Markus Storck talks about his passion for designing bicycles and improving people’s lives through cycling.

&PASSIONPURPOSE

// EXCLUSIVEMARKUS STORCK

40 SPIN ASIA

Words & Photos by Dean Koh

&

Tell us more about the development of the Aerfast, Storck’s new aero road bike that was officially unveiled at last year’s Eurobike.

Actually our first ‘fast’ road bike was the Aero1, which most people did not recognise as a standard bike and saw it as a triathlon bike. The Aero1, I think, came to the market, 8 years ago. It was a standard road bike and aerodynamic because when most people do triathlon, they are fitting themselves for the race on a bike, which has a 78-degree seat angle, but they are training on 73-degree (seat angle) bike. When they race, they are stepping from their normal road bike to the tri bike and they can’t have a good result.

The reason is clear because they are training their muscles on the 73 and then shifting to 78 and it doesn’t work. It’s quite amazing because some media thinks the Aerfast is our first aero road bike. Way before the Aernario, there was the Aero1. The idea was that it has standard road geometry and a wind cover for the seat post, which could be removed so we could use a standard 31.6 seat post for added comfort in the rear, which I feel is a big problem on most of the aero bikes. Then people will just use it with aerobars for triathlon races but most customers in the beginning, only used it as a tri bike and didn’t understand the concept that it was a bike which was good for both. We only sold about 30% of the Aero1 as normal road bikes.

The idea for the Aernario was to make a bike which is the best overall. Actually in the last few years, Storck has accomplished various goals. With the Fascenario line, we have achieved the lowest weight with high stiffness and great comfort. Then we learnt that aerodynamics had a role, not for us but for the media to measure the aerodynamics. Tour Magazine added aerodynamics to the test protocol and we just said, ok, we need a bike which is accomplishing the four criteria: weight, stiffness, comfort and aerodynamics. The goal with the Aernario was to have the best overall bike, which we did in the last 2 years with Tour Magazine. Before, it was just weight, stiffness and comfort, which we did with the Fascenario line.

When we developed the Aernario, I had the coincidence, going to Dubai and I saw the airflow going around the Scott and I realised, wow, we all were still thinking in terms of tubing instead of thinking to building a frame all the way from the ground up, this is when we changed the way of constructing in our frames. The Aernario was the first frame which had that technology and now with the Aerfast, we put this to the extreme stage. We said, here the criterion is not to have the highest stiffness. The criterion is to have a light bike with very good aerodynamics and great comfort because I am looking at the market, what the consumers need.

Some people are doing an endurance bike and call them that simply because the head tube is higher. But what is the criterion on an endurance bike? If you ask me, I would say it should be still having a good stiffness but it does not need to have mega high stiffness, most important is that it should have sensational comfort and I mean comfort from fork, from frame, from handlebars and seat post. But in addition to that, if you want to have a real comfort oriented bike, in my case, it should be something you can use for Paris-Roubaix, in bad streets, in countries that do not have nice paved roads, so you need wider tires as well. I think it needs a new concept.

Performance carmakers such as Audi, Porsche and the like are usually mentioned when one talks about the hallmarks of German engineering and precision. However, fast cars are not the only things that require a combination of good design, engineering and performance. These days, the design of road bicycles also incorporate elements of finding the maximum advantage in speed (without the engine), such as incorporating aerodynamic tube designs to reduce drag and even performing extensive tests in the wind tunnel.

A German gentleman who is certainly familiar with both fast bikes and fast cars is Markus Storck, the namesake behind Storck bicycles. Markus was in Singapore recently and we had the fortunate experience of meeting him to find out what continues to inspire him to create better and faster bicycles, even after being in the industry for almost two decades. Interestingly, Markus’s interest lies beyond that of bicycles – he even designs performance super cars under his One of Seven series, which, as the name suggests, only comes in a very limited production of just seven pieces.

SPIN ASIA 41

The original Storck Visioner is a very good alloy road bike. Out of curiosity, what were the reasons behind the development of the Visioner C G2 and CSL carbon bikes?

If you look at our product line, we have the widest range in the entire industry. If you look at how many different road frames we have created, then you see, we are having a long life span on the line. On the other hand, our bikes are dedicated to very specific properties and criteria.

The idea behind the Visioner aluminium was to make a high-end aluminium frame but it’s an entrance into the Storck product range. In the last few years, we have a situation in which most of the vendors bringing their carbon fibre versions (prices) down. Even our Visioner is better than most carbon fibre frames around when Tour Magazine tested our bike. We had the difficulty that the customers will choose the carbon fibre bike from another vendor. Because we removed 2 models from our product range, the Absolutist and Scentron, we had 2 molds available and the molds were paid off because we had so many frames produced.

We modified the moulds, changed the rear end to a more comfort-oriented one and we created the Visioner C out of it. Basically you are receiving a frame which costs, before, up to 2500 Euros, just slightly heavier but with more comfort and sensational low price. For the customer now, the entrance into Storck carbon fiber is much more aggressive but the customer still receives a sensational frame. This is something you were probably reading on road.cc, the frame received 9 out of 10 possible points. So you get a bike which is unbelievable at that price point.

