Hard Tail - Storck Or Whyte .. What would you buy?

dBritain

Hi guys,

I've batted this idea around on a few other forums but not had alot of response, so thought i'd try here...

I've been looking for a hard tail that's a bit special (nothing too main stream like scott, cube etc etc) for a little wile. Got a budget of about 2.5k.

I ended up popping into the Storck place in Gateshead a couple of weeks ago now (not the easiest to find but worth looking for). They were selling off their 2012 models but I'm 6'5 and they didnt have anythign in my size in the sale ... but they looked amazing!

Anyone else been in? or know much about Storck MTB's?

I've also been toying with the idea of getting a Whyte hardtail frame only and just living with my current groupsets until i can afford some new bits. I'm just not as keen on the styling on the Whyte's.

Can anyone else suggest another brand i should be looking at? Looking for a lightweight hardtail that's Carbon. all help would be great!

Cheers
Dave

cooldad

Might be worth your while posting some links - I doubt many people have seen a Storck, let alone ridden one.
But why 'special' - surely good is a more sensible criterium.

dBritain

cooldad wrote:

Might be worth your while posting some links - I doubt many people have seen a Storck, let alone ridden one.
But why 'special' - surely good is a more sensible criterium.

Ah sorry! ... This the storck place in Gateshead http://www.storck-raddar.co.uk/page.asp?id=50
The one i was looking at was the Rebelion 1.0... just gutted that it was a bit small for my gangly legs.

Why "special" ? I dont think special and Good are 2 contradictory terms, the Storck was both in my opinion. I need to dig out the model number of the Whyte i was looking at, i've got it highlighted in the catalogue... i'll post another link in a moment

supersonic

No listed specs on the Storcks mind.

njee20

You pay a premium for 'special' brands, so you compromise elsewhere unless you have a far bigger budget.

I'd probably get one of these, good spec for the money, or custom build on a carbon frame - Lurcher, or eBay special.

cooldad

Nothing wrong with special - I have a mate who has a couple of Storck roadbikes - about £25k worth. Nice, especially when I ride with him on my Carrera which cost me £5 on Ebay. In baggie shorts.
Admittedly he is a bit quicker than me. And special.

njee20

Of course there's nothing wrong with special, but a £2.5k Storck will almost certainly be a lesser bike than a £2.5k Trek, which in turn will be less than a £2.5k Canyon. As long as you know this and appreciate you're trading potentially perceived 'quality' for spec then there's no issue at all!

rockmonkeysc

But is the Canyon frame very good? Quality and strength of carbon can vary hugely. I haven't been impressed with the quality of Canyon's aluminium frames.

njee20

Dunno, be good enough I'll wager, I just said it's what I'd buy, I'd not pay over the odds for a Storck under the perception that it's somehow better, when in fact it will be lesser specced and heavier. Depends on your measure of quality.

That said, to be honest I'd probably build a frame up as I wanted (like I said) or spend a bit more on a Trek Superfly SL.

rockmonkeysc

I think I would rather get a Ti frame if I was spending that much.

njee20

That's slightly ironic, seen far more broken ti frames than carbon of late, considering how many are out there. I'd definitely have more faith in a carbon Canyon than most ti offerings!

Decidedly entry level ti as well for that budget. Let's be honest, in pure price terms these days £2.5k is mid range.

paulneenan76

Special? Build something up to your specification using a frame from a good quality, less mainstream but equally reliable brand, thus giving you something far more "special" and which you can be more proud of.

Also, when your riding mates ask you about your bike, you can use the word "special" justifiably - and not sound like someone who's maybe, a bit special

Or buy a Canyon - that would be sensible but not especially special.

chez_m356

RockmonkeySC wrote:

But is the Canyon frame very good? Quality and strength of carbon can vary hugely. I haven't been impressed with the quality of Canyon's aluminium frames.

you seem to be lost, let me direct you to the correct forum

rockmonkeysc

I guess you have one then.
They aren't as well finished as they could be, paint looks a bit ropey on a couple that I have seen.
Rose bikes are very similar price and spec to Canyon and are much better finished and they have a UK distributor who is actually good to deal with.

njee20

Must say I've not seen any issues on any of the Canyon frames I've seen, I'd certainly have one.

Are Storck still distributed by Posh Bikes? There are horror stories about trying to get anything on warranty...

supersonic

Paint makes no difference to the way a bike rides ;-). Unless it is heavy paint.

rockmonkeysc

No but if you spend £2000 on a bicycle you expect a decent standard of finishing.
On the subject of heavy paint I was told by a shop that if I was to order an Intense Tracer it's half a pound lighter in raw finish than painted!

dBritain

njee20 wrote:

Of course there's nothing wrong with special, but a £2.5k Storck will almost certainly be a lesser bike than a £2.5k Trek, which in turn will be less than a £2.5k Canyon. As long as you know this and appreciate you're trading potentially perceived 'quality' for spec then there's no issue at all!

That's the bit thats most upsetting ... The storck thye had in was a rebelion 1.0 with XT ... not a 2.5k bike (assuming you'er looking at the same RRP as me!) but was on sale as an 2012 ex demo - just not my size...

