RIDER REVIEW - Robbie Allen reviews his Storck Aerfast.4 Platinum

Aero road bikes seem to follow a general rule, taper where you can, provide plenty of teardrop tubing, and set up with aggressive geometry. A thin frame is usually standard, and design attention focussed to eliminate any protruding bolt or lever that can possibly catch a breath of wind, and otherwise add a watt or two to your racing effort. What is often missed in all this, is rider comfort.

In real-world performance, what counts is a strong, aerodynamic rider position that is able to sustain those watts, or otherwise enable the rider to ‘reach’ for more when they’re needed. Certainly as far as aero bikes go, the Storck Aerfast4 looks the real deal. It ticks all those ‘aero bike’ boxes… and goes even further when ‘reaching’ for those extra watts, prioritising rider comfort in an all-in-one aero-bike package.

Firstly, a big kudos to the Storck R&D team who obviously have put in a lot of time into developing this thing – the Aerfast looks as if it will ride on its own steam. It’s low, it’s compact, it goes forward. It goes forward fast.

Unlike many aero road bikes, the ride comfort is spot-on. It is as quiet and smooth as an ‘endurance’ bike will ever be. However set up with an aggressive, lower-positioned fork tube/headset. A decent full inch lower than my previous race bike. 

My yardstick measure of road riding performance is how a bike handles on Sydney’s Heffron Park criterium track. I can tell give the inside word, the Aerfast rolled through those concrete seams and asphalt bumps that litter the Heffron track like an absolute panzerwagen.

The bumps and jolts weren’t transferred through the bottom, bracket, seat tube and saddle as I expected. Not for an aero/racing road bike – and certainly not for one that has an appearance of a racing yacht.

What is obvious on first inspection, and what sets this rig apart from other aero/racing bikes, is the very unique flat-bladed (80mm-deep) forks which by my reckoning serve a second ‘dampening’ function other than ‘winged-keel’ aero benefit that they are intended to provide. This feature alone is the key design component which will apparently save you a bucket of watts from any straight-line aero performance.

Steering that front fork into tight corners was noticeably smooth, and with an absence tweaking or jerking, even with the stem slammed. I found the rest of the bike followed easily behind the front wheel when I was tucked into position.

The integrated bars and stem – are also clearly designed to be as aero as possible. Thin, and with a flat top bar, the cockpit designed with front-end minimalism in mind.

The hubs, rims and carbon bladed spoke attachments of the Zeit Jaeger (time hunter) Platinum wheels, was my wow-moment for this bike. Yes, the frame is aero, it’s got a light/strong carbon technology, yeah I see it’s got some funky bladed-forks, but I tell you that wheelset is the bizness.

With a hub machined from the Terminator’s left hand, the straight-pull socket sits perfectly flush with the carbon-bladed spoke-ends to produce a sleek, machined wheelset, most likely explaining the comfortable ride feel on the bike.

The Zeit Jaeger wheelset and rim profile are apparently designed alongside 25mm tubed tyres for a combined max aero benefit. The noticeably wider width of the rims held the 25mm tyres much more broadly than I was expecting. Something I personally appreciated on the rougher surface at Heffron Park.

The Storck Aerfast4 has clearly been designed with race-speed as its key objective. It’s an absolute blade of a thing, and probably the most ‘rideable’ blade I’ve ridden in a very long time.

The Germans certainly know their engineering, and I can’t help to feel think they’ve created a new comfort category of aero-racing bikes with the Storck Aerfast4. The bike is as fast as you’ll find in a straight line, supremely agile on tight turns, as expected – it felt those Heffron Park north-easterly crosswinds, but genuinely I found it as comfortable to ride as an endurance road bike.