Reaching the Decision

I was re-introduced to cycling after a couple of decades when sanity and logic that had departed me returned. I realised the practical advantages of commuting to the office. This led me to the Brompton folding miracle. And I have not regretted the choice one single day since it came home for the first time. I just wish I had done this earlier; it would have saved me a packet on buying a car, which I no longer need now. This blog is not about my Brompton. However, let me take this opportunity to reinforce how it became the reason for a happier and fitter me. In addition, the folding flexibility of the bike is unmatched. It's simple yet robust engineering that has more or less remained the same with some evolutionary improvements. Its functional build also suggests that there is only as much  we need with our bikes. Unless there is a dramatic shift in technology, a mechanical bicycle can be one of the most reliable machines on the road. The Brompton testifies this claim.

I gained the confidence to go in for a road bicycle thereafter. It was a brave choice I made since I had no idea about my ability to ride a roadie again. And quite frankly, I was in no position to pick and choose from multiple options. The requirement was for an aluminum frame bike with a 105 groupset. However, there were hardly any available in the market. In fact, there were none, including at Decathlon. One day I just happened to walk into a shop and was told that they did have a Scott Addict 10 in my size. This was configured with a carbon frame and had a rim brake, mechanical Ultegra groupset. The price was a little beyond my budget. I was informed that the way prices were moving, the same configuration would go up by a third during the forthcoming year, since disc brake models were being introduced. My needs were nothing beyond rim brakes. I negotiated a reasonable deal and ten minutes later, was out of the showroom having paid the advance. The decision had been taken, but I was hit by a mix of guilt and apprehension immediately thereafter. This was absolutely a copy book case of playing by instinct, rather than taking an informed decision.

My Scott Addict 10 and Anirudh's Giant TCR

I was plain lucky. The bike was a great choice and prices went through the roof soon thereafter for no logical reason other than a shift to disc brakes. Thanks to my Scott, I did get "addicted" to road cycling. The interest I developed made me read more and research the world of road cycles further. I was exposed to the lure of steel vintage bikes. These just came across as timeless. The original vision that defined bicycles. Resultantly, the next step on my road bike craze chart was a vintage bike that I could ride occasionally but cherish forever.

My Colnago in Saronni Red with the 50th Anniversary Groupset

About a year or so back, I went in for a 1983 Colnago. It is a Saronni Red with a Campagnolo 50^th Anniversary groupset. The bike was bought in an all  original configuration. I do feel that the eighties represented the most spectacular period in steel frame manufacturing and provided an opportunity to get the best collectables. This in many ways was my first dream bike. But this blog is not about the Colnago, so I will move further with my decision-making journey.

Here I was with a perfectly reasonable road bike, a commuter and a lovely vintage. Logically, my cup of joy should have been full to the brim. Frankly, I had no complaints with the Scott either. It made me realise the residual potential of my 54-year-old, and fast aging body. From a stage when I was not even sure of riding thirty or forty kilometres, in quick time, I did my first BRM and started clocking reasonable speeds along the highway.

With Anirudh during the rain drenched BRM

Despite being grateful for the Scott, I developed an urge to create MY bike that reflected MY choices and MY vision of what my perfect companion on the road should be. Did I have the eventual vision in place to begin with? The truthful answer is “no”. Initially, I could not get around the idea of spending this much money on my dream bike. It seemed unfair to give in to my guilty pleasures. This dilemma lasted a good six months to eliminate the compromises, at least mostly, and take the plunge into what was partly familiar territory and mostly the world of unknowns.

To make matters worse (from ease of ordering perspective), after a lot of back and forth, I decided against going in for a major mass produce brand. And there were a few of reasons for this, as I have discussed in the previous post. I needed an endurance geometry and for most brands, this was a compromise. And my dream bike could never represent a compromise. To an extent, Colnago was an exception with their H series frame that came with the C64. Besides I had a soft corner for Colnago given my vintage. But these bikes were just not available. And the few brands that did have distributors in India, did not provide all options. And none allowed a custom geometry.

As usual while browsing through websites, I came across the Festka. It would be a lie if I said I knew the brand to begin with. And this should not come as a surprise. Festka is what is often described by some as a boutique brand based in Prague in the Czech Republic. And being just over ten years old, it is not like some others that boasted of a century of history and legacy.

Interestingly Cobbled Climbs, the website where I did see the brand was even newer to the bicycling scene in India. Though they had already created a reputation with a relatively limited, but a high-quality inventory of products.

The brief writeup about Festka and the bikes that were on offer, was both intriguing and interesting. I could perceive a fresh perspective from a brand that had no intention of plodding along the beaten path. And this approach was not surprising, given the motivation of the founders and partnerships forged with high-end innovative engineering companies.

Festka began by producing fixies and moved on to create a niche with carbon frame bikes. Their Doppler, with a mix of titanium tubes and carbon lugs was a unique concept. However, over time, they shifted focus to carbon frame bikes, possibly as a result of consumer demand. These had also evolved to address different niche areas of the market to include an all-round Festka One, light and high end Scalatore, Spectre for straight line speed, Rover a gravel bike and Scout for even more hard core off roading sojourns.

Festka did not want to become yet another brand with a frameset that could not be differentiated from any other in the market - branding aside. They preferred round tubes created by a specialist company. The strength of the tubes was underlined by its commercial utilisation in the aviation sector as well. The fact that a tube was created by a single 750 odd meter carbon fibre thread weaved into shape, also made sure that it was more resilient than existing methods being used by other brands. But doubts remained about how different riding quality was achieved for different models.

