Although it’s best known for its lairy paint jobs, Festka is more than just a pretty face — since introducing its first lugged carbon frames back in 2012, the Czech brand has gone from strength to strength, developing an impressively comprehensive range of bikes.
The One is Festka's out-and-out race bike and UK distributor Prestige Cycles recently sent us this exceedingly special build.
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The One is constructed from ‘Rocket Tubing’, which is Festka’s own line of carbon tubing.
The tubes are produced in conjunction with CompoTech — a composite tubing specialist based close to the brand's headquarters — and are made of three separate layers of carbon that are laid up at opposing angles to maintain the strength and stiffness of the bike.
Festka claims that the middle layer of carbon fibres, which runs directly parallel along the length of the tubes, is unique to the brand and helps to maintain the lateral stiffness of the bike.
Festka is best understood as a semi-custom frame building operation. While there are a number of ‘stock’ designs on which you can base your dream machine, its bikes are produced using tube-to-tube construction. This means that Festka's customers are free to customise (for a charge) the geometry of their bike.
Festka also claims that the “main triangle tubes... are tuned to the same frequency which allows for better transfer of vibrations, energy and force.”
Accompanied on the website with a picture of a tuning-fork, we’re not entirely sure what this means, we’re expecting xylophone-like tones to emit from the One when we’re out on the road.
The eagle-eyed will notice that the One’s dropouts are made from titanium, ensuring you’ll never crush your frame with an overtightened QR. The integrated mech hanger is also said to be stiffer than a regular bolt-on hanger, improving shifting feedback.
As with all of its bikes, Festka outsources its forks and in this case has specced a classy, custom painted option from ENVE. The ENVE road stem has also been painted to match the frame's jazzy aesthetic.
Our test bike is built up with an exceedingly handsome Campagnolo Super Record EPS groupset and some seriously trick Tune Schwarzbrenner mid-depth aero wheels, which weigh in at a frankly ridiculous 1,370g.
Unsurprisingly, dream bike-like luxury comes at a price and this build, as pictured, comes in at a somewhat eye-watering £12,000, with framesets starting at £3,400 rising to £6,699 for the fanciest of builds.
What do you think of the Festka? Would you part with £12k for such a flashy build? As always, leave your thoughts in the comments.
