Well, since I couldn't make the pro crits tonight due to work issues I went to a Storck Demo. Thought I'd report back.

There's a group ride we do on Thursdays sometimes that involves a lot of hill work. The shop it starts from decided to host a Storck Demo at about the same time. Long story short, the Storck rep was UBER kewl and let us ride some of his bikes on the ride tonight.

I rode a frameset that is $3200 for the frame/fork and is billed as the stiffest bike on the planet. It was dead on my size but then handlebars were pretty narrow - say about 40's maybe when I ride 44's.

Long story short - the bike was as stiff as advertised. I had a Scott Speedster a while back that was freakin' stiff. This is the first bike I've encountered that was in its ball park. If you put it in a ridiculously high gear and stomped the bike just rode away from everyone.

The Scott Speedster I had was a terrible descender and beat you up on long rides over chip seal. This Storck however - wow. It descended like a dream. The faster you went the more confidence it inspired. The bottom bracket was ridiculously stiff, but due to the carbon absorbing the high frequency buzz the road vibration didn't wear you out at all - it wasn't too harsh. It was quite brilliant really. The bike just positively handled like it was on rails over 15 mph.

The only niggle - it climbed "floppy" in the front end. This is per a Cat 1,2 friend of mine who rode with me tonight. I felt it too but just didn't know how to describe it. On steep ascents when you put weight over the front, the front end tends to get a little loosey goosey. I personally thought wider handlebars would've helped, but my buddy says his were his size and he still felt it. But...

The bike handled so well in all the other categories I'd really recommend it. The climbing thing is something you would get used to and compensate for. The performance at speed you get in trade off was worth it IMO.

Some pics...

Bike I rode is the one on the left...