How I set an FKT riding from Prague to Vienna on a gold plated bike

(Image credit: Lukas Biba)

The truth is I've dragged my feet a little bit before writing this. I could tell you that there were other reviews to bring you, or things that required my attention but that wouldn’t be completely true. The challenge is there's no drama to share. I had no broken bike, no headwinds to contend with, and only minor mistakes to correct while riding. Hopefully, you appreciate that it's worth sharing the highs as well as the lows.

Sometimes plans come together, the weather cooperates, and everything you've worked towards aligns exactly how you wanted it to. While friends and colleagues hiked through rainstorms and scraped peanut butter mud off their bikes, I pedalled across perfect asphalt under a blue sky and ate ice cream. If that sounds like your kind of adventure, keep reading and I'll tell you exactly how to do it. You might even be able to set a new record while you are at it.

It took over a year for everything to come together and it started with a factory invite. My interest in 3D-printed saddles led me to a brand called Posedla. It wasn't a brand I'd heard of or knew much about but it turns out the company calls the Czech Republic home. Posedla doesn't just call Czechia home though, founder Jiří Dužár has a deep vein of pride for the countryside and a goal of helping the small country shine on the world stage. He wanted me to come to see not just his factory but also experience the people, the food, the beauty and don't forget the beer.

I asked a simple question. "What if I take your saddle, untested, put it on a bike and ride from Prague to Vienna to set a new record?" I think most people will agree that it's a compelling concept but it does require a lot of me, right? I mean, I ride my bike a lot but I'm a journalist, not a professional athlete. Would I be able to set a record covering the 370 km / 230 miles between the two cities?

The truth is I'm not that fast but sometimes I have good ideas. An FKT, or fastest known time, isn't exactly a rigorously regulated concept. It's as the name suggests simply the fastest known time a ride or route has been completed in. There's no governing body or bureaucracy of rules. There's just a young athlete with a smart idea. With nothing out there to track FKT attempts, young trail runner and gravel cyclist, plus self-described Pop Tart enthusiast Reese Ruland decided there should be. She created a simple website called Cycling FKT that keeps track of the records and routes that exist. I noticed there was no Prague to Vienna on that list.

Sometimes winning races and setting records is as much about paperwork as anything else. The Cycling FKT website might not look like much right now but it's all that exists. That meant I didn’t have to be fast, I just had to have a plan to get myself across the world and in a position to cover the distance. I was also inspired by Lael Wilcox and the way she used the concept of an FKT to shine a light on a part of the world. As you read through this article I hope that I inspire you to travel to Czechia and see if you can do the ride faster than me. Even if you don't, I promise it will be worth the attempt. Alternatively, if that sounds too far to travel, help make Ruland's Cycling FKT website wildly successful with a route in your part of the world.

Because this is an FKT route now, there's more importance on the details than there otherwise might have been. When I adventured through the centre of California, it didn't much matter what route I actually took. I had a general desire to share a quality route with people to come behind me but it didn't actually matter if I got it wrong. This time it matters quite a bit but thankfully, I got it just about perfect. There's not a single detail I feel the need to go back and adjust. I'll walk you through the details but if you want to try your luck with the FKT, I developed the route with Ride With GPS and it's solid.

I started the route at the Hermitage Hotel in Prague. A place where you can get an amazing breakfast every day and who happily packed an incredible breakfast when I left earlier than that breakfast was available. Then I routed past SBCR which is a top-shelf bike shop just a bit outside of Prague. Should you need it, you could get there easily from Prague and they will likely have anything you might have forgotten. If you aren't doing the ride to Vienna it's also a great place to launch a variety of rides local to Prague.

After wrapping up the Prague side of things, I looked at Vienna. BBUC makes cycling clothes that mix fashion and performance, the owners also have a unique hotel in Vienna that's not far from the heart of tourist shopping. Given I'd be testing the clothing while travelling, it only made sense to route my ride to a close at the Brillanten Grund Hotel in Vienna. Just make sure if you do the same that you let them know if you'll be arriving late so they can leave you a key in the lockbox.

