Czechmate the start chute with Festka’s Spectre Gravel
The boutique gravel racing market has gained another frame option, with Festka officially introducing the all-terrain version of its Spectre.
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Based in the Czech Republic, Festka is renowned for its high-quality carbon road bike frames, optimized for stiffness and aero, targeting committed amateur racers and pro teams. It’s been producing carbon bikes in Prague since 2010, using advanced carbon-fibre construction techniques that create real-world riding benefits.
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The Spectre Gravel takes Festka off-road, aimed at riders who intend to race in the burgeoning number of gravel bike single- and multi-day events. Festka’s robotically woven carbon sections and tube-to-tube construction offer several advantages over traditional monocoque frames.
Robotic woven carbon
How does Festka’s in-house carbon frame building make a difference? The robotically woven tubes can layer HS and UHM carbon fibres in different orientations, creating the ideal blend of stiffness for power transfer and vertical compliance for ride comfort. That vertical compliance is crucial for a competition gravel bike, helping to reduce rider fatigue during gravel events when racing across particularly rough sections of rutted or eroded fire roads.
2024 festka spectre gravel 1.jpeg, by Liam Mercer
Another significant advantage of Festka’s robotic tube construction is the elimination of air bubbles in the epoxy or binding resin, which is often an issue with monocoque frames. These bubbles can create voids, making the structure vulnerable and reducing a carbon frame's stiffness and vibration absorption properties.
Like the Spectre road model it’s evolved from, the Gravel version features a flattened top tube for optimized aerodynamics. Spectre also has a monostay rear triangle, which is a short tube section from the seat tube, which then splits into separate seatstays, instead of two seatstays running directly from the seat tube. The design benefit of this monostay is enhanced traction at the rear, especially when climbing or descending on rutted gravel bike terrain, or singletrack.
2024 festka spectre gravel2.jpeg, by Liam Mercer
Technically, the Spectre Gravel features the standards you’d expect from a boutique carbon gravel bike. There’s a SRAM UDH rear dropout, ensuring excellent drivetrain compatibility, including the EPS, Di2, eTap and the latest RED XPLR.
Other frame features and specifications are a 27.2mm seat tube diameter, press-fit bottom bracket, 46t maximum chainring size, and all the tyre clearance that a true gravel racer would need, at 44mm. Brake packaging? You’re limited to 140mm rotors at the rear and 160mm up front, mounted on an ENVE gravel fork.
2024 festka spectre gravel3.jpg, by Liam Mercer
Festka offers the Spectre Gravel in seven frame sizes: XSS, XS, S, M, L, XL, and XXL. Geometry numbers see the same 74-degree seat angle for all, with head angle varying from 70-degrees (XXS) to 70.5-degrees (XS), 71-degrees (S), 72-degrees (M) and 71.5-degrees for sizes L, XL, and XXL.
The claimed reference frame weight for Festka’s Spectre Gravel is 1035g, and pricing for a frame is €8,900, with a full build at €10,420.
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