FESTKA – Spectre Bodies Story

The latest FESTKA artist collaboration comes after a terrible crash and a chance meeting.

FESTKA are a Prague based brand that designs and builds its bikes in Czechia and what bikes they are! FESTKA are not a mass-production brand, you won’t see them fighting with the big volume boys. Their frames are all hand-built with long lead-times for discerning – and wealthy – customers. Custom geometry, components and paint-jobs are all part of the service. Occasionally FESTKA will also produce limited runs of a paint job created by a artist.

Artistic collaboration

This latest collaboration with Polish artist Jakub Kois came about after he met Festka founder and designer Michael Moureček. Over a year before Michael had been involved in a serious crash while out riding with clients. The injuries left him needing surgery and hundreds of hour of physiotherapy. However once he was back on his bike, he realised the injury meant he no longer “felt at one” with his bike.

Fortunately Michael was in the fortunate position of owning his own bike company. Not just any company either, but one that specialised in custom geometries. This allowed him to have his Spectre adapted to his new riding position. With the bike’s geometry dialled in, all that was left was to choose the paintjob. This is one of the FESTKA options, you can stick with one of their standard designs, or pay to have your own.

Which brings us back to Jakub. Jakub’s an artist, illustrator and silkscreen printer for whom human bodies represent the main source of inspiration for and topic of his work. The two met when Michael’s bike was nearing completion and within weeks he had completed his design. The scheme features bodies in all sizes and shapes; some painted in full colour, some drawn in outline; cycling, running, flying, cheering, embracing. Watch the video below to see why Michael chose Jakub to personalise his bike.

The result of Jakub’s hand-painted work was so striking that Festka have decided to offer it as a limited edition called Bodies. Only ten frames will be produced, all painted by Jakub and will go on sale from October 31. These bikes will be offered as full-builds only, which will mean they will be dripping with top-notch components. The original bike was showcased at Prague’s Designblok and Dresden’s edition of Bespoked.

What FESTKA say about Jakub

“Jakub Kois hails from Poland but has been living and working in Prague for many years. His favourite format is the poster, and his most preferred technique is silkscreen printing, for which he creates distinctive drawings and paintings, the most frequent subject of which are human figures, depicted mostly in thick, distinctive outlines.

His drawing style and the colouring of his works evoke the mid-century modern style. Kois’ pictures are melancholic and philosophical at times, but very often funny, bordering on cartoon jokes. Working with him on this project was an absolute pleasure thanks to his kind, accommodating approach.“