I told you at the beginning of this article that there wasn't any drama to relay and I meant it. This was the easiest long ride I've ever done. The previous day the sky had gone from beautiful and blue to black in a matter of minutes. The sky had opened and as I made my way through the old city of Prague I said a prayer that the next day wouldn't look anything like that. When I woke up the morning of my ride, it seemed my prayers had found a friendly ear.

Although I always carry repair supplies with me, my strategy is based on tubeless tyres. The Festka I was set to ride hadn’t been set up tubeless and that meant fewer flat repair options. Given the distance I’d be riding unsupported, I was nervous. The night before I’d sent some last-minute messages asking for extra tubes and as everyone arrived I strapped two emergency tubes to the underside of my saddle. In the end, I lost the tubes before finishing and never actually got a flat but that morning I felt a lot better knowing I had extra supplies.

As we shoved off into the early morning fog my main goal was to manage my nerves. The friends, from Posedla and Festka, who'd helped me in Czech stuck with me as we made our way outside of Prague. We stopped briefly to take a picture as we went past SBCR but otherwise, the early morning was rather quiet. The fog made it cold and there's a lot of climbing near Prague. One aspect of managing my nerves was to keep my power low. I was riding with strong riders and it was important not to chase them up every hill as they’d be turning back long before I finished.

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A foggy morning in Prague — The early morning was marked by fog and climbing as we left Prague behind(Image credit: Josh Ross)

On the map, it looks like there are never-ending opportunities for food and water as you make your way through constant small towns. That's not really true though as many of those towns have no store and those that do could be closed when you are there. Sezimovo Usti is a town of 7,200 and I stopped at a market to have some pastries, a red bull, and water. If I did it again, I would have loaded my bottles with juice to replace the now depleted SiS Beta fuel and I would have eaten as much food as I could. Instead, I topped off my bottles, had a snack and shoved off.

In another couple of hours, I found myself on the cobbled streets of Jindrichuv Hradec. It's relatively small with a population of 21,000 but it's on the banks of a river and it's a tourist destination. I found some ice cream and thought again about my friend who had been hiking through peanut butter mud in Kansas not long before. As I headed out of town I found myself messaging people unable to quite comprehend that I had just ridden along a bike path only to suddenly find myself in front of Chateau Jindřichův Hradec. I had many similar experiences throughout the day and it’s part of what makes the ride so amazing.

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Ice cream through the main triangle of a Festka — I missed Unbound this year and instead chose a different kind of adventure, which would you choose?(Image credit: Josh Ross)

In this section of the ride, you follow the river and the route heads into the trees. There are some unpaved sections but they are never long and always easy even with a road bike. When you find yourself on the pavement it's often the width of a bike path and typically the pavement is perfect. There's almost no traffic and while there's plenty of climbing it's never long or steep. Just lots of up and down and you'll suddenly find yourself next to a lake. At this point, you are a stone's throw from Austria but the route follows the border for a while before diving south.

At the time I wasn't thinking of much except pedalling and taking pictures. Everything is beautiful and I felt great. If I had to sum up the ride in a few words, I’d say this section of the ride encapsulates it best. I would coast then climb, then take a picture, then descend then do it again before suddenly finding a castle. This time it was Castle Landštejn where I grabbed a smoothie and took some pictures before heading on. The next castle, Burg Hardegg, wasn’t too far away but it is over the border in Austria.

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Castle Landštejn in Czech — While fields may look the same it's not often I come across a castle riding in America(Image credit: Josh Ross)

Between the two castles, water was starting to become a serious issue. I was going through towns but, as I’ve warned, there was nowhere to buy anything. In a town called Stálky, with 100 residents, I walked up to a pub, or maybe a family dinner, and gestured with my bottles until a helpful woman filled them up. An hour and a half later in Niederfladnitz, Austria I found a vending machine where I got a bag of peanuts and juice but I still thought I'd find things ahead. Don't make my mistake. It took me four and a half hours until I found a hose in Hornsburg Austria.

During that time I enjoyed seeing the style of houses change as I transitioned from Czechia to Austria. I also found plenty more beauty among vineyards and watched the sun go down before turning on my Outbound Lighting Detour light. I had long since choked down the last of the peanuts and managed not to gag but I was feeling awful at this point. 45 minutes later, I found another vending machine in Großrußbach, Austria where I got a bag of Haribo.

