Originally Posted by
scarlson
I can say the Paul Racer is very very good. But the Mafac Racer is also very good, and the Raid is even better. Better, I think, than the Weinmanns that came on the International. Old Mafac pads are also nice, compared to old Weinmann ones. New pads will be noticeably better, if your old ones have hardened up. One other thing to do is switch the levers for some modern "aero" levers. These usually have more mechanical advantage.
+1 (Haven't used Pauls but the Racers are very good brakes. I wish someone now would buy the tooling or make new and start building forged Racers again. Sadly, I doubt there is or ever will be enough of a market to justify forge tooling but once done, the next run of excellent brakes is easy. Plus these are devices I might have to trust my life to. I'd rather mediocre finished quality forged over the best CNC any day. (Like steam bent wood vs sawn - spellcheck doesn't recognize "sawn"? - wood for boat ribs.)
Ben