Ribble Winter / Audax bike.

Serious Cat

I think having a winter basher is a great idea and the Ribble caught my attention. The frameset can be bought cheap as chips but there is one area id like to query. I looked at various ones which were for sale on the net and in most cases the bikes had high rise stems , stem extenders, hoods pointing up at the clouds and / or a multitude of spacers which made the bike look ridiculous. Can I ask does the audax frame have a seriously short head tube which means some riders have to overcompensate to add front end height in the name of comfort ?

If anybody owns or has tried the ribble audax id be most interested in your thoughts. I think the 72 degree head angle would reduce reach to the bars but the perceived shortness of the head tube is a concern to me.

napoleond

Headtube is normal. Bear in mind that a lot of audaxers are your more 'experienced' folk who may have back issues.

I love mine, so much so I sold my Cervelo. If I road race next year it'll be on the Ribble with the rack/guards off.

clickrumble

I've got one of these. Yes, the handlebars were a bit too low for me as supplied, but I flipped the stem and it's fine now.

Serious Cat

NapoleonD wrote:

Headtube is normal. Bear in mind that a lot of audaxers are your more 'experienced' folk who may have back issues.

I love mine, so much so I sold my Cervelo. If I road race next year it'll be on the Ribble with the rack/guards off.

Napoleon D what size is the head tube on your bike ? From looking at the geometry chart for one that would be my size the head tube would be a very very short 11cm. In order to get the bars to a comfortable height id most certainly have to flip the stem and the thoughts of a severe angle and heapload of spacers, well I wouldn't bother.

Yours looks absolutely fine yet many online examples I saw were rank looking with hoods pointing straight up and flipped high rise stems.

Zendog1

This is mine and I think it looks pretty good.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/16817419@N05/10783177156/

The stem is flipped with three half cm spacers and yes I am getting on a bit with an iffy back.

mjbennett

The OP is correct, the headtubes are much shorter on these than your typical audax/sportive bike.
They handle very well though and feel solid (but not too heavy). The only downside is you cannot fit 25mm tyres with mudguards.

Zendog1

See my picture - 25mm gatorskins with full SKS mudguards. Just takes a bit of fiddling to get the clearance right.

napoleond

I'm on 24mm Conti gp4000S. No problem at all.

Head tube is 19.5

Serious Cat

Zendog1 wrote:

This is mine and I think it looks pretty good.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/16817419@N05/10783177156/

The stem is flipped with three half cm spacers and yes I am getting on a bit with an iffy back.

Is that a 10 degree stem you are running flipped ?

Seeing as you have installed 35mm of spacers, is the steerer super long ?

napoleond

No it's 1.5cm of spacers on his. You could get away with a fair few more...