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Food from a vending machine in Czechia — My first vending machine adventure brought apple juice and salted peanuts(Image credit: Josh Ross)

I finally turned off my Garmin 1040 Solar after a total of 16 hours of pedalling and 20 hours elapsed. There's a good amount of climbing on the route but I wasn't moving with the urgency of a race. I was taking pictures and over four hours with no food or water definitely slowed me down. Give it a try, you can be faster. Or take a couple of days to do it. Either way, it's an incredible route and a trip of a lifetime.

The bike I was riding was a Festka Spectre. I'll cover the details in a separate piece but it had gold leaf in a variety of places and it should be no surprise for me to say it was a joy to ride. The only changes I made to the bike as it came to me were to add a K-Edge Max XL Combo out front mount, a set of SRM SPD-L power meter pedals, and I swapped the saddle for a Posedla Joyseat custom 3D printed saddle. If given the choice I would have changed the gearing from the race-focused 48/35 and 10-28 to one of the wider options SRAM offers. I also would have been running tubeless so that if I did get a flat, I would have been able to use the Dynaplug tubeless plugs I had with me.

For clothing, I went with a mix of what I knew and some new pieces. The bibs I chose were the MAAP Pro Bib 2.0 and I paired those with a Q36.5 base layer 1 and a Q36.5 Gridskin jersey. In the morning I wore the POC Supreme rain jacket and I had Gorewear Infinium stretch gloves though it never got cold enough to use them. For socks, I used my favourite Silca Aero socks in bright pink and I put them into the best shoes I've ever used, the Nimbl Feat Ultimate. I also once again used the POC Propel sunglasses but this time I paired them with the Kask Elemento helmet.

For lighting, I went with the Outbound Detour as well as the Garmin Varia RTL515. The Outbound Detour really comes into its own in the country and I’ve found that despite my initial testing, I can run it on low power with no issue. I could have charged it via the power pack I had with me but I had no need. On the other end of the bike, I turned the Varia light off during the day and switched to the night flash mode when the sun went down. After 20 hours I still had battery power to spare.

I'm not one for expensive phones but the S23+ made a pretty good case for an investment. I added an Otterbox Commuter case so I didn’t have to worry about breaking it and once that was no longer an issue, the phone ended up being a huge help. It not only powered through the ride but when I had to unexpectedly give up my camera days early, I was able to use it to get pictures of the factory tour with Posedla. In the future, I’ll definitely be considering this upgrade to make my life a bit easier on big rides.

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A custom Festka dripping with gold leaf isn't a bad place to spend 20 hours(Image credit: Matej Tresnak)

Not only was I not particularly fast, but my FKT record also goes down in the books as a team effort. Although I did the ride mostly alone and totally unsupported, I left Prague with the founders of Posedla and the man responsible for marketing Festka. We chatted a bit and while they turned back early in the day, that counts as a team effort. I don’t really mind given how instrumental this group was in helping put me in the position to do the ride. Plus, it means there’s still a record ripe for you to grab.

Head there with family or friends and part of your group could take a train between the two cities while you pedal. There’s also no reason not to just strap everything to your bike and if you don’t feel like flying with a bike, SBCR can help you with rentals. Whatever you end up doing, the path you follow is beautiful and the people are friendly. There are fewer resupply opportunities than I thought but there’s still plenty as long as you plan ahead. The ride is long but easy and definitely unforgettable. Go set a new record in a part of the world that deserves attention.

Josh hails from the Pacific Northwest of the United States but would prefer riding through the desert than the rain. He will happily talk for hours about the minutiae of cycling tech but also has an understanding that most people just want things to work. He is a road cyclist at heart and doesn't care much if those roads are paved, dirt, or digital. Although he rarely races, if you ask him to ride from sunrise to sunset the answer will be yes. Height: 5'9" Weight: 140 lb. Rides: Salsa Warbird, Cannondale CAAD9, Enve Melee, Look 795 Blade RS, Priority Continuum Onyx