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...

Here's the rep's personal bike:

btw - those Zipps in the pic above are custom made for Storck - something like 68mm rim depth?

entry level Storck that is sub $2k...

Stork TT bike - hot, isn't it?

one more look...

nother of the bike I rode - great ride!

Stork rep on the far right talking with everyone.

Nice....I was impressed with the one I saw at the Chicago Bike show earlier this year. Let me see if I still have the picture.....

I do...

Great bike porn.
Glad you got to ride, too!


S.

And it did't follow you home?



How much trail does it have? Having little trail would tend to explain "floppy" handling at low speed. But also tend to make the bike corner quickly at speed.

shill

Was the name on the downtubes not large enough for you to spell the brand's name right?

Hey I met that guy in Baltimore! haha, nice report I was very curious how those things rode.

Thank you for saying it so I didn't have to.

Them is some hot bikes, though.

I spelled it the right way. Its just wrong on the bikes.




edit: J/k - I always do stuff like that when I'm in a hurry. Can one of the mods correct it in the thread title?

It was noticeable right off the bat. I think that if I owned the bike and set it up for me with proper bars, ect... it would mitigate it some. The bike was fantastic at speed though - hands down the best I've been on. At $3200 for just the frame it wasn't coming home with me. The bike I rode was probably a $6k bike easily and they let some of the riders ride a bike that was over $10k (I was told).

Apparently this is a new marketing technique. Scott is doing it also. Local shop brought out Scott bikes to a club ride for everyone to test ride. Was not there but to the man and woman all complained about the saddles. Wrong target audience for racing bikes!

Here is a crappy pic of my Vision Light 07. I bought the frame and fork from the rep as a demo and built it up with Force/Rival with Ksyrium Elites and Ritchey Pro/WCS cockpit.


[IMG][/IMG]

Looks like an evening well spent. Lovely bikes.

Best demo ride I ever did was a shop that put on a Kona demo on the Blue Ridge parkway near Roanoke, VA. They put on your pedals (or you could use theirs), set you up, and pretty much said take your time & enjoy.

Can't be that new, I did a Lemond demo day 8 years ago.

Hey Rav is Buck's going to carry Storck?

Not sure - it'd be cool if they did. I just don't see Pete carrying a lot of high end stuff though.

how do you like that frame and fork set? ive been looking at that as an option.