Product Review: FEATHER ROAD BRAKES
Bicycle.net

Bicycle.net was given the opportunity to try out the new Feather Road Brakes over the last few months and we truly put them to the test. Riding them for over 2000 miles in every condition you can imagine.

The first thing that you notice is just how light they are. We weighed the pair of Feather’s that we got and they came in at 192 grams (they have an advertised weight of 199 grams). We have ridden on some of the other light weight brakes out there, but their performance is nothing more than sub-par. But the Feather road brakes sacrifice nothing in performance even with their light weight.

So how did Bob Barnett (the founder of Feather) get such great performance from such a light brake set? First off the brakes have been machined out of one solid piece of high strength aluminum with gives you a caliper body that is not only strong, but incredibly light weight. Next they use Ti hardware throughout, which cuts some precious grams.

Take a look at the photo’s and you notice just how much of the aluminum that they machine out of caliper. This is done so perfect that there is no loss of strength, and carries into a nearly perfect brake feel.

At the price of $399.00 for the pair they are in the middle of the price range for high performance brakes, but are considerable lighter. Here are some examples;

Shimano Dura Ace = 293 grams

SRAM Red = 265 grams

Campagnolo Super Record = 275 grams

Mounting the brakes are as easy as any other brake set from the three mentioned above. We found that once we had them aligned they stayed aligned. This process is straight forward and quick. But as always we recommend that if you are unfamiliar with basic brake installation that you use your local bike shop.

The performance of the Feather brakes is nothing short of amazing. The brake modulation is exactly as it should be, light at first and building to some awesome stopping power. We found our Feathers to pretty much out perform any other brake set we have ever tested.

When comparing performance to price, the Feather Road Brakes are very tough to beat. So if you are building a new bike, or upgrading an old one, you need to consider the Feather Road Brakes.

On a side note, they come in so many colors that they are sure to match any color scheme you got. They come in blue, red, black, gold, and pink, yeah pink.

You can check out the Feather brakes at; www.featherbrakes.com

We give the Feather Road Brake 5 out of 5 Chain Rings

Feather Brakes is a relative newcomer to the bicycle industry, but their founder, Bob Barnett has a history of breaking ground in everything from  Powerboats to Offroad Racing to Indy Racing before helping set some standards in DH mountain bike parts.  He helped pioneer the Mr. Dirt-USA downhill chainguides, which led to the three-bolt standard widely used today.  We met their rep, Ken, at Interbike and were really impressed with the look and feel of the product, so we arranged for a demo set to review.

I’ve been running the Feather Brakes road calipers for a little over a month, and the initial impressions are overwhelmingly positive.  With a claimed weight of 199g (ours actually weighed LESS than that!), they’re on par with Zero Gravity in terms of weight…but what about performance?

Read “more” for the full review and see why these should be your next brakes, price be damned…

Check out the video review from TestRider.com

Click the video to open in a new window and watch this review.