.

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Our monthly email is an ongoing bike conversation for creative people who spend a lot of time in their garage.
What would you call this ano colorway?! Blueberry What would you call this ano colorway?! Blueberry Acid Trip? BTCHN’ Bikes was generous enough to donate these insane titanium handlebars to the #CascadeCougar project. Made right here in Chico! Wait till you see how these tie into the paint… 👀
When it came time to pick a headset for the #Casca When it came time to pick a headset for the #CascadeCougar, you know we had to reach out to our friends at White Industries. Their engraved logos pair so well with our parts aesthetically, they’re machined in California, have a split crown-race for easy installation, and use recycled/able packaging. Man, this bike is gonna be DIPPED! 🤩
@blackcatbicycles making it look so casual as he f @blackcatbicycles making it look so casual as he fires up the #CascadeCougar 🧊. I guess after 24 years of building beautiful custom one-off frames for people, you either get stressed out, or you find the zen workflow. This dude is a straight up WIZARD, stay tuned!🍿 
📹: @mybucketsgottaholeinit and @onko_rinkus
Ok, so here we have the inspiration for the @black Ok, so here we have the inspiration for the @blackcatbicycles #CascadeCougar we’re building up for the @made.bike show! Mr Paul ordered this custom Petaluma-made Salsa A La Cart sometime around 1992 when PAUL Component started to become profitable, and he had a vision for a bike that was in many ways ahead of its time, but now is a piece of history. Drop-Bar mountain bikes seem to kinda come and go as a trend (more recently called Monster Cross bikes, and now called…?). This one is a fun example with the “Jelly Bean” paintjob, Cook Brothers cranks, early PAUL “DDT” hubs and brakes, a WTB/King headset, and… that STEM. The Gnass seatbag was made in Chico, I think he makes fire-fighter gear now. Anyways, we aren’t going to *replicate* this bike, we’re just going to take some cues from it. Stay tuned to see what we come up with, and how you can enter to win!
Oh boy, do we have a SWEET project in the works to Oh boy, do we have a SWEET project in the works to tell y’all about! Without spilling out everything all at once (it’s a LOT), let’s just key you in on what’s in the oven. We decided we wanted to bring a sick custom one-of-a-kind bike to show off at @made.bike this year, and we somehow talked @blackcatbicycles into building a frame inspired by Mr. Paul’s original old-school, California-made drop-bar Salsa mountain bike, which is something cool we will ALSO be bringing to Made, and then we’re gona dip that Black Cat in the sweetest of our favorite bike parts (more on THOSE later), and THEN (catching breath), we’re going to raffle the bike off (this could be YOURS?!), to raise money for @oakridgetrailsalliance ! Go ahead and follow the #CascadeCougar hashtag now if you don’t want to miss the process posts by us and some of our favorite brands. Stay tuned! 📷: @mybucketsgottaholeinit
Ever since we introduced our Quick Release Seatcol Ever since we introduced our Quick Release Seatcollar years ago, folks have been requesting a bolt-on version. But with so many other seatcollars on the market, we didn’t initially take the requests too seriously. Since the advent of dropper-posts, we started thinking about this more often. There really is a need these days for a seatcollar with deeper, more uniform clamping distribution: Enough to keep your dropper post from slipping in the frame, but also with a large, evenly dispersed clamping force to avoid the dreaded “dropper-binding”.

  The convex back of our “floating button” design evenly disperses clamping force, and avoids pinching or binding at a lighter weight than a steel barrel, is replaceable if damaged, and follows the simple PAUL aesthetic nicely.

  These are lovingly machined by us to the highest tolerances out of USA sourced 6061 & 7075  aluminum right here in sunny Chico, California. They are currently available in 30.0mm, 31.8mm, 33.1 and 35.0mm, in polished, purple, black, silver, and with orange accents.

Available NOW on our website, or from your favorite local bike shop. If you want to learn more about it, search up our latest YouTube video. 

Have a great weekend, we hope you get to RIDE! ✌️
Paul Component Engineering
  • info@paulcomp.com
  • 530–345–4371
  • 11204 Midway
  • Chico, CA 95928
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