Paul Component Engineering Factory Tour: 30 Years of USA-Made Parts – Chico, California

2019 marks the 30th year of operations that Paul Component Engineering of Chico, California has been in business. The company is renown for its beautiful CNC machined parts, ranging from brakes, drivetrain parts, stems, hubs, cockpit goodies and more. The humble Paul quick release skewer was the first item off the production line way back in 1989, aka Paul’s house at that time which lead to later developments such as front and rear derailleurs for 1990’s era mountain bikes – an era also recognized for anodized aluminium parts… some of which were rather dodgy.

paul component engineering factory tour

“Many years, bike shows, and parties later there’s an old Texaco warehouse with state-of-the-art machines humming inside and still some old hand-operated ones used to build prototypes. There is still constant thrashing on bikes in Bidwell Park, one of the gnarliest mountain biking areas in the country, to test and improve components. Every last scrap of aluminum is 100% USA forged and every component is 100% USA made.” – Paul Component Engineering

paul component engineering factory tour

On the day before my journey to the 2019 GRINDURO! in Quincy, California, I reached out to Paul Price, founder of Paul Component Engineering, for a guided factory tour. Last-minute planning is ill-advised, but Paul, readying for his annual support of Grinduro with an aid station and more, kindly referred me to Travis T.

paul component engineering factory tour

In this video, Travis T. takes me through the Paul Component facility from raw materials to CNC machining and so on. Paul himself makes a brief appearance in this video, and provides an abbreviated history of the company that cuts straight to the chase. Many thanks to Paul, Travis T., Haley, Brianna, Brett, the black kitty and everyone else I met during my visit. Thanks also to Billy of Echos Communication for facilitating this tour.

Paul Component Enginering

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3 Comments

  1. Avatar bobknh

    Thanks for the great video. I have a pair Pauls Mini-moto linear brake calipers on my backup gravel bike – Ritchie Swiss Cross. After many years of hard use, they still work exceptionally well. Very easy to adjust and service. Very light. And, under most riding conditions, they have the same stopping power and modulation as my mech. disc calipers on my main gravel bike. I also have a couple of pairs of Thumbies that come out of my spare parts box whenever I want to put together some sort of experimental bike. Great stuff. Now I know why everything from Paul’s work so well.

  2. Avatar James Lybrand

    Love the Paul Components. Got the cranks, stem and seatpost on my fixie years ago and have purple Klampers, seat post, seat post clamp and stem on my Chumba Terlingua. Can’t fault the functionality, beauty or individuality of the them and very glad to buy from a bloke who stuck his neck out, stuck to it and makes great gear the old way.

  3. Avatar Beargrease

    Installed some Paul CNC machined cross brakes on my gravel rig this summer. Huge performance improvement over the stamped metal brand that came on the bike. First class quality all around.

    Thanks for the video.

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