Storck Aerfast Platinum

At £10,949, the Storck Aerfast Platinum would be a massive outlay, but boy, oh boy would you get one hell of a return on your investment. It's a sub-6.5kg race weapon, with aerodynamics that work in the real world, and it offers comfort levels to challenge most endurance bikes.

Taking plenty of things it's learnt from its astonishingly good  Aernario, Storck has pushed the design even further down the aerodynamics route, and what it has created in the Aerfast is a bike that's not only unbelievably fast, but light and stiff too.

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Ride

If you're in the market for an aero bike, speed is going to be topping your list of priorities, and it's where the Aerfast truly excels. Below about 23mph the Storck feels like any other bike to ride, any other superlight bike that is, but all the same it feels like it requires some effort; you've got to work at it.

Get above that speed, though, and the aerodynamics really come into play. It feels like a permanent tailwind is nudging you along, a friendly hand on your back as you watch the numbers climb on the Garmin – with no more effort required than there was 5mph ago. It's a wonderful feeling, and one you never tire of.

The long and low stance of the Aerfast allows you to mimic the aero intentions of the frame to really exploit every last bit of speed. Even on the hoods, with wrists resting on the bar, you can get low with a flat back and cruise along 3-4mph faster than you can on a standard road bike on the flat. I've ridden time trial bikes that don't offer this level of wind-cheating.

The only downside to all this 'aeroness' is that the Aerfast really doesn't like turbulent air. If you're drafting a lorry, for instance, and you drop back into the dirty air as it swirls around the Storck gets buffeted around something terrible. Strong crosswinds can also make it a little twitchy.

The real beauty, though, is how long you can keep this speed up for. The Aerfast is so comfortable, with the rear end taking the sting out to the point where you find yourself checking back to see if you've got a slow puncture.

My first ride on the Aerfast was 101 miles on a mix of lanes and fast A roads with about 1800m of climbing thrown in – similar to plenty of sportive routes. I'd finished the loop and was nearing the front door at mile 89 realising I was feeling a damn sight fresher than I've ever felt at that distance before. So I decided to carry on and chuck in another couple of mini laps to get past the century. I ached, don't get me wrong, but after nearly six hours in the saddle I felt as if I'd only done half of that.

Post-ride coffee in hand, watching the Storck drip muddy rainwater all over the kitchen floor, it's hard to believe a bike design appearing to be so specific to a single task is actually a real all-rounder. A stonkingly fast multi-tasker.

The Storck is a very easy bike to ride. At speed it feels planted and easy to control just by shifting your bodyweight, making it an absolute joy to ride through technical bends. And it feels so smooth as you change direction too; the point in the middle of a chicane when you flick the Aerfast from one lean angle to the opposite is so effortless, and you can do it at such a high speed, that it gives you goose bumps when you nail it time and time again.

The Schwalbe One tyres are awesome, and really give you the confidence to lean the bike over – to the point where you're thinking you're probably going to need to drop a knee down to stay upright.

High-speed descending is an absolute blast. The steering is highly responsive – a touch twitchy at lower speeds but here, hurtling downhill, it's bang on. As you take to the drops and lower your shoulders the front end feels beautifully weighted; the slightest input from you and the Aerfast responds instantly. The model-specific Aerfast fork certainly doesn't let you down on the stiffness front, even when you're really hauling hard on the front brake between bends. The overall speed achievable is unbelievable too – I was hitting an extra few mph on most of my local descents.

Weighing a little less than the UCI limit obviously means the Storck is no slouch on the hills, but that's bolstered by the stiffness from the bottom half of the frame. The bottom bracket junction is huge, as are the down tube and chainstays, so you can really stamp on the pedals.

Saying that, the Aerfast doesn't quite feel as tight at the rear end as other Storcks I've ridden, though it's still bloody stiff, and it makes it more user-friendly on UK roads.

Frame & fork

Storck has tackled the aerodynamics by working in a parallel plane from the ground, taking into account where the tubes are actually situated in real world terms rather than just making the individual tube aerodynamic. This is why some of the tubes don't necessarily look as faired as you might expect. If you were to take a cross-sectional view, though, things would become much more evident.

For instance, the down tube tapers in both ends as it leaves the head tube and bottom bracket, to reduce surface area to the wind and lessen drag. It also takes into account the way the air is leaving the front wheel. It's what Storck calls 'Sectional Aerodynamic Shaping', developed through 3D CAD modelling and fluid dynamic computer development. A cost effective way of designing something slippery yet stiff.

Up front the steering is kept tight thanks to a tapered head tube, 1 1/8in at the top and 1 1/4in diameter at the bottom. It's something you really notice under heavy braking and hard cornering. To reduce weight the headset cups are carbon fibre – no alloy inserts here.

The bottom bracket uses a press-fit bearing system with an 86.5mm shell width for extra stiffness rather than a more traditional 68mm. This means the chainstays can be wider (apart and in themselves) and the bottom of the seat tube is wider too, bringing with it even more stiffness. Unfortunately the Aerfast is plagued with the same affliction of many bikes with this setup, creaking after a few wet rides.

