With little fanfare at the end of summer, Festka rolls out the new Machina Road, a pretty significant update to the core One road bike, on which they honed their custom carbon bike building over more than a decade. The new bike retains much of the same tech and styling as Festka’s benchmark road all-rounder has since it debuted back in 2014. But the new Machina updates that with improved rider comfort and bigger tire clearance, thanks in large part to a new dropped seatstay frame layout.
Festka Machina Road reshapes custom Czech carbon bike
The One was Festka’s core carbon road bike frame. The first to feature tube-to-tube construction, after their original lugged carbon Zero. It was a very traditional-looking round tube, semi-sloping road frame that was updated four years back with fully integrated cable routing.
Now, the new Machina Road evolves that into a slightly new direction.
Technically, the same basic handcrafted tube-to-tube construction in their Prague workshop remains. And the frames are still made with the same Farfalla filament-wound tubes, co-developed and custom produced for them by CompoTech in the Czech hometown of one of Festka’s co-founders. But now, Festka have dropped the seatstays down, connecting them to the front triangle with a small carbon yoke around the seattube. This helps increase rear tire clearance and allows the front & rear triangles to flex a bit more independently, both of which mean added rider comfort.
Tech details
- custom hi-mod carbon road bike frame, handmade in Prague, CZ
- tube-to-tube construction built to last, and fully repairable even after a major crash
- 1.5″ tapered Columbus carbon fork
- fully integrated internal cable routing through the headset
- dropped seatstay design for more comfort and tire clearance
- 32mm tire clearance standard, width as measured
- PressFit 86 bottom bracket
- designed for 2x, with electronic shifting only
- 31.8mm band clamp diameter for front derailleur
- 27.2mm seatpost with classic external clamp
- flat mount disc brakes – 140mm rear, 160mm front
- UDH
- 7 stock sizes (XXS-XXL), plus custom geometry option
- 1035g frame weight claim (size M, with Core Raw paint job)
Hardcore Awards, because cycling is not always about simply being faster
First off, don’t worry about all the fun little rainbow reflective graphics all over this bike if that’s not your vibe. All Festka framesets come in customizable finishes. And they’ll be sure to make your custom bike look exactly how you want it. And in fact, while the reflective downtube logo and a few of the smaller graphics are under the clearcoat, most of these were actually sticker-bombed at the Bespoked Dresden bike show over the weekend.
Although Festka hasn’t really been hyping the Machina’s introduction (I get the feeling that they know it is their core custom road bike, which will sell whether they market it or not), they are pretty excited about their new Holy Hardcore Ride project.
The basic idea is that they are starting an initiative to celebrate the most devoted (read: hardcore) people in cycling who make bike riding special. Not the fastest or the flashiest. But those who work hard, dedicated to the core principle of making cycling a community.
The award is for the most part symbolic. Festka’s founders just want to recognize those individuals dedicated to making riding bikes great. The first award went to Martin Kontra, something of a Prague local legend who supported the budding fixie scene in the city many years ago, created a community space for cyclists, and built a community bike shop that helped keep wheels turning for those who often couldn’t afford to otherwise.
But now Festka is starting to search for other Holy Hardcore Ride recipients around the world, and needs your help finding them. Once the full details become more concrete, we’ll break it down in a more in-depth story on their Hardcore Awards.
Until then, just reach out to Festka or message the movement on social to nominate deserving Hardcore cyclists.
Festka Machina Road (& Gravel) – Pricing, options & availability
Festka says their new Machina Road all-rounder custom carbon road bike is available now. Custom carbon framesets made in Prague start from 6200€, a bit more than 20% cheaper than their ultralight, ultra-stiff Scaltore road frames. Pricing starts with simple raw finishes that show of the unique weave of the CompoTech tubes manufactured for Festka in the Czech Republic.
That frameset price is really just the beginning though. Complete custom bikes start around 10,000€ when custom geo, custom finishing, and bespoke build kits come into play. €10k certainly still sounds like a huge number when we see it written.
But considering this is a one-off handmade bike crafted just for you in the center of Europe for maybe 1/3 less than top-tier stock bikes made in Taiwan from the likes of Trek, Scott, or Specialized, for example, maybe a custom Festka Machina is more reasonable than it seems at first glance.
Now, If you see this and think a Machina would make a great all-road or gravel bike with bigger tire clearance, Festka has you covered. Officially, a Festka Machina Gravel frame is set to debut soon, anticipated with ~50-55mm tire clearance standard and similar pricing to the road model. But the beauty of a one-at-a-time carbon Festka frame is that they can make it to almost whatever your needs require.
Reach out to get your bespoke Festka Machina rolling.