I quite like the Canyons, but hadnt looked at the Rose bikes but they are mail order only ... It's always nice to have a bit touchy feely before you buy.

dBritain

RockmonkeySC wrote:

No but if you spend £2000 on a bicycle you expect a decent standard of finishing.
On the subject of heavy paint I was told by a shop that if I was to order an Intense Tracer it's half a pound lighter in raw finish than painted!

lead paint? Or was the paint holding it together?!

chez_m356

RockmonkeySC wrote:

No but if you spend £2000 on a bicycle you expect a decent standard of finishing.
On the subject of heavy paint I was told by a shop that if I was to order an Intense Tracer it's half a pound lighter in raw finish than painted!

so there has been a couple of threads where people have cleaned them with brillo pads and then complained about the finnish, besides what you said was

RockmonkeySC wrote:

But is the Canyon frame very good? Quality and strength of carbon can vary hugely. I haven't been impressed with the quality of Canyon's aluminium frames.

none of that has anything to do with paint

StorckSpeed

STORCK - but then I would...... this response is based on science and is not biased in anyway whatsoever - honest.

rockmonkeysc

chez_m356 wrote:

RockmonkeySC wrote:

No but if you spend £2000 on a bicycle you expect a decent standard of finishing.
On the subject of heavy paint I was told by a shop that if I was to order an Intense Tracer it's half a pound lighter in raw finish than painted!

so there has been a couple of threads where people have cleaned them with brillo pads and then complained about the finnish, besides what you said was

RockmonkeySC wrote:

But is the Canyon frame very good? Quality and strength of carbon can vary hugely. I haven't been impressed with the quality of Canyon's aluminium frames.

none of that has anything to do with paint

No the quality of the frame is not just limited to paint. Untidy welds, rough castings and sharp edges on the frames I looked at. Just not up to the standard I have had from Specialized, Nukeproof, Giant or Scott. Possibly better than my On-One frame, though that did only cost £140.
The dodgy paint I have seen was on a Torque around the drop outs weren't painted properly, you could see bare metal. And on a Nerve AM the downtube was looking pretty bad after just a few rides. It wasn't helitaped but I have never helitaped a frame and never had a problem other than a bit of cable rub.

bennett_346

supersonic wrote:

Paint makes no difference to the way a bike rides ;-). Unless it is heavy paint.

Or red.

chez_m356

RockmonkeySC wrote:

No the quality of the frame is not just limited to paint. Untidy welds, rough castings and sharp edges on the frames I looked at. Just not up to the standard I have had from Specialized, Nukeproof, Giant or Scott. Possibly better than my On-One frame, though that did only cost £140.
The dodgy paint I have seen was on a Torque around the drop outs weren't painted properly, you could see bare metal. And on a Nerve AM the downtube was looking pretty bad after just a few rides. It wasn't helitaped but I have never helitaped a frame and never had a problem other than a bit of cable rub.

obviously these frame must have been made especially for you to look at, as all the professional reviews seem to comment on the high quality of the frames, as for dodgy paint on drop outs, i suppose that would have nothing to do with the wheels being taken off and put on repeatedly when they are transported to trails etc, and as for the helitape thing, i'm sure that every canyon owner on this forum can tell you that the bikes already come with frame protection from the factory

rockmonkeysc

You keep telling yourself your bargain basement frame is top quality if you want. If the ones I had looked at were good quality then I would have bought a Torque for around £2500 rather than spending an extra grand on a Nukeproof Scalp.

njee20

You're honestly claiming the sole reason you spent an extra £1000 is because you didn't think the finish on the frame of the Canyon was up to scratch? I call bollocks.

No one's claiming they're top quality (although the road frames are good enough to win the Tour de France...), but I'd have precisely zero faith that the Nukeproof was any better, let alone £1000 worth!

rockmonkeysc

The Nukeproof has better geometry as well but I'm not going to buy a frame which has sharp corners which are going to cause a stress point and poor quality welding. The issue of frame spares availability put me off as well.

mrmonkfinger

RockmonkeySC wrote:

The Nukeproof has better geometry as well but I'm not going to buy a frame which has sharp corners which are going to cause a stress point and poor quality welding. The issue of frame spares availability put me off as well.

Sorry old boy. Expressing dislike for Canyon frames is not allowed. Did you not get the memo?

njee20

The Nukeproof has better geometry as well but I'm not going to buy a frame which has sharp corners which are going to cause a stress point and poor quality welding. The issue of frame spares availability put me off as well.

Makes sense, that's very different to:

If the ones I had looked at were good quality then I would have bought a Torque for around £2500 rather than spending an extra grand on a Nukeproof Scalp

What you mean is:

If the ones I had looked at had the geometry I wanted and the spares availability was better then I would have bought a Torque for around £2500 rather than spending an extra grand on a Nukeproof Scalp, didn't think the finish was as good as could be either

Bit different! Has anyone actually broken a Canyon frame? So many of them out there it stands to reason, but I've not seen the 'usual' threads bemoaning it.

Don't get me wrong - not a fanboi in the least, don't own one, and I'm not rushing to do so, but your comments seem a bit misguided.

chez_m356

njee20 wrote:

You're honestly claiming the sole reason you spent an extra £1000 is because you didn't think the finish on the frame of the Canyon was up to scratch? I call ****.

No one's claiming they're top quality (although the road frames are good enough to win the Tour de France...), but I'd have precisely zero faith that the Nukeproof was any better, let alone £1000 worth!

are you sure ?

it’s the quality and attention to detail that shines through.......
It’s important to underline just how good the frame is .

but your right, he's talking shi'ite, maybe he should consider a job in the media, why not give these guys a call