Will we see a fatbike from Storck?

We won’t do it. I think the worst thing for a brand is just to follow the trend. The best thing for a brand is to create a trend. Our UK distributor, has started something which we feel, describes Storck in a perfect way: it’s called Re:Think. That’s our new motto for Storck. No, I have not invented bikes, I have not invented carbon fiber bikes but we are rethinking on products, rethinking on technologies, rethinking on everything which has to do with bikes. And then, we create something new. Not new as in category, new in terms of the properties and performance of the product. When we did the Stiletto road fork, we made the first full carbon fork and we rethought it, the way we used carbon dropouts and steer tube, was an innovation.

When we did the Powerarms, we invented the carbon version of crankarms. When we look at the Aernario, we didn’t create aero bikes but we had the Aero1. A fatbike, just to have it and to create it would not make sense. I don’t say we won’t do one, but it’s just not necessary to follow a trend. I have never done that, and it’s not my intention to do that. If you do a fat tire bike, you need to have a purpose for it. The purpose for it could be beach or let’s say, snow in winter. That’s the purpose to have a bike like that. To cycle around with wheels which are so heavy just because it is cool and hip, doesn’t give me any reason and purpose.

// EXCLUSIVEMARKUS STORCK

42 SPIN ASIA

You are an early adopter of major technological advancements in the bicycle industry: embracing full Shimano Di2 electronic integration early before many other brands and an early adopter for disc brakes on road bikes. Share with us how you gain these insights ahead of your competitors.

If you see how I am structured, I’m a very open person. So I like to talk to people, I like to look, I like to think and basically, when you see where cycling goes, you come to a certain point where you have achieved something important for the future and very often, the solutions and the answers are coming. And in addition to that, you get information when you are talking to the large market players, for example, Shimano is talking with us and we talk to tire and wheel manufacturers. Or, they are even coming to us, asking us, “What do you feel and what direction is the market going?” It’s a fruitful relationship because then you can develop a product for a certain need or certain markets.

To give you an example, it was the change from 26 to 29 (inch) wheels on mountain bikes. We knew the American brands were trying to kill the 26inch. It’s very simple: if you are a very large company and you put all your marketing effort in it and everyone in the media is writing, “26 is dead, you need a 29er”, the market is changing and flipping. I always said, yes, 29er has some good reasons but I don’t see that 29er should take over the entire mountain bike range. So we started to talk to the industry and said, 27.5 is much better because on full-suspension (bikes), if you have your suspension built into the bike and you have big wheels, you have longer levers and you have the problem about the bottom bracket getting way too high, the centre of gravity is always moving up. If you are a smaller rider, you don’t get enough pressure on your front wheel.

So we always said, 29er on full suspension doesn’t make sense. For most people below 1.8m, I feel that a 29er doesn’t make very much sense. If you are 1.65m and you are riding 29er, in my opinion, it doesn’t make any sense. I would say, we waited and we created the 27.5 as soon as the industry had the forks, the wheels and tires available. So we were the first adopter of the 27.5 but we didn’t follow the 29 and now we see a movement going to the 27.5. And I said, I’m lucky I only made one model. Just imagine if we went full speed into 29, which is not logical just to take the market shares there and we couldn’t afford it. I said, we wait and we do the Adrenic Seven, Rebel Seven, Zero2 Seven very early, 27.5 inch.

We get to see innovative and award-winning products from Storck almost every year. Being in the business for almost two decades, what keeps you going and continually inspire you to come up with better and better products?

It’s fun, I enjoy it. Bicycles are my life. If you see, I enjoy being around with people, I enjoy bringing fun to people and that is inspiring. These three weeks traveling around the world is very very demanding. I came back ill from Italy, four weeks of cold and I’ve still not recovered. I felt, wow, how can I go through the trip but it’s so nice to meet the people and it’s so nice to see that they treasure your work and that they have fun to meet me and to see a smile, changing people’s lives.

I met a person in Singapore who I have not met prior to this trip. He became connected with me on Facebook some time back and I’m quite active on my Facebook account. I then saw him on the previous day during the ride and I knew who he was. He was surprised and said, “How do you know?” I noticed what he did and I said, “You lost some weight.” And he said, “Yes, how did you notice that?” And he said, “You inspired me to change my life, to change my habits, I lost 15kg. My wife is starting to cycle as well.” And this is something I really enjoy. If we have the chance to change people’s lives and make it better, so they do sport or quit smoking, and we do this with bikes, that’s the greatest thing in the world for me.

I meet so many nice people through bicycles, I am having so much fun with what I am doing, it’s inspiring. Helena and I are now nearly 18years together, but I can tell you in the entire 18years, she probably saw me, not even one day, in a bad mood. In the morning, I wake up, “It’s a good day. Let’s start and do something.” And then you are a happy person. Even if I have pressure and some difficult times, I find solutions for it, I’m still trusting in what I am doing and that is superb. Even the stress is a positive one and not a negative one.

SPIN ASIA 43