Anyone with a RIBBLE SPORTIVE in LONDON?

SlowingDown

Does anyone own any Ribble Sportive build and live in London? The Ribble Sportive Racing is now overtaking my original choice for a new bike but I'm not comfortable buying something I've not seen in the flesh and cant really trek up to Preston at the moment.

bilsea159

I bought one blind so to speak, I contemplated taking either the train or car to Preston but deemed it too expensive. So I took the risk paid for it had it swiftly delivered and love it to bits. Its set up to ride out of the box, the campag full centaur groupset is superb, the frame gorgeous and it rides like a dream smooth fast and soaks up the bumps. IMHO the bike is the best sub 1000 carbon spec bike out there. It got a good review in the recent cycling plus grouptest, it did not win because ribble sent in a sample with the wrong wheel choice. I wish I knew how to upload pictures on this site because there is still the original one on ribble website which does'nt show the bike in standard spec with normal wheels.

bilsea159

I forgot to ask why London?

giant_man

pictures please bilsea159!!

fuzzynavel

I have seen the pictures of this one too in cycling weekly adverts....sexy looking bike!

SlowingDown

Oh yeah, didn't really make it clear - if I found someone who has one localish to me in London I was hoping maybe to meet up so I could take a closer look.

to be honest I'll probably just go for it regardless. I'd thought i was set on the Boardman Team Carbon but I cant convince myself on it and between two decent fairly comparable bikes I prefer the slightly over the top look of the ribble.

majormantra

bilsea159 wrote:

I bought one blind so to speak, I contemplated taking either the train or car to Preston but deemed it too expensive. So I took the risk paid for it had it swiftly delivered and love it to bits. Its set up to ride out of the box, the campag full centaur groupset is superb, the frame gorgeous and it rides like a dream smooth fast and soaks up the bumps. IMHO the bike is the best sub 1000 carbon spec bike out there. It got a good review in the recent cycling plus grouptest, it did not win because ribble sent in a sample with the wrong wheel choice. I wish I knew how to upload pictures on this site because there is still the original one on ribble website which does'nt show the bike in standard spec with normal wheels.

How much does it weigh? I'm seriously tempted by this bike.

By the way, to post pics I think you just need to upload them to Flickr or some other hosting site, and then use the img tags around the URL of each photo. I'd love to see some too.

Oh, and if anyone in Edinburgh has one then I too would love to try it out. I could supply a bottle of wine or similar by way of thanks.

Cheers,
Matthew

BigSpecs

I have ordered one as a frame only. Hopefully it will arrive in the next couple of weeks. I will post some pics as and when it arrives. I looked everywhere on the net for pics or info before I took the plunge but could only find the (rather misleading) pics including the FFWD wheels.
BTW Matt, I am in Glasgow...
Cheers,
Col.

giant_man

So guys for £999 what do you get? The sportive frame, Campag Centaur and what wheels as standard?

Keanocp

majormantra

Mmmm, very nice. Have you weighed it? What bits did you go for?

Cheers,
Matthew

juankerr

Ribble in sexy bike shocker. Nice..want one.

Keanocp

MajorMantra wrote:

Mmmm, very nice. Have you weighed it? What bits did you go for?

Cheers,
Matthew

Don't have scales but certainly at LOT lighter than my Roubaix

Build list
49cm Ribble Sportive frame and full carbon fork
Full Sram Rival 09 groupset
Shimano RS20 wheels with Krylion carbon tyres
FSA Wing Pro Compact Bar
FSA OS99 Stem
FSA K Force seatpost
Look Keo Carbon pedals
Specialized Toupe saddle

First bike I've built myself and would recommend this route to anyone, no matter how useless a mechanic you think you are. Just make sure and hunt around for the best deals.

Great bike and very different to my previous one
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... 0408434653
Sorry for the blatant plug :oops:

majormantra

Keanocp wrote:

MajorMantra wrote:

Mmmm, very nice. Have you weighed it? What bits did you go for?

Cheers,
Matthew

Don't have scales but certainly at LOT lighter than my Roubaix

Build list
49cm Ribble Sportive frame and full carbon fork
Full Sram Rival 09 groupset
Shimano RS20 wheels with Krylion carbon tyres
FSA Wing Pro Compact Bar
FSA OS99 Stem
FSA K Force seatpost
Look Keo Carbon pedals
Specialized Toupe saddle

First bike I've built myself and would recommend this route to anyone, no matter how useless a mechanic you think you are. Just make sure and hunt around for the best deals.

Great bike and very different to my previous one
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... 0408434653
Sorry for the blatant plug :oops:

Sounds like a nice setup, how do you like the Rival groupset? I've fiddled with their system in a shop and I rather liked the shifting action but I've never ridden with it.

Oh, and another question: how tall are you? From Ribble's chart I'd want a 52cm frame (I'm 5'9") but I'm concerned that the reach might be too long as I seem to be more leg than torso.

Matthew

Keanocp

Rival is brilliant, I've read a few very positive reviews about it and it still exceeded my expectations. Shifting is precise and not clunky like some have suggested and the single paddle for up and down shifts makes much more sense IMO and only took a couple of rides to get used to. Don't see me going back to Shimano (had Ultegra/105 mix) in the near future and the Campag thumb shifter has never appealed. Best of all it's cheaper (esp. @ £450) and lighter than the equivalent groups.