Given the trepidation that accompanied the decision to buy the bike of my dreams, and a relatively conservative budget (that is for a high-end boutique build), meant that despite homing on to Festka as a brand, my instinct was to go in for the One, which was their entry level model. I spoke to Prashant at Cobbled Climbs and our discussion continued for a couple of weeks. Geometry options were shared  and this convinced me that comfort would not be compromised.

Even as I looked at available reviews and construction details of the bike, intimate nuances were missing. For one, how did the One compare with the Scalatore in every aspect of the ride? Especially issues related to the co-relation between ride comfort and stiffness. And how would my choice be any different from the existing ride. After all, I was going to spend multiple times more on it! There was no end to the apprehension and doubts that kept troubling me. In addition to the money that I was going to spend, it was also a dream project. And since India did not have a single Festka, I had to rely on the few reviews that were available. I have lost count of the number of times I read and re-read these to glean out whatever details I could. I doubt there was any interview given by Michael Mourecek, the co-founder of Festka, that I did not read more than once. 

That opened the Pandora’s box of decision dilemmas yet again. I got in touch with Yahor at Festka, who was closely associated with the brand’s evolutionary journey. I was provided a clear perspective and a fair comparison between the One, Scalatore and Spectre on three counts. This included weight, stiffness and comfort. The Spectre was the heaviest, stiffest and fastest for straight line speeds. But this came at the cost of riding comfort. The One was a balance between the three elements. However, the Scalatore, despite being substantially lighter than the One, was more comfortable despite being equally stiff. For me, this seemed an ideal option, though, it came at an extra cost.

I thought about the project and what it meant to me. I knew that the One was probably just fine for my needs. But, then again, this was possibly the final frontier of my cycling journey. Over time, and not too surprisingly, I started veering towards the Scalatore. In between recalculations of the budget and readjustments of the build, I finally took the plunge and decided to go in for it. Even if that meant selling my car!

Since I had already overshot my initial budget, I did not even give it a second thought when it came down to the colour customisation.  Festka comes with four colour options. The core, as the name suggests, is a minimal design with the complete carbon weave visible under a protective layer. It is just the colour of branding that changes every year. The pride in the bare carbon weave reinforced the confidence Festka as a brand displayed in their product. Interestingly, their weave is like the Italian Farfalle pasta and is unique in its design and stronger than the patchwork construction of normal frames. Having seen a lot of Hambini videos, I had come to the conclusion that it was very difficult to trust mass produced frames for quality. It was even more difficult to ascertain the quality differential of one from the other, even if the buyer was willing to invest more money in higher end frames.

Back to the choices on offer, besides the Core, Spirit came with four or five different single colours. Then there is the Signature line that includes a unique family of designs for different models. And finally, “You by Festka”, which allows a customer’s imagination to run wild. Have a look at the Porcelain or Samurai builds and you will get my point. The costs move up in the ascending order for the frames and hit the roof with You by Festka. But the latter is as much art created by well-known artists, as it is a perfectly ridable machine.

I almost went ahead and ordered the Core, when Prashant asked me to give the colour options a second look.

After a lot of hesitation, I did give the range a second thought. Despite their beautiful lustrous look, the single colours were not for me. If something had to replace the unique raw carbon look, it had to be a more distinct Festka. My personal choice came down to the Signature colours. These were very Festka in their imagination and involved painstaking details. Every year, these options evolved with minor changes. I homed on to the Floyd and Mummy styles for the Scalatore. Both are as different as they can be from each other. And nothing like any other bike brand on the market. These were distinctly Festka from a mile, for those who knew the brand. And for others, the designs had the ability to create a unique memory, thereby highlighting the brand.

At this stage, the burden of choices had become too much for me. I brought in the complete household to pick the winner. All the images on the website were flashed on a big screen and opinions taken. The Mummy won. I guess Mummy always wins!

So, the Mummy it was. But I was well and truly past my initial estimate. And then some. And some more…

During the course of a number of back-and-forth discussions with Prashant, I evaluated the geometry of the bike. Unlike most other brands, Festka provided a choice of both race and endurance geometry. And in addition to custom geometry, which unfortunately was not possible for me, their sizes were available in one cm increment. This was rare and helped me get as close as practical to my requirement.

However, we had our own distinct views on the configuration. Prashant was a votary for a more modern build with disc brakes and an electronic groupset. On the other hand, my views were just the opposite. I knew he had his logic, based on the direction in which the industry was going. However, as discussed earlier, I was not one with the industry on these issues. Finally, I decided on rim brakes and a mechanical groupset.

We also discussed the challenges associated with supply chain issues with components and accessories. Covid had just worsened this situation. After careful evaluation, a decision was taken that that required me to arrange all components for the bike on my own. When I took the decision, I did not realise how challenging and at the same time rewarding, this process would be. Until then, I had a fleeting idea of all parts and little else. Yes, I knew differences between groupsets and wheels. But little beyond that. My decision took me down a rabbit hole. And once I had taken the plunge, there was no turning back.

Finally, in early February 2022, I placed the order for a Festka Scalatore in the Mummy Signature colour scheme. I was given a six month time frame. The wait had begun. And the collection of components? Well, that was already underway even as the final discussions were on. After all, I had to beat both Covid and the supply chain!

Next: Selection of parts...