the clearance was indeed crazy small! I stared at that thing and never saw daylight between the tire and caliper.

I don't recall if he was running tires bigger than 23mm... there is a trend of people using 25mm and bigger tires. The calipers were the standard Shimano reach (49mm?). Seems unlikely that even Felt would design a fork where a 23mm tire would fit that tight.

My shiny Hetchins has short reach Campy Record brakes and the pads are at the top of the slots, but it even has more clearance than this CF Felt bike.

I know that modern bikes are generally reliable, but is it a coincidence that the prior week saw another rider of a modern low-spoke-count wheel have a mechanical problem.. a spoke broke and we had to release the brake cable to let the wheel turn. As background info, this is a weekly ride that I lead, and my goal is to not leave a rider behind, vintage bike or modern. Another data point dates back many years, when a friend had the right hand BB cup back out on his very shiny steel Tommasini. We took turns towing him back to town. Another data point is from about 10 years ago on a club ride where my middle chainwheel folded. A friend towed me into town, where I borrowed a car's tire iron to pry the chainwheel so it would at least clear the chainstay (it was a steel bike, and a 110mm BCD 46T chainring)

Steve in Peoria