Storck has chosen to position a direct-mount rear brake under the chainstays for aerodynamic purposes (as shown a few pics above), which means it's been able to remove the brake bridge from the seatstays. This has not only brought some much needed comfort but also, because of the horizontal rear dropouts, means you can adjust the position of the wheel for tyre clearance at the seat tube. Ours was running 25mm tyres but you can go a bit bigger.

As I've mentioned, the fork is model-specific. Also called the Aerfast, it's designed to fill the gap under the down tube exactly when the front wheel is straight, with a little faired nub. The carbon steerer is tapered, too, to match the head tube.

Making something aero tends to use more material, which adds weight; take that material away and you lose stiffness, so you've got a bit of a balancing act on your hand. Storck says that it uses 'proportional tubing' – tubes that have different wall thicknesses, getting thicker as the bike gets bigger for heavier riders and the spans between tube junctions increases. That it still achieves a claimed frame weight of just 890g (47cm) and 350g for the fork is impressive.

The Aerfast comes in three models: Comp, Pro and this, the top end Platinum. They all come out of the same mould but use different grades of carbon, which is why the Platinum frame is 260g lighter than the Club's. The carbon itself is laid up unidirectional – all the fibres travelling in the same direction – which is time consuming but means it can be laid up to optimise frame strength and comfort.

All of the cabling is routed internally to keep a smooth and clean look, plus it'll also run both mechanical and electronic groupsets. Even things like the seatpost bolt are hidden beneath the top tube. It tightens up against a wedge to keep the aero post in place, but you can also use a round 31.8mm diameter post too.

Even though the position is stretched out, the Aerfast isn't as steep and slammed as you might expect. Our 55cm frame has a head tube length of 168mm, which is quite tall for a race bike, plus the head tube angle is just 72.3 degrees. But whatever the numbers, it certainly works.

My only criticism is that the overall finish of the frame isn't quite as high a standard as I would have expected for the money. The area where the seatpost slides in looks a bit rough around the edges, and also where the paint ends at the rear dropouts. It seems a shame to create such an engineering marvel and not follow it up on the aesthetics.

Top end finishing kit

What you are looking at here is the first Aerfast Platinum in the UK, so our test model has had a bit of a spruce up, hence that eye-watering price.

The Lightweight Meilenstein clincher wheels are a pure extravagance, though they do back up the performance of such an excellent frameset. Mat tested the tubular version recently so I won't go into massive details here, but basically I found similar results. You're getting all the performance of the tubulars but with the added practicality of clinchers. That rim does increase the price to £3,699, which is £600 more than the tubular version, and a few more grams too – 1180g total weight.

We've also got the 20th Anniversary edition carbon bar, which carries a premium price. It's a lovely shape, curving back slightly towards you and having a small amount of flex to soak up bumps without feeling bendy under hard acceleration.

Other than the 20th Anniversary edition saddle, a Selle Italia SLS Monolink, we've got the Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 build which, if you bought it with the standard spec DT Swiss R38c Spline wheels, comes in at £8,019. The entry-level build is Ultegra mechanical with DT Swiss R32 wheels for £4,949 or the frameset on its own would set you back £3,949.

Di2 works brilliantly with this frame – you need the speed of those shifts to match the speed of the Aerfast. And the ability to brake and change gear at the same time means you can really set the bike up for the corners.

Shifting can still be a little bit clunky at times, especially at the front, but that's more of a rider interface. Sometimes you just can't quite match the pressure on the pedals with a button like you can with a lever to really mesh that shift, but other than that you can't knock electronic gears.

> Check out our guide to the best aero road bikes here

Out test model came with a compact chainset and an 11-28 cassette, which gives a good range of gears. I must admit I was expecting a standard 53/39 up front but I certainly didn't find myself spinning out.

Wrapping the Lightweight wheels are Schwalbe's excellent Ones, and they performed absolutely brilliantly yet again (I've ridden them loads of times), both in terms of grip and robustness on really wet, muddy and grit-covered roads. Not a single mark or puncture in the test period.

Overall

The Aerfast manages to encapsulate all-out, high-speed performance with comfort in a way I've never experienced before from such a bike. Often when you ride really light carbon bikes they can be twitchy, a little nervous on rough roads or technical sections – a bit skittish at times – which can make controlling them at speed hard work. The Storck isn't like that. It's confident, feels solid and will flatter the most ham-fisted of riders. That doesn't make it watered down or dull, it's efficiency at its best, and when you push it – really, really push it – the grin you get on your face will start to ache.

All this comes at a price, but bear in mind our build here is pretty much as top spec as you could go. Looking at the price of the frameset, or even the entry-level Ultegra model, and I don't think it's excessive at all, especially when you take the ride into account. I'd like to see a little more care in the overall finish – but it wouldn't put me off buying one.

Verdict

Truly awesome race bike with aerodynamics that work in the real world, coupled with a forgiving ride