RIBBLE BIKES - any good?

KrisHawk

Hi all, I am looking at the Ribble Gran Fondo. Has anybody got a Ribble? Good / bad?

fsman

I have a GF and love it. Got it as their special deals with a silver campag volece - looks amazy and rides very well.

I can't fault it for value for money.

Give Ribble a call once you have got all year measuremnets and they will ensure that you select the right crank, stem lengths etc.

rolf_f

Search function will find you the answer many times over

rickeverett

The bikes are getting a bit long in the tooth now. GF was updated last year I think ?
Apparently some new models are appearing at the London Bike Trade show next week so I would hold out to see what they have.

Similar avenues to Ribble are Planet X, Canyon and Rose. The later 2 are both German and do excellent original bikes for the money. Ribble and Planet X are a bit off the shelf and aren't in the same league IMO but are UK based.

CYCLESPORT1

Good bikes - Very good value for money

duckson

I was in Ribble yesterday and they have some new bikes coming out very shortly (they were on display in the shop).

A Gran Fondo with a different paint scