I had the pleasure of trying out a custom Festka Spectre road bike back in 2024 and came away suitably impressed by its combination of low weight, stiffness and comfort. In custom spec, it was simply one of the greatest carbon road bikes I’d ever ridden.
When I got wind of Festka bringing the Spectre design to gravel, I was intrigued. Could it apply the same magic to the rough stuff?
Now, over a year later, the Spectre Gravel has landed at BikeRadar.
- Read more: Bike of the Week | This gold-leaf Festka Spectre Custom is the ideal showcase for new SRAM Red AXS
The frame
Like the road-going Spectre, the Spectre Gravel is built from custom tubes, made by Festka with a carbon filament-winding process using Japanese fibres to Festka’s specifications.
The hand-wound tubes are cut and shaped, and joined together with a smooth wrapping process to create seamless junctions throughout the frame. Festka says this process means it can tailor the ride quality and fit to individual customers.
That means should the worst happen, and you damage your frame, Festka is able to replace individual tubes.
The frame features Festka's signature monostay seatstay design. Festka says the monostay yoke is engineered with a 'deformation zone'. This is claimed to allow for compliance-giving flex, which Fetka says enhances comfort and brings traction gains at the rear.
The build
This custom frameset was built to order for UK bike fit specialist The Bike Tailor. It has been put together with a no-compromise specification that includes: SRAM Red XPLR, a Beast Components one-piece cockpit and seatpost, and Selle Italia’s flyweight SLR Boost Tekno saddle.
It rolls on the outlandish Bike Ahead BiTurbo gravel wheelset, shod with fellow Czech brand Tufo’s lightweight, fast Thundero gravel tyres.
The BiTurbo wheels have a D-shaped rim and six unique aerodynamic spokes that are flow-optimised into the hubs. With an effective rim depth of 39.5mm, that’s 31mm wide and 26mm internally, the wheels are claimed to be good for tyres up to 58mm (2.3in).
Bike Ahead says the BiTurbo design has built-in damping effects and stiffness, claimed to make the wheels not only fast aerodynamically, but comfortable too. The BiTurbo Gravels come with a claimed weight of 1,299g.
The complete bike (a custom equivalent to 58cm) weighs in at 7.61kg with 44mm tyres and pedals.
The price
As you can imagine, a fully custom made-to-measure carbon frameset doesn’t come cheap – at £6,950 / $9,500 / €7,900.
This full-custom build by the Bike Tailor is priced at £13,900 / $18,553 / €16,900, including the preliminary consultation and full bike-fitting service.
