The Scentron is Storck’s take on the all-round road bike. While the company have aimed to keep what makes their bikes unique – their unparalleled stiffness, low weight and sharp, aggressive handling – this is tempered by a slightly taller head tube, due to a semi-tapered headset top hat, and a flexible carbon seatpost for more long-ride comfort. The reach has been shortened for a more forgiving riding position, a small tweak that we like a lot.
- Highs: Perfect handling, acceleration
- Lows: High price and tall gearing at this spec
- Buy if: You value precision and speed
The geometry – 73.5-degree parallel angles, short wheelbase (99.5cm) and chainstays (40.5cm) – is classic Storck. The Scentron’s frame has oversized carbon tubes, deep and thick chainstays and short seatstays that meet the seat tube a couple of inches below the level of the top tube.
The 340g Stiletto fork looks slender alongside the burly frame, and it surprised us just how smoothly it rode over coarse surfaces, the fore and aft movement functioning well in tandem with Storck’s own Ultra Comfort seatpost.
The Di2 battery mounts above the bottom bracket shell at the lower end of the down tube. This mimics Shimano’s fitting point without the need for extraneous brackets, and places the battery well away from the elements.
The Scentron has Storck’s renowned instant acceleration and sublime ride quality. In spite of the bike’s all-round credentials the Prologo saddle allows you plenty of movement so you can hunker down low and revel in what is one of the finest handling machines around.
For an all-rounder we were surprised by the Scentron’s standard gearing – 53/39 chainset, 12-25 cassette as was specced. For the rider it’s aimed at we’d expect a compact (it is an option). It’s not that big an issue on the road, though, as the low weight of Tune’s excellent TSR27 wheels and Schwalbe Ultremo ZX tyres makes up for some of the shortfall.
We also like having a big top gear to descend as fast as possible. (You can buy the Scentron as a frameset for £1,699, so could spec different componentry.)
The big question is the price. We have no qualms recommending the brilliant frame, the Ultegra Di2’s performance was typically faultless, and at just shy of £5,000 most of the finishing kit is bang on for the money, especially the wheels. But you can’t escape the fact that quality Ultegra Di2-equipped carbon bikes can be had for much less.
Builds start from £3,500, with this build with Ksyrium Equipes at £4,327, and a Campagnolo Super Record EPS model at £9,000.
This article was originally published in Cycling Plus magazine, available on Apple Newsstand and Zinio.