German light carbon builder Storck has been growing their road bike offerings from the top for the past few years, but this year it seems that they are expanding in all directions. On the road side of things, they’ve again topped of their range with the new third generation Fascenario.3 Platinum which takes the lightweight lessons learned on their race-ready Aernario and adds in more aero cues from the their time in the wind tunnel. Storck has even partnered with auto maker Aston Martin for a very limited series of the new bike. Then venturing off-road, we already saw last week the new premium trail and XC bikes, but they also gone the other way taking their carbon cyclocross TIX and reimagining it in aluminum to lower the cost of entry into the growing sport. Storck has also done some reworking of a couple of their components, with a new compact road bar and updated carbon crankset, Check out all the details after the break…
Fascenario.3 Platinum G1
The Fascenario.3 (F.3) Platinum is Storck’s newest adaptation of the all-around race bike. While they still make a dedicated aero road bike in their Aerfast across a range of spec levels, this new Platinum-only Fascenario looks like its time in the wind tunnel my have made it even more slippery.
It uses new more aerodynamically optimized tube shapes with sharply chopped off aero tails in what Storck calls Advanced Sectional Aerodynamic Shaping. The bike also gets a very widely set, bow-legged fork that is claimed to have made a big improvement in drag reduction, something we’ve started to see with more regularity from other manufacturers as well.
The F.3 hangs rear facing dropouts with a replaceable alloy hanger from the hollow looped carbon stays. It also gets full modular internal routing from one end to the other. The rider is said to get more comfort at the saddle with a new truncated aerofoil D-shaped seatpost that Storck says adds more flex while reducing drag. The post also still gets an internal seatclamp that makes for more exposed post, and thus more flex.
The F.3 uses a 1.125-1.25″ tapered headtube with all carbon bearing seats. Its pressfit BB86 bottom bracket is also all carbon keeping weight low. Frame weight is claimed at just 770g, plus another 330g for the new wide legged fork, for framesets from 110g.
The Fascenario.3 Platinum will be sold as a frameset for 5700€ including frame, fork, seatpost & headset. Complete bikes will start out at 7400€ with an Ultegra 6800 build kit, and climb to 9900€ with a full Dura-Ace 9170 Di2 group.
This Fascenario.3 also set the stage for Storck’s collaboration with Aston Martin. They showed one of the first prototypes of the limited edition project at Eurobike, and although the frame on display was an earlier generation that didn’t yet get the final bulbous headtube shape, it still drew a lot of attention. One of 77 Aston Martin Edition F.3 bikes to be made, each will get a silver paint job that presumably will match your Vanquish or DB11. Each one gets a suitably boutique build kit and SRAM eTap groupset, hopefully with a few less cable ports in the final version.
T.I.X. AL G1
Ready to race cross, Storck is introducing a new aluminum sibling to their This Is Cross range. Making it their only alloy bike, Storck had received a lot of positive feedback from their growing carbon TIX cross range, only introduced 2 years ago. Now in addition to Platinum, Pro & Comp carbon models, the new TIX AL shares the same geometry and look in a much more affordable platform.
We tested what is now the Pro level TIX two seasons ago and came away mostly pleased. One nit we did pick with the original bike makes its way through to this aluminum version as well. The TIX AL shares the same thru-axles as the carbon bikes, which means 9x100mm thru-axle in the front and 10x135mm thru-axle out back. Originally selected as the lightest thru-axle ‘standard’ on the market a few years ago, it is one that hasn’t seen much play form the industry. Many hub and wheel makers (like DT Swiss or American Classic) do make options for this lesser know standard, it does limit choice on a bike where tire and wheel selection so often comes into play for racing.
The TIX AL gets the same full carbon 1.125-1.5″ fork as the lower spec carbon bike, and shares the same sloping geometry with the rest of the TIX line-up.
The alloy bike looks like it adds in a bit of versatility with rack mounts at the rear, and drilling on its seatstay bridge.
Frame weight for the alloy TIX AL is claimed to be just 1250g, combined with a 490g fork. The TIX AL frameset is priced at 1000€, and comes built up with a 105 5800 hydraulic disc brake double for 2400€. Up to a Ultegra Di2 build is available for 3950€, and you can even opt for an upgrade to DT’s carbon RC28 or RC38 wheels for 900€ more.
RBC170
On the component side, Storck adds a new shallower drop road bar, for a slightly more upright but still race-oriented fit. The 300€ RBC170 joins their ergo bend RBC180 in its same shape with a slightly flattened aero top. The new bar cuts drop back almost 2cm to just 133.3mm and reach comes back 1cm to 105mm. The 31.8 bar with its concealed cable routing weighs just 170g and comes in 40, 42 & 44cm widths.
Powerarms G3
Storck’s crankset gets an update as well. Like the THM Clavicula on which it is based (and THM makes these for Storck), the new 3rd generation Powerarms drop a good bit of weight down to a claimed 305g without bearings for the compact 5-bolt 110mm arms. The full-carbon carbon spindle does a good bit to trim that weight, but the shaping and layup of each arm gets tweaked as well. At 1200€, they don’t come cheap, but with a low 149mm Q-factor and 170, 172.5 & 175mm lengths and either press fit or BSA bottom brackets available, they should for most light road bikes.
