INTERBIKE 2009 – Storck Bicycles had their new Aero2 time trial / triathlon bike on hand, designed, developed and built in just four months for pro triathlete Faris al Sultan to race this weekend at the Ironman Championships in Kona.
Up close, the Aero2 is amazing.  It’s extremely slim and every bit seems integrated into itself to make for an exceptionally slippery design.  We’ve got tons of photos of the bike, including the weight on a Park Tools scale, and details.  Marcus Storck, founder and designer, runs it down in the video above along with the new Di2 version of their Fenomalist high end road bike.
As shown here, it’s a $17,000 missile. Hit ‘more’ for all the goods…
The Aero2 on display weighed just 15lb 14oz completely built with aero bars, aero wheels and Shimano Di2!  The Aero2 is only sold as a Fuselage, though, which includes frame, fork, headset, handlebar system (stem, bar and aero extensions), brakes and seatmast.
While the overall frontal profile of the bike is slim, the fork legs are relatively fat.  But, they are positioned away from the wheel some so as not to interfere with the turbulent air coming off the spokes…and, of course, they have to hide the brakes:
So, where are the front brakes?
You’re looking at the back of the fork.  The brake arms “hinge” on carbon blades and (for the front) are completely built into the fork…you can’t removed them.  The only downside is they better line up with your rims just right.
From straight on, the brakes are virtually invisible to the wind.  The hole on the right side of the crown is where the cable housing enters.  The little hole directly above the left brake slide is the bolt to tighten the cable into the left arm.  Here’s what the brake “arms” look like:
There are from the rear, which are replaceable and adjustable (height, not angle), hence the bolt hold on the blade.
The rear brakes are equally stealthy, and the rear profile reinforces the narrow, aerodynamic shape.
A little bit closer in, you can see the brake arms and cable routing run as a v-brake style pulling mech.
Last one on the brakes, promise.  They’re just so cool!  But, they’re not the only trick feature on the bike…
The rear dropouts, as on all Storck road bikes, use rear-entry, horizontal dropouts.  On the Aero2, there’s a small screw set at the end of the dropout.  At first glance, you’d think it was to make sure the tire was seated evenly, like Single Speeds do, but that could have been achieved with normal dropouts since this is a geared bike.  Instead, the screws are used to allow for different size tires to be used and let the rider fine tune just how close up the seat tube the tire sits.  Theoretically, they could push it right into the rounded groove to maximize the aerodynamic advantage, but at the very least, they could put it as close as the UCI will let them (rules say there has to be a gap showing when viewing the bike from the side).
You can see the gap here, but the wheel could actually be tucked up quite a bit further.  Also, Storck uses the rear-entry horizontal dropouts because the force of the chain naturally wants to pull the wheel forward.  Marcus claims typical dropouts force you to use more force than necessary to clamp the wheel in since traditional dropouts aim down and forward.  His version lets you clamp the skewer a little more gently so as not to potentially affect bearing side load, and all of the force is directed where it should.
There are no cable housing mounts on the bike and no internal guides for normal cables…it’s Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 all the way.  Two pictures up (dropouts) shows the frame exit for the rear derailleur’s wire.
Di2 wires from the controls go  directly into the downtube from the shifters…
…and the battery mounts directly to the seatmast.  In the near future, Storck will offer a water bottle cage with integrated batter mount that can be attached to the same bolt holes.  The seat mast height is fully adjustable using the bolt located on the top of the top tube just in front of the mast.  The seat itself can slide on the rail fore/aft for a wide range of adjustment, too.
The downtube stays fairly narrow until the bottom few inches where it flares to create a wide, stuff bottom bracket  section.  The wheels on this bike, in case you’re wondering, are Storck-designed / Zipp built 69mm deep carbon aero wheels.
2010 STORCK FENOMALIST Di2
The Fenomalist Di2 carries forward Storck’s concept of a purpose-built bike.  Like the Aero2, this version of the highly regarded Fenomalist has a carbon layup tailored specifically to use Di2.  It eliminates cable housing mounts and reinforces the parts of the frame that mount the battery and hold the wiring holes.
Built up with reasonably light parts, it comes in at 15lb 7oz.  By reasonably light, we mean there aren’t any outlandish bits spec’d here.  Mavic Ksyrium SL wheels, Syntace carbon post and handlebar, Syntace alloy stem, Fizik Arione saddle (w/o carbon rails), and (obviously) Shimano’s Dura-Ace Di2 electronic shifting drivetrain.  Per the video, Marcus acknowledges the bike could very easily be built up below the UCI minimum.  Frame weight is approximately 900g.
Storck only puts a tapered (1-1/8″ to 1-1/4″) headtube on the Absolutist, but all of their bikes have the flared/rounded tube to add stiffness.  Note the handlebar taping job.
There’s an additional bolt hole in the frame just under the Di2 for it’s mount…
…but on the display bike, they used a water bottle mount extender and rubber bit to hold the battery.  Hopefully, that mount has a condensation management system to keep water bottle drippings from running right onto the battery!
Wiring for the rear derailleur pops out just a few inches in front of the rear entry dropout.  The complete bike retails for $9,999 and the Frameset (includes fork and headset) is $4,199.
