i had always used avid's until I found a great deal on a set of those shimano parallel push brakes, installed them and was dissapointed, inconsistent power, terrible to set-up and heavy...off they went, went looking for some more avid's, found one sd7 and one cane creek direct curve. I have to say that so far i have been extremely impressed with the cane creek, although i don't think it would work well with larger tires because of it's design. I would love to try the paul's but it isnt in the budget right now (plus I only have v-brakes on one bike.)