The latest unbelievably detailed, handmade carbon road bike to come out of Festka’s Czech workshop is this Spectre Porcelain dream build. The lightweight & stiff, full-custom Spectre carbon road frame served as the blank canvas, before taking Bespoke to a new level. Festka’s art director brought in local artist Michal Bačák to create the one-of-a-kind masterpiece, ornately blending the bike buyer’s love of porcelain collecting, road cycling, and even details from his home life into the intricate design. The result, a custom race-ready road bike like no other… one that tells the story of its rider.
Festka Spectre Porcelain hand-painted, 24k gold detailed road bike
The Festka Spectre Porcelain shows just how far the Prague bike builder can take full-custom, personalizing this superbike to the limits of imagination… and the limits of an unlimited budget. A $35,000 price tag would rule out most cyclists, but for this Bangkok-based avid bike & porcelain collector, it seems like money was not an object.
Festka essentially has two levels of each of their bikes these days – the standard Core that uses stock geo & standard paint jobs, and Prime that throws in the possibility for customizable geometry, frame tuning & almost limitless paint options. This Spectre Porcelain is literally another level.
Festka calls it Bespoke, and it is where they take customization to the extreme, personally guiding their most exclusive clientele to create one-of-a-kind masterpieces, often around a theme, to tell a personal story.
The owner of this bike is Bangkok collector and cyclist Suratchaj Chenyavanij. Over a little more than a year Festka art director Tom Hnida worked with Chenyavanij to create the bike, pulling in renowned Czech artist and illustrator Michal Bačák to create his personal story in porcelain. Michal fused Portuguese Azulejo & English Churchill Blue Willow styles to decorate the bike by hand, drawing out the story in cobalt blue and real 24k gold on top of the white porcelain base.
Every element was carefully designed & overseen by Chenyavanij, incorporating his kid’s names, his penchant for travel & several details of his hobbies in the intricate hand painting.
Spectre Porcelain – Complete build details
Beyond just a showpiece, the Spectre Porcelain is a race-ready carbon road bike with an enviable build kit.
A new SRAM Red AXS eTap wireless 2×12 groupset with integrate Quarq power meter provides the drivetrain. But no red logos allowed, so Festka stripped those off to hand-paint them to match too.
Custom painted carbon stem & saddle round out the most custom bits, plus ceramic bearings dropped into the Lightweight Fernweg wheels, some light eebrakes & a Chris King headset.
“I have many custom bikes, but only now I see what custom really means. Festka has surpassed all my expectations,” says Suratchaj Chenyavanij, the bike’s owner.
Festka Spectre Bespoke – Tech details
Under that porcelain-effect white & blue paint job, it’s easy to forget that this is Festka’s premium everyday race bike. With tubesets machine wound in the Czech Republic specifically to the individual cyclist’s needs, the Spectre promises UCI-certified race-ready stiffness, impact strength & durability all at roughly 900g.
This Spectre Porcelain sticks with rim brakes for a classic lightweight setup, but disc brakes are also an option. Of course the bike features a painted to match full carbon Columbus Futura tapered fork with a 44mm headtube, plus 130mm rear spacing & QR drops, a pressfit BB86 bottom bracket, 31.6mm seatpost, and clearance for 28mm tires.
Pricing & availability
The standard Festka Spectre frameset begins with a price around $4500/4000€, but obviously we know the sky is the limit. Even before you start throwing in the killer build kit, the time and craft put into the finish on the one-off Spectre Porcelain. In the end, for the $35,000 pricetag, the buyer got a fully-custom Bespoke superbike with custom painted frame, fork, saddle, stem & AXS groupset – telling his unique story.
