Epiphanies don’t come often to us, the mere mortal. Most go through life waiting for someone else to guide them, be it a deity, or a mentor, a friend, lover, or more likely these days, the media or that strange new entity the ‘influencer’. Most of these can be helpful in assisting with information, but the decision still comes down to oneself. I’d like to think that I’ve escaped the time when outside influences or trends or popularity, fitting-in even, guided my own decisions.

In cycling––or at least my 50 odd years of doing it––trends that are initiated by manufacturers and enabled by media occupy the status quo. Having worked in the cycling media in various incarnations, I was both influenced by and influencing these trends myself, something I’m now not so much ashamed of, but at least aware of. I would look down and even denigrate some of my peers if they turned up for a ride on their 90s steel hardtail with rim brakes, believing they would not only ruin the experience for themselves, but also for me somehow. Usually the pie I ate after they schooled me with skills and had a bigger grin than me, was a double dose of humble. Now, I’m more like them than I ever imagined I could be.

As my riding tastes evolved to devolve, my bikes started taking on different personas also. Yes, I have a newish E-MTB in my stable that I thought would render everything else obsolete, but it gets the least love these days. It’s a blast to ride and I’ve resisted the urges to sell it, but it remains, an unused tech wonder in a dark corner. My next most advanced and modern bike is made from steel, and every other bike is the same material or aluminium. Carbon was deemed the devil (at last for frames and wheels) long ago.

Next to be condemned to the bins was electronic shifting. While it worked pretty well and made a buzzing sound, the fact that it relied on unreliable batteries, had delicate wires and cost a fortune to replace should a derailleur hit a rock gave me some anxiety. After another battery failure, and working on the same problems on a mate’s bike, it too was gone. Cables are simple, reliable, cheap and easy to carry on a ride far from safety.

Let’s look at that last sentence: cables are cheap and easy. They can be found in any bike shop anywhere. You can tune and replace them in minutes. So why not apply that logic to brakes? Not just rim brakes, but disc brakes. For years I’d been told and had been telling that mechanical cable disc brakes were rubbish, they didn’t work as well as hydraulics, and of course that is true in some cases, but not all cases are the same. The 23kg E-MTB requires the grunt of 4-pot hydros for sure, but a 8kg gravel bike or 10kg hardtail most certainly doesn’t. I knew this because I was riding the same trails on both E and acoustic bikes, disc and rim, and getting similar results for both. Logically, a good cable disc system should be pretty damn good, I thought. Living in the AI apocalypse and possibly needing to flee society by bike was another factor in my decision to go mechanical.

Now, the desire to have nice things still held some lure, and while my BB5s work great on the apocalypse bike, my nice handmade gravel bike deserved something befitting of high-end looks and performance. Immediately I knew there was only one option: Paul Components’ Klampers. I’d seen these on myriad mountain and gravel bikes online, read all the glowing reviews, drooled over the photos of the various colours they came in, and just loved everything about them and all the other Paul bits. In fact, when I first commissioned the build for my gravel bike, I’d been in touch with Travis at Paul and was teed up for a set of black Klampers, before Belgian Post stole the groupset on its way to me, resulting in me completely losing the plot and going hydro/electric. With the eventual ridding of electronics came the ridding of hydraulics, the drop bars also went the way of the dodo in lieu of flat bars, and Travis’ email was dug up again. A pleasure to deal with, he helped me decipher the type of levers and actuation arms that would best work for me, both in flat and drop bar configurations, and either Shimano or Campag cable pull ratios. The hardest decision was which of the beautiful anodised colours to go with, which was kinda hard but kinda not. It had to be chrome.

Within weeks the box arrived, and opening it was akin to a kid at Christmas, with really rich parents. This stuff was like jewellery, even the boxes were classy. And they included some candy! It really was Christmas. It was time to play with the toys. Initial set-up was a breeze, cut some full length housing, bolt on the calipers and levers, slide the cable through, and ride. No mess, no fuss, easy to follow instructions and tips on correct alignment etc, and you’re away. Straight away the compliments and questions from my riding companions came, as the chrome shone in the sun and the size of the calipers drew the eye towards them. Yes, the Klampers take up a bit more space than a hydro caliper, but that only adds to their unique mystique in my books. The knurled pad adjustment dials dominate the brake and just look cool to me.

The levers I went with were the Canti-Lever, which Travis recommended for the short-pull arms on the calipers, which he said would also work best with Shimano drop bar levers which I also planned on trying the brakes with. The arms also come in long-pull and Campy-pull, which I may yet try though I’m a bit wary of mounting such bling on a gravel bike, just asking to get garked up. With the flat bars, widish tyres on 650B wheels, and no suspension, I was on the fanciest 90s MTB I could imagine! Therefore the best way to test these brakes was probably the old-school way, a smattering of singletrack and a feast of gravel roads and 4WD tracks. A 5km fire-road descent with some almost DH offshoots proved the abilities of the Klampers, impressing me not only with their strong bite but also the modulation available at the lever. They didn’t feel like they were struggling to bite the rotors, or spongy through the cables. I used quality Jagwire compressionless housings and end caps, which I’d recommend for any cable brake system, rim or disc. The pads supplied with the Klampers are Kool Stop sintered metal, and I’ve also tried Kool Stop resin which also work well, but last a little less. And they’ll never get contaminated by that pesky hydraulic fluid.

It would only be fair to see how the Klampers work with drop bar levers as well, and while the Shimano levers are on duty on another bike, I thought I’d see what the Chinese component craze was all about and picked up a set of L-Twoo 11speed mechanical levers. Pleasantly surprised with their finish and shifting, they also do an admirable job of actuating the Klampers. Any drop bar lever is going to feel a bit flexier than a shorter flat bar lever of course, but it’s testament to the Klampers’ power at the caliper that they work as well as they do.

After a summer of gravel roads, road, some tame singletrack and some gnarly long descents, and a winter of too-few muddy jaunts on the same, I’m more than impressed with the performance of the Klampers. I’ve only had to make small adjustment at the lever barrel adjusters (on the flat-bar setup) and a half turn or one click of the caliper dial while on the drop bar setup. A change of cable and housing may be done for the coming summer, but I could get away with just the inner as the performance hasn’t suffered much at all. Once you get the lever pull and feel set up as you like, they are pretty well set-and-forget and won’t have you worried about leaks, contamination, bleeding, or your pistons needing a reset if you bump the lever while the wheel is removed.

Paul’s Klampers have become an institution in the States, especially among connoisseurs of custom, hand-made, metal and unique bikes and builds. And with good reason, as they not only look fantastic and work even better, they add that panache and exclusivity that these bikes and riders crave. Yes, they are very expensive, but what isn’t in the bike market these days? The fact that they are serviceable, rebuildable and easy to swap between bikes means they will outlast any hydro brake and most bikes and riders. Maybe it’s time for an epiphany of your own.