colker1 said:
the main advantages of paul's was being rebuildable. case is: xtr derrailleurs are so good... you had to be very anti shimano to pay 3x more on a paul.
I've got a front and a rear rasta color set myself of these Pauls on a Trimble. Definately retro in my book as yare CNC, anodized, "almost" 10 years old, American made, and fairly uncommon -- all good characteristics to qualify for retro in my book.
Regarding the "rebuildable" part, that was a claim when Paul sold them originally, but good luck finding the parts now days to rebuild one. I could be wrong but I would be surprised if Paul is offering all or any of the parts to rebuild these guys, and to be frank, who wants to rebuild a derailer??? It's like filling milk jugs --- it's no longer cool . . .
I really like the look of the old Pauls derailers (as well as the Precision Billet and Joes) though my favorite CNC shift effort has got to be a shout out to the old White Industries Derailer's/Shifters.
White's shift system was not just a reinvention of the "shifting wheel" but a "revolution" of the shift/derailer design. How sad that such a great design idea died out? From everything I've read and heard the performance of this design was stellar (except maybe the setup). Yeah they were expensive, but so is anything American made and beautiful. No one complains about paying more for a set of Callaway drivers or a Hummer truck. Why shouldn't we pay more for American designed/made shifting?
-mtnwing
