Storck Takes Flight 700

Storck Absolutist 0.9 Pro Review - By Ken Conley
All Photos © Ken Conley
  • 3K carbon fiber monocoque
  • Super-sized seat and chain stays
  • Seat post diameter 31.6mm
  • Proportional tubing
  • Sizes: 47, 51, 55, 57 (tested), 59, 63
  • Weight: 980g (frame) 14.88lbs (built w/o pedals)
  • MSRP: $3200 (frame/fork/headset) $6700 (as tested)



For the past decade, German designer Markus Storck has been at the leading edge of carbon fiber design. With frames, brakes, cranks, forks, and Zipp wheels designs to his credit, he has frequently sought "firsts", such as the first all-carbon full suspension mountain bike and the sub-10-lb Fascenario road bike. The records have limited the reach of the Storck brand, however, as $6000 framesets are not often spotted on the street -- even in expensive-bike-rich Woodside, CA. One rider told me that he saw a Storck once; he believes the rider was German.

Storck is now determined to reach a wider American audience with the more affordable Absolutist 0.9. At $3200 for the frameset, Storck won't be losing their high-end status any time soon, but the Absolutist is a perfect super bike for delivering designer Markus Storck's message to a wider audience: stiffness is king.

The Absolutist 0.9 is quintessential German engineering. Fans of German sports cars should know what to expect: fast, tight handling, solid and masculine. It's not surprising that Storck was picked to design a Porsche-branded bike. Power, not elegance, is the word that comes to mind when you look at the over-sized chain stays and giant Stiletto Aero fork. You don't buy a German sports car for the leisurely cross country trip: you buy it because you want to weave through traffic and switchbacks with power and ease. The Absolutist is similarly at home in the fast-paced world of the bike race. If you want to think who this bike is designed for, think of Jens Voigt or Jan Ullrich with their powerful, mashing legs instead of Lance Armstrong and his 90-100rpm cadence.

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The Bike
Storck Fork
Stork Headtube
The Absolutist 0.9 is striking in person. As you might guess from the name, this is a bike design that lives on the extremes. I had seen plenty of photos in advance, but nothing prepared me for how stocky the bike is. The Stiletto Aero fork is as wide as my whole hand where most forks are two- or three-fingers thick. The head tube rises up from the fork like a Doric column, bulged out in the center with a beefy Storck logo. The down tube, seat stays, and chain stays are similarly super-sized -- there's little secret to how Storck achieved the stiffness of this bike. After a month riding the Storck, other bikes started to look dainty.

Needless to say, the Absolutist is built to sprint and makes no compromises. The super-sized chain stays have inward bulges to improve lateral stiffness and, in a big twist, there are rear-entry dropouts. This dropout trick, which Markus Storck learned from his days with Klein, is to reduce axle slippage while sprinting. At first I was annoyed by this feature, but I just had to get used to it. Removing the rear wheel is a dirtier affair, but I eventually found it easier to put the rear wheel back on. We had some problems with stripped screws on the replaceable alloy derailleur hanger, but a trip to the local bike shop for screws solved this quickly. The SRAM Red setup tops off the sprint-forwardness of the bike. I enjoyed being able to pull the right shift lever in so that I could shift in the drops.
Storck Chainstay 275h
Storck Rear Dropout 275h
The bike came equipped with CSC team issue Zipp wheels and Schwalbe Stelvio tires. The wheels carry the Zipp moniker, but they're actually training wheels that are a blend of Zipp hubs and DT Swiss spokes and rims. These wheels won't turn any heads on the road but they're light, spin up well, and will let you put in good miles on the bike without any worries. The Stelvio tires have good grip and a magnetic attraction to leaves, which I was often picking out of my front brake. I was hoping to also test with the Storck-designed Zipp 69ers to really push the speed of the bike, but I'll have to cross my fingers for another day.

