Storck Update

• UPDATE: Little old TATI Cycles will be Chicago's sole Storck Platinum dealer in 2009. A few of our friends at l'equipe Bouledogue tour noir will be rocking Absolutists and C1.1s in the higher road categories soon. A couple of the Kenwood/Hyde Park gentleman's roadie club will be hammering their comrades, thanks to Storck's unidirectional carbon. And a handful of Tatitos will be rolling around on CD1.0s and Fascenarios, trying desperately not to crash.

  The first batch arrives on Friday. Yikes!

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  Storck is a German brand led by an engineer's engineer with an obsession with simultaneously building the stiffest and lightest road frames in the world. And for the most part, Markus Storck has achieved this for the past decade. German Tour Magazin's annual wrapup of strength-to-weight ratio, head tube deflection, and bottom bracket stiffness has had three or four Storck models in the top five in every category in recent years. Storck doesn't just purchase modified molds. The firm models dozens of patents, ranging from the very first carbon fiber crankarm design to the latest vacuum void control process for carbon tube fabrication. Storck is the only company for which Zipp produces private labeled wheels (the Storck/Zipp 69mm rim is faster than a 404 and much lighter than an 808).

  When first introduced to the line, I figured is was a no brainer. Here is an established, legitimate bike line of the utmost quality and innovation. Their frames have the lowest failure rates in the industry, and who can't help but love their crazy genius CEO?

  But then worry set in. Sure, Storck can produce a durable 740g frame -- but does it make sense to market such a thing in this economy?

  Pro shops around Chicago are scaling back, hedging bets, and even folding. 2009 prices for components, frames, and bikes are set over the summer -- before the dollar began to really fall, so we will see another year of 10-20% increases, which could really hurt the high end. But Storck is odd that way. Storck neither has model years nor did they raise prices for 2009; in fact, several models fell in price.

  And so while a Fascenario 0.7IS frameset is still listed at $9,500, the not-so-humble CD 1.2 has been lowered to only $1,700. And those in the know understand that even Storck's entry level frames are stiffer and faster than most companies' top of the line, gimmicky offerings.

  The Storck folks took a million dollars of bikes on a national tour this summer, and were kind enough to stop off here at TATI. A dozen folks tried hard not to crash on the 12 pound, $25,000 show bikes. Elsewhere, the bikes garnered accolades and new dealers popped up in places like Aspen, Palo Alto, and Boston. There's still some thinking to do, but having closely examined all of the boutique road brands -- I feel confident that Storck is heads and shoulders above all of them in terms of construction quality, engineering, and surprisingly, value.