ANNTI BY FESTKA

Nowadays when I'm riding on those special stage roads, I often think about those days. During my gravel rides, I’m also often thinking about what would be the most optimal bike for my local roads. The ultimate dream bike. For the smooth gravel rollercoaster roads of central Finland, I don't want an overbuilt bikepacking rig, but a nimble and responsive bike that is more like a road bike with big tire clearance. I hear people often comparing their bikes to cars when they describe how they handle. “This thing is like a Ferrari” or “This bike is like an SUV”. And like Festka describes the Rover – a rally machine – that’s how I like my gravel bike to feel.

In 2017 during a gravel ride, I had an idea of making a “Group B” style gravel bike after reading about a guy in Finland building a perfect replica of the 1986 Audi Sport Quattro S1 E2 . “Why don’t I build a bike that way, with similar attention to detail and with an uncompromising approach”. So I started playing around with the design, and transforming the look and feel of the Audi rally car to a bicycle as closely as possible. Equating group B rally cars with gravel bikes felt like a good idea because that’s how I want my bike to feel. Fast, lightweight, aggressive and responsive. As someone having a graphic designer background, I like playing with transferring the visual appearance of one object to something else, and simultaneously transferring stories, meanings, and emotions. And transforming the most legendary Group B rally car into the form of a bicycle, and connecting it to my memories from my local roads felt just the perfect thing to do.

You can’t build a “Group B” -level gravel bike from any other material than carbon, so Festka felt like a natural choice with their durable and lightweight robot-woven high-tech tubing and flawless paint finishes. I immediately made some sketches and showed them to Festka Art Director Tom Hnida, with enthusiasm but still afraid would he get the concept at all, or would it be something that Festka would put their down tube logo on. To my luck, the guys at Festka were feeling the concept, but the project still was left in hibernation. I had just gotten another gravel bike and I felt like there was no gravel groupset available at that time I would like to equip that build with.

Fast forward to 2020, when Campagnolo released their new Ekar 1x gravel groupset. I immediately felt now is the time to turn that project into reality. As a long-time Campagnolo user and 1x convert, Ekar was something I had wished for. Also, the comeback of the legendary Shamal name, in the form of a carbon tubeless all-road wheelset felt like a perfect match for this build. Campagnolo also has a long history in motorsports, and they have made wheels for race and sports cars for decades. Considering that, Campagnolo was an obvious choice. 

With other components choices in the bike, I wanted to capture that Group B spirit as closely as possible. The Audi S1 E2 was built mostly of German handmade carbon and kevlar parts, so Schmolke was a natural choice and their components are like a cherry on a cake in this project. Although super light, Schmolke parts are still very robust and also comfortable. Especially the TLO “The Lightest One” seat post together with Berk Composites Lupina saddle adds to the overall comfort level of the bike. Michelin gravel tires were also a natural choice, since Michelin was also the tire sponsor of Audi Rally Team.

The geometry of the bike was planned to maintain the nimble handling of a road bike, but with some added stability. Slight differences in contact point locations compared to my road bike fit were planned carefully. Correct tube lengths and angles were chosen for the frame to achieve my preferred fork trail figure with 35-40mm gravel tires, and to achieve balanced weight distribution on the bike. Visually pleasing proportions were also a must.

 The frame was painted in exact HB Audi Team colors from the eighties. At first glance the colors are just plain white, red, black, grey and yellow. But when inspecting more closely, you notice the off-white nature of Audi Alpinweiss color, and how it forms a harmonious combination together with the really dark Audi Rally Brown, warm tinted Audi Rally Grey, HB Cigarettes yellow and gold, and fiery Audi Rally Red. Someone did a good job in choosing the colors back in the early eighties! A rally-car themed bike is nothing without “sponsor” logos of course. On the drive side are the real companies, and on the non-drive side are tongue-in-cheek modified versions of HB Audi Team sponsors from 1985. “Sora” means “gravel” in Finnish, SKF transforms to WTF, and so on. Many gravel bikes nowadays look similar, meaning subtle earth tones, matte finish, toned down graphics, etc... So I wanted something different. Something not so serious and maybe a bit over the top, and definitely LOUD and FAST like an Audi S1 E2. 

The paint job that turned out to be perfect and also the handling of the bike was just as I had imagined. When all the pieces in the puzzle finally come together perfectly, the feeling is something that compared to anything else. For me, this is what a custom bicycle project is at its finest, and Festka really redeemed their Dream Bike Factory promise with this project. This summer I’m riding my local gravel roads like it’s 1985 and I’m Hannu Mikkola!

 

 

written by: Festka and Antti
photos: Antti, Tom Hnida