Paul Component tells us it takes a ton of customer emails before they resurrect an old, out-of-production component from the archives. That’s apparently been going on for a while, but they also have their own adaptive use reasons for machining out a new life for their two-in-one Duplex brake lever. The Duplex is back and ready to once again pull two brakes with one lever…
Paul Duplex double brake lever: 2 brakes, 1 lever
Originally developed for bicycle polo riders to be able to operate two brakes with a single lever, the Duplex brake lever found a second life with cyclists who due to physical limitations couldn’t operate two independent brake levers. (For those who have never played bike polo, the ludicrous and incredibly fun sport involves one hand always off the bar holding your mallet. Being able to use both brakes with a single lever meant you could ride faster, since you could stop faster – before crashing!)
c. Paul Comp
The Duplex also found a number of alternate installations on bikes like tandems & cargo bikes that use more than two brakes to bring their heavy load to a safe stop. And with the levers out of production, those existing levers became highly sought after. Thus, their ingenious use & reuse beyond Paul’s original intent is ultimately what brought back the Duplex.
Duplex – tech details
The Paul Duplex is a single CNC-machined 6061 aluminum brake lever to operate two mechanical cable actuated brakes at once. Each 94g lever can be setup in either Short or Long pull settings by shifting the lever pivot to work with anything from road caliper brakes to MTB V-brakes.
The levers can be installed for either right or left operation on the 22.2mm diameter section of a handlebar next to the grip. They also get a reach adjust grub screw to set lever distance from the bar, and include two Jagwire inline barrel adjusters to independently fine tune front & rear brake actuation.
A single Duplex lever is sold direct from Paul for $152 in black, silver, blue or purple ano, or for $164 in high polished silver, all made in-house in “sunny Chico, California” and in stock now.
Sparkle moonbeam to you all!
for the same price you also get the tektro auriga twin hydraulic brake.
For the same price I can get many things made in Asia, like 2 sets of carbon forks. But these brakes will be perfect for some bikes that the generic discs won’t be, the kind of bikes where someone is OK with domestic-made prices from a great company who make great kit. Tektro make some good stuff too, and the whole value/quality debate is so subjective we could be here all day. I’d just say – I’m glad companies like Paul exist and I’m happy to buy products that support what they and others like them do. I don’t see the Asia-made prices as a value benchmark.
Thank you. Paul and Tektro both make excellent products. Totally different scale, totally different target markets. It’s not a binary, both have their place.
holy cow, 164 for 1 alu brake lever
Have you tried to get low production volume products made by a machinist in California? That’s what that costs.
Bike polo still around??
These things really aren’t very good. The shape of the lever cuts into your hand when you pull them hard. I have one in a box that I used on a polo bike. I had to switch to something a little different. Most people these days play polo with only a front brake mostly because there aren’t many good dual brake options. I’ve have a dual brake that works better than this with a Problem solvers cable doubler. It’s not ideal, but better than this.
On a different note I didn’t realize what these were going for these days. Off to ebay I go.