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A Selle Italia SLR saddle, FSA OS-99 CSI Carbon Stem (actually carbon-wrapped), K-Force handlebars and K-Force seatpost round out the components on the bike. I was a bit disappointed with the flexiness of the cockpit. This was the only component where I thought the bike lost its message, even if my hands appreciated the ride quality. Hawley, the American distributor for Storck, also agrees and ours was the last test bike to use the FSA stem.
Storck FSA 200
Storck Stops 200
Storck is very proud of the engineering that goes into the bike and it's easy to see why. The clear-coat paint on most of the frame allows you to admire the monocoque construction with 3K carbon fiber. It's impressive that such a massive looking bike comes out so light: 980g for the frame. This was some cause for concern on my part. The square shape plus increased size of the tubing greatly increases the stiffness, but it also increases the weight. They were able to get some of this weight back using proportional tubing, lighter headset cups, and their dropout design, but I also believe that they had to use less material to maintain the same weight -- with a firm squeeze I can get the top tube to flex slightly. Thankfully Storck tests their frames quite strenuously. Storck owns one of the seven Engineering for Bikes (EFBe) testing machines, which simulates long term stresses on the frame to test its durability. You can go on their Web site and watch one of their frames being sickeningly wrenched in every direction by this medieval bike torture device. Randomly selected bikes undergo this EFBe endurance testing and they also test every bike they ship on an alignment table to make sure that it meets their strict tolerances. As I'll explain later, I also got to do my own unintended durability test.

My only knock against the design, and it is minor, is that the paint job could be sexier. As a photographer, the paint design is important to pulling out the design features of the frame, but the Storck doesn't provide much help. The front fork is huge, but you can hardly tell with the small Storck logo on the front edge. The Storck logo on the downtube similarly fails to accentuate the lines of the frame. The first group ride I took the bike on a car pulled alongside someone else with solicitations and blue pills. The Storck was clearly the best bike of the bunch -- at least it would have been with a better paint job -- so if anyone was going to be offered performance-enhancing drugs it should have been me.

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Storck Profile 700


The Ride

When you get on the Absolutist, the aggressive posture has you ready for take off. It accelerates with ease and it keeps its balance while sprinting out of the saddle. In the saddle the frame feels vaguely hollow underneath, somewhat like the ride of an aluminum frame. Take it over bumps and you will feel the high frequency rattles make their way up to your posterior. The Selle SLR saddle did little to take these vibrations out so I swapped it out for a Specialized Toupe gel saddle and found the ride quality much improved.

The Absolutist broke all my personal records. On the first try. It's ability to break personal records was only limited by my sparse record keeping. My climbing record was shattered by 5% and my record for commuting to work was also beat by 5%. I thought my commute time wouldn't be improved upon because of traffic lights, but I was able to sprint through lights I normally miss.

These are gigantic margins to beat one's PRs by, so I did my best to try and figure out where the gains came from. For my commute record, the difference came down to beating one additional traffic light. For my climbing record, some of it comes down to weight and fitness, but there was also a big psychological component. I thought I was having a bad day because my legs weren't feeling great, but as I stood up on a steeper section the bike felt just felt raring to go. A couple of quick strokes later I had a big gap on my climbing partner. There's a big mental boost when the frame doesn't feel nearly as dead as your legs and it obviously helps with power transfer as well.

Needless to say, I was thrilled with the performance of the bike, but with great performance comes great responsibility. Most notably, the bike's handling requires care. Depending on your preferred adjective bin, the bike is either responsive or twitchy. This bike can cut through a slalom course like butter as it responds almost immediately to any command you give it. On smooth roads this handling is a dream, but rougher roads are more tense. The stiff Stiletto Aero fork tends to buck and rattle the bike over rough patches, so your hands better be on the handlebars. I myself found this out the hard way and lived a reviewer's worst nightmare: crashing a test bike. The crash was my fault as I was fiddling with a water bottle when the bike hit a traffic dot, but it was a reminder to myself and you the reader that performance requires skill and attention.

As a reviewer, I would like to be able to say that I crashed the bike descending the back of Col du Telegraphe at 50mph. Of course, if that were true, I probably wouldn't be writing a review. The truth is less impressive but the bike held up well. After my previous worries about the durability of the bike, I was able to remount the bike and ride it home after a quick handlebar adjustment. It helps that there wasn't a scratch on the frame: my body cushioned its fall. I would like to know how the bike would do in a more dramatic fall, but I'm not willing to personally find out.

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Storck Front Profile 200
Storck Prodium 200
Strengths
  • Light and stiff
  • Excellent acceleration for climbing and sprinting
  • Super-size design will make your puny bikes jealous
  • Snappy handling that's awesome on smooth roads
Weaknesses
  • Stiffness = stiff back
  • Needs a sexier paint job
  • Snappy handling a bit too snappy on bumpy roads
Bottom line


With a name like Absolutist, you know you're getting a bike that wants to ride the extremes. Every feature in the bike is focused on the bike's performance and the result is an amazing ride. It sprints fast, climbs fast, and turns fast. But read the description carefully. This isn't you're leisurely Sunday ride bike -- it's about breaking records and winning races.

Value
3.5 (it's a super bike, it's not about "value")
3.5  bottles

Overall
5
5  bottle