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Initially of yearly, Czech handmade {custom} bike builder Festka seems to be again at their hottest bike builds of the previous 12 months. And for 2022, the historically road-focused builder leans extra in direction of gravel with their Scout & Rover fashions edging out the Scalatore & Spectre for the To-5 spots with essentially the most likes on social media.
Let’s take a more in-depth look…
#1 Festka x Wonderful Scout Pop-Artwork gravel bike
The preferred {custom} Festka on social media in 2023 was this pop-art gravel bike collaboration with graphic artist Matt Stanbury, aka Glörious. And curiously, whereas the opposite bikes within the High-5 are largely one-off {custom} builds, this most placing design is now one in all Festka’s restricted version sequence finishes.
Glörious designed the first colours and donut-themed pop combo for his personal Scout journey gravel bike. However Festka “fell in love with it”, in order that they agreed to make it an excellent restricted version. Matt’s construct contains the ever-flashy BikeAhead 6-spoke wheels of their newest BiTurbo Aero configuration and Campagnolo’s lightest gravel groupset – the 1x 13-speed Ekar mechanical. This additionally occurred to be one of many earliest Festkas to get the total 1.5″ headset to route cables into the body, however nonetheless opts for a extra serviceable cable routing setup.
As for the look you possibly can really purchase, the Festka x Wonderful pop-art design is restricted to only 9 whole framesets – this one going to Matt, himself – with every being barely totally different. There’s additionally a pop-art Festka x Wonderful T-shirt out there for a complete lot much less.
#2 Festka Scalatore “Kafka on a motorcycle” street bike
This elaborate hand-painted bike is out of the final word {custom} “You By Festka” undertaking. Highlighting the intricate work of one in all Festka’s favourite Czech artists Michal Bačák, the idea was to recreate a number of the mind-bending scenes from Franz Kafka, the well-known writer born in Prague the place the bike was made.
From afar, this tradition light-weight carbon Scalatore street bike seems refined in black & white, however up shut the main points hold coming. The Kafka on a motorcycle Scalatore will get a basic SRAM Purple eTap AXS 2×12 wi-fi digital disc brake construct with mid-depth ENVE SES carbon wheels & cockpit.
#3 Festka Rover Tinted gravel bike
This quick gravel & all-road Rover is fairly low-key within the grand scheme of {custom} carbon Festka bikes. However it’s the translucent blue paint that actually makes it pop, revealing the intricate filament-woven carbon tubes that Festka has custom-made by Czech manufacturing accomplice CompoTech in one of many firm founder’s dwelling city.
Constructed with {custom} geometry for an particularly tall buyer, this Festka Rover Tinted will get an all-Campagnolo construct. It pairs an Ekar 1×13 gruppo to a set of tubeless Campy Shamal Carbon wheels and fast-rolling Schwalbe G-One Pace gravel tires, plus an Enve carbon cockpit.
#4 Festka Rover Ondrash & Kasparek gravel bike
Late in 2021 Festka introduced again the artist duo Ondrash & Kasparek to create a few present bikes, highlighting their newest restricted version Artist Collection. And this was the very first buyer that determined to work with O&Ok to create their very own one-of-a-kind masterpiece. Utilizing water transfers to carry the swirling designs into 3 dimensions, this one opts for turquoise & magenta over a clear white canvas.
The Festka Rover Ondrash & Kasparek gravel bike began off with a extra reserved construct that includes SRAM Pressure AXS 2x, however shortly goes off the chain with a CeramicSpeed OSPW improve and German-made Beast carbon wheels & cockpit.
#5 Festka Spectre Beast street bike
Rounding out the top-5 of 2022 is that this low-key Festka Spectre street bike tricked out in additional Beast carbon… though it hardly appears acceptable to name one thing this shiny low-key. The concept was initially one thing extra flashy, matching Beast’s distinctive red-tinted carbon on the frameset as nicely. However Festka artwork director Tom Hnida thought it could be an excessive amount of, and calm heads prevailed.
In the long run, of the Dresden-made Beast carbon elements, the RX60 aero wheels, full carbon saddle & stem all received the red-tinted resin over sq. carbon cloth, whereas the Beast bar, seatpost & bottle cages caught with a shiny clear coat over these huge sq. fibers. Then, Festka gave the additional stiff race-ready Spectre an identical high-gloss clear end, even of their primary Core design, simply selecting up the matching translucent pink for its brand particulars solely, revealing their intricate carbon weave beneath.
The entire bike was constructed up by our wheelbuilder & mechanic buddies at Mild Wolf Studios with SRAM Pressure AXS, actually simply subsequent door to the place Beast manufactures these carbon elements. Learn all in regards to the construct on their web site, or simply watch that Dream Construct video.
