Storck Visioner C road bike

With its less stratospheric price the Visioner C may have brought the owning of a Storck to a larger demographic but don't go thinking it's a soft option. The Visioner proves itself out on the road as a worthy contender against its siblings and more importantly against its competition. If you're lucky enough to have around two grand burning a hole in your pocket while hankering for an unadulterated race machine the Visioner C is pretty much the definition at this price.

Performance, Power & Precision

The Sunday morning club run became the defining moment of the Visioner C's ride for me. A poorly timed gilet removal meant I was on the back foot for the town sign sprint. Giving the Storck a good kick through the pedals didn't launch me to the front but it highlighted the fact the bike I'd easily covered fifty miles on so far in comfort and without much thought had now turned into this super stiff sprinter's machine with pin sharp handling.

The Storck isn't just stiff, it's composed too and delivers your power in a very smooth manner. You feel everything through the bottom bracket and it's just power, power, power, not a single hint of flex. The seat and chainstays flexing a little to just tame the rear end so the wheel stays planted on even rough tarmac.

You get these same benefits when climbing too especially out of the saddle. The DT Swiss R23 wheels retard the zing a little due to their weight but the Visioner is a joy to ascend on. The geometry allowing any easy transition from standing to seated.

When it comes to descending the Visioner C doesn't disappoint either. The long top tube allows you to get your centre of gravity low and take twisting downhills at speed with precision. The massive head tube keeps the front end feeling tight and the Stiletto fork barely moves a millimetre.

I'm a fan of descending. It's the only reason I climb to the top in the first place and the Visioner C is one of only a handful of bikes that I felt confident enough to really push to its limits knowing that if you go past them you'll be able to get it back.

As I mentioned above though, it's not a balls out ride all of the time. The Storck is happy to tap out the miles and it is very easy to ride. The Visioner C is based on the Scentron model in Storck's same Performance category but with remodelled narrower chain and seatstays providing some flex for comfort. It takes the sting out of the oversized front end and the large diameter 31.6mm seatpost.

It all adds up to be a perfect club run, sportive style machine to cover long summer miles on.

Frame & Fork

The 'C' part of the Visioner's name stands for Carbon, differentiating it from its alloy counterpart, and it uses a uni-directional layup process to get the characteristics of the frame dialled in. The tubes, as with all Storcks, are proportional meaning that wall thicknesses and the like are tweaked for each frameset size to give the same stiffness to weight ratio and ride quality. Quoted frame weights of 1,250g are impressive also showing that Storck haven't sacrificed the ride quality in a bid for ultimate light weight.

Just looking at the Visioner you know it's going to be high on stiffness thanks to the massive downtube and bottom bracket area. The BB uses PressFit 86,5 bearings which as the name suggests press into the frame thus allowing a wider BB area for stiffness and a bigger bonding area for the downtube diameter.

The geometry is quite simply race, taking the 55cm as an example the compact frame has an effective top tube length of 566mm with just a 138mm head tube giving that low slung, long aero position. The angles are steep too with head and seat matching with a 73.5° angle, pair that with a short fork rake of 38mm highlights where the direct handling comes from.

The Stiletto fork is full carbon fibre and has a claimed weight of just 360g so it's certainly in the lightweight camp. Its slender profile and size wouldn't have you believe it's going to be so stiff but there is so little movement from the dropouts and legs when it matters it keeps the front end super tight.

Future proofing the frame, Storck have used internal cable routing that is set up for both mechanical and electronic shifting. Ours was running Shimano 105 mechanical and I'm happy to confirm that even on a bike as stiff as this there are no cables pinging on the inside of the tube walls.

Should you crash the Visioner C has a replaceable gear hanger to take the brunt rather than the frame as the rear mech takes the impact. While you are at the back you'll notice the rear facing dropouts which, once you get used to them, allow fast wheel changes.

Kit Level

Shimano's 105 11-speed is used throughout, including the brakes and crankset. That's always good to see; a full group always makes the bike look more complete in my eyes.

It's a great groupset as we've said many times before and apart from giving away a bit of weight and slickness to Ultegra the shifting and performance are among the best on the market. Being available in a black finish also suits the Storck's bold blue paintjob too.

The wide range cassettes available give a good spread of gears for climbing and descending when paired with a compact chainset and the shifting is always spot on, staying that way even after covering a fair few thousand miles.

We've reviewed the 105 groupset in full before so we won't go into too much detail here but suffice to say that although it might seem like a low spec for a £1799 bike it's definitely up to the job in hand.

Storck use their own brand components on their bikes and the Visioner comes with an alloy seatpost, stem and handlebar combo. Ours has had a little bit of an upgrade getting carbon bars (£230) and post (£180) to boost comfort and save a little weight. The RBC 180 bar has a pistol grip shape and is very comfortable with little flex for a carbon setup. The winged tops give a wrist-friendly platform for covering long miles as well.

The seatpost is the Platinum Edition MLP135 which weighs a mere 135g. Going carbon is a worthy upgrade on a frame as stiff as this but that upgrade price is a little eye watering.

Wheels are DT Swiss R23s. These are the only real sign of cost cutting on the Visioner C as they don't quite match the performance of the frame. They're good wheels mind, strong and robust with lovely smooth hubs but the weight of the rims just takes the edge off of the Storck's acceleration and climbing.

The Schwalbe One tyres are grippy and seemingly puncture resistant as we had no issues on the mud strewn country lanes giving them any trouble. The 25mm width gives plenty of confidence in the corners and low rolling resistance to boot.

The Prologo Nago Evo T2.0 saddle is comfortable. The narrow profile is spot on for big thighs and the minimal padding takes the sting out without being spongy.

Conclusion

The Visioner C would be an awesome bike at any price but is especially so at this one. The frame outshines everything else so whatever components you stick on it the carbon frame won't be found wanting.

The ride feedback is brilliant. You know exactly what the bike is doing the whole time and the whole machine just feels balanced and perfectly planted. Descending is amazing as it just goes where you point it instantly. Even right on the tyre's limit of grip the bike is controllable with the tinniest amount of body movement to get it back from the point of disaster.

Despite of the stiffness and tight handling you've got a bike though that is very comfortable that you can tap out a century on with the greatest of ease, well relatively.

This Visioner C could do with a few tweaks though and the bike as a whole would be spot on. Personally I'd forget the upgrades, as good as they are, which push our test model up to £2209 and spend that extra £410 on a decent set of wheels. The R23s are the only real niggle in the Visioner's off the shelf spec list and rob the rider of the top end performance the Storck is capable of.

Verdict

Amazing frame that encapsulates everything about riding a bike fast; upgrade the wheels to get the most out of it