What we ride: Adrian’s custom Feather all-road bike

Cyclist
What we ride: Adrian’s custom Feather all-road bike

Ricky Feather is an old friend of mine. A long time ago we used to ride BMXs together and shared a flat in my hometown of Leeds at one point too. When he started making bikes, I knew I had to get one off him, so Ricky made me my first ever road bike back in 2012 when I got really into it. That was my main bike for well over four years and I still ride it today, but it’s now my old faithful winter choice, dressed up in mudguards.

I’d been mulling over the idea of retiring it and getting something more modern for a while when my dad passed away at the end of 2022. He was always outdoors and loved cycling so that gave me the impetus to commission Ricky again, to build a bike in his honour.

I get to see a lot of bikes at Cyclist, and I like to take pictures of the ones that catch my eye. Looking back through the gallery I’d assembled, I noticed almost all of them were white, so I settled on something similar for this bike. I kept the paint scheme simple, but I had the ‘Leeds Smiley’ – a cult-favourite badge used by Leeds United in the 1970s – on the seat tube because my dad was a lifelong fan of the club.

As for the bike itself, I wanted something I could ride year-round, in large part because I don’t like indoor training. In other words, a posh winter bike that takes mudguards but something that could also work for light gravel and fast road riding in the spring and summer. Given the intention to travel with this bike a lot too, external cables at the front end were a must.

The geometry is endurance road-biased, but the frame will clear 40mm tyres and Ricky made it with a taller head tube so I could get away with slamming the stem without the stack being too low. This bike is one of the first TIG-welded frames Ricky has done – he generally builds using fillet brazing or lugs – but he has started a brand called WKNDR whose frames will all be TIG-welded, which streamlines the manufacturing process and allows him to supply more customers.

A build as bespoke as the frame

While Ricky was working on the frame, I had plenty of time to think about the build. One of those white bikes I took a picture of was a Specalized Aethos, so although I went for a Feather, I bought the S-Works finishing kit that the Aethos comes with because it suits my bike in a similarly classic way, and had the stem colour-matched to the frame.

I’ve always ridden Shimano so choosing that as the core of the groupset was a given, but overall my bike’s shifting components have ended up being a mish-mash. Nonetheless, I think they work well together.

I went for Ultegra Di2 levers because I’ve never really got on with the shape of the GRX levers. The bulk of the gravel I’ll be riding will be pretty pedestrian and I have Shimano’s road levers on all my other bikes anyway, so it seemed sensible to preserve that feel on this bike too.

Gearing-wise, I’m using a GRX rear derailleur on an 11-42 cassette with an Ingrid CRS-R2 crankset and 42t chainring. I wanted a gearing setup that could cope on gravel but provide big enough gears on the road, which this does – I don’t need huge amounts of range. I think the Ingrid crankset is really stylish and works well as the centrepiece of the bike.

I settled on the Zipp 303 S wheels after input from the Cyclist editorial team. I was after a good-value wheel with on-trend specs that’s fast on the road but can be used with gravel tyres too, and in that sense the 303 S seems to tick all the boxes. Likewise, the Pirelli Cinturato Gravel M tyres were about letting me go fast on the road while remaining capable off it.

I’m really happy with how the build has come together. The bike feels like a natural progression from my first Feather in that it’s much stiffer and has modern features, yet in a lot of ways still feels really familiar.

Having a brand new steel bike, built for me by my friend and in memory of my dad, means so much to me for a lot of reasons. It’s beautiful to look at and it inspires me to ride more. I rode my last Feather for over ten years and I know I’ll be doing the same with this one.

Adrian’s Feather all-road bike specs

• This article originally appeared in issue 152 of Cyclist magazine. Click here to subscribe

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