I'm only slightly shorter than you, but have stumpy legs. Studied the geometry closely and noticed they have quite long toptubes and therefore elected for the smaller size with a 120 stem. Hope this helps

Slow Downcp

Keanocp
What bar tape's that?

SlowingDown

Think I'm set on the Ribble Sportive now ... but delays on supply due to demand pushing availability back to the end of May.

Keanocp

Bike Ribbon Eleganza, much more comfortable and better grip than the fizik microtex I've had in the past. Comes with carbon end plugs as well 8)

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Mode ... elID=27991

zedders

Slowing Down:
I've ordered a Ribble Sportive a few days ago, with Carbon Cenaur/zonda wheels etc. Having looked at those pic's I can't wait for mine to turn up!
I say the longer you think about it the longer your going have to wait! What WAS your original choice? ''All good things come to those who wait?''

majormantra

Keanocp wrote:

Rival is brilliant, I've read a few very positive reviews about it and it still exceeded my expectations. Shifting is precise and not clunky like some have suggested and the single paddle for up and down shifts makes much more sense IMO and only took a couple of rides to get used to. Don't see me going back to Shimano (had Ultegra/105 mix) in the near future and the Campag thumb shifter has never appealed. Best of all it's cheaper (esp. @ £450) and lighter than the equivalent groups.

I'm only slightly shorter than you, but have stumpy legs. Studied the geometry closely and noticed they have quite long toptubes and therefore elected for the smaller size with a 120 stem. Hope this helps

Thanks, it does.

Matthew

zedders

RIBBLE have just emailed me saying my frame size (52cms) is not available untill the end of May 09! I thought I was ok as their website only said 55 & 58 when I placed my order! But it looks like ''due to demand'' as they put it, everyone, whatever frame size is going to be waiting a long time!

bilsea159

Be aware that the price on the special edition bike is about to go up so order sooner rather than latter.

SlowingDown

Any idea how soon bilsea?

davelakers

I was in Ribble Cycles last week and I was talking about the Ribble Sportive. They are seriously gobsmacked about the amount of interest in the bike and by how popular they are and by how fast they have sold. They are shipping frames in from Italy on a regular basis but still struggling with demand!!

It is a stunning looking bike and a bloke in our club loves his to bits!!

bilsea159

I understand from the emails that I get sent on the mailing list the price may go up by Tuesday when the 15% offer on parts and accesories finishes. Although ribble are not giving an exact date, the huge demand on the bike may be in their interest to raise the price a little. Also worth noting is that they now offer finance via and I purchased the bike with the 12 months interest free offer with a 10% deposit

giant_man

davelakers wrote:

I was in Ribble Cycles last week and I was talking about the Ribble Sportive. They are seriously gobsmacked about the amount of interest in the bike and by how popular they are and by how fast they have sold. They are shipping frames in from Italy on a regular basis but still struggling with demand!!

It is a stunning looking bike and a bloke in our club loves his to bits!!

I'm not sure what they expected to be honest. A good frame which looks good, and is cheap. And now rated by C+. You can't really go wrong here, yes it is the Pedalforce RS2 frame which you can get elsewhere of course, but in a different guise which isn't as appealing. Sure fire winner!

ariege_cyclist

I got my RS2 from Pedalforce about a year ago, in red and black. Looks great and rides fantastically well. Great on climbs descents and putting the power down (well what power I can produce anyway). It's also a comfortable ride coming off my cannondale.

For more pictures of the frame and builds that have been put together of the RS2 (the same frame as the ribble with different paint job) you could check out this old thread:

http://www.bikeradar.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=40002

It's a long thread but some pictures appear about half way through. Everyone raved about their frames, same as me. For the money I think this is one of the best frames out there.

Mark

majormantra

Ariege cyclist wrote:

I got my RS2 from Pedalforce about a year ago, in red and black. Looks great and rides fantastically well. Great on climbs descents and putting the power down (well what power I can produce anyway). It's also a comfortable ride coming off my cannondale.

For more pictures of the frame and builds that have been put together of the RS2 (the same frame as the ribble with different paint job) you could check out this old thread:

http://www.bikeradar.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=40002

That links to the Pro Race forum.

Matthew

cazzooo

davelakers wrote:

I was in Ribble Cycles last week and I was talking about the Ribble Sportive. They are seriously gobsmacked about the amount of interest in the bike and by how popular they are and by how fast they have sold. They are shipping frames in from Italy on a regular basis but still struggling with demand!!

It is a stunning looking bike and a bloke in our club loves his to bits!!

Italy? These come from ADK in Taiwan. What does Italy have to do with these frames?

SlowingDown

As long as it comes to me via Preston I'm not sure I care where it started off at the moment.

Ordered mine this morning. Mixture of feeling excited about a new bike and sick because I didn't bother to work out if I could afford it first.

ariege_cyclist

Ooops - the link should have been this one :oops:

http://www.bikeforums.net/archive/index.php/t-375840.html