After 25 years I still love my Feather bike. The titanium frame is still comfortable to ride. It shifts well corners better than any bike I have ever ridden. I don't have any plans of replacing it anytime soon. The only complaint I have with the bike is the rear dropouts.
They face forward. Not sure why they designed it this way but if I put too much torque on the rear wheel by stamping hard on the pedals in a high gear then some times the rear wheel get pulled out of the dropouts and jams against the frame. Usually this only happens after I change the rear wheel. Because this is a polished titanium frame the drop outs are very smooth so the quick release skewers don't have a lot to grip on. Eventually after a few rides enough dirt builds on on the dropout and I don't have a problem with the rear wheel pulling out. (I have tried using rubber washers or some other material between the skewers and the frame to improve grip but nothing seems to help)
After this past Wednesday ride I had a flat tire on the rear wheel so had to change it out. I then knew on Saturdays ride that the rear wheel would probably pull out a few times before I could get it locked in. About a mile into the ride while going up the hill out of Allentown the rear wheel pull out. I went to tight the skewer after I put the wheel back in place but when I did the cam on the skewer broke. Luckily Neil was with us who carries more spare bike parts than small a bike shop(okay that's a bit of an exaggeration but not by much). The one part he doesn't carry any more is a spare skewer.
I sent the group on with Jim as the lead and slowly made my way back to my car. I was going to put the bike back in the car and head home but I realized that I had plenty of spare skewers in my car. Since my bike rack holds the bike in by the front fork I actually have a few skewers in the rack and even a few more in the car in case the bikes I need to carry have different fork sizes. I even have skewers for thru axle bikes now.
It took me a few minutes to find one that worked and test it out by riding around the parking lot. Eric was in the parking lot doing a ride with another group. I consider going with him but then decided that I could probably take a more direct route to the planned rest stop (Emery's) and meet my group there.
I headed straight to New Egypt and then on to Cookstown where I join the original route and got to Emery's about 5 minutes before they did. I haven't been to Emery's in a while. They have good muffins and cookies so it's not a bad stop. I think my only complaint is that there is no where to sit.
Because I missed the first part of the ride with the group I missed the required bridge out. It turns out I don't need to actually lead a ride for there to be a bridge out I just need to plan it. I actually knew the bridge was out because Neil told me the road was closed but as people who ride with me know I don't let a road closed stop me unless it is unsafe. The truth is the crew working on a closed road or bridge out usually needs a way to get along the road or bridge so although a road is closed for car traffic it is usually passable for a bike.
At the end of the ride I put in a known dirt road. It was only a small stretch and may have surprised the one non regular rider on my ride but it checked off the requirements of a Tom ride.
I fished with about 8 less miles with the group but the replacement skewer held for the entire ride. It's got a different cam design which seems to give it more grip. It was a good temporary fix but I need to get a better one that fits the titanium frame better. If I'm lucky I might be able to find one that looks good and has better grip so it will fix the one main flaw with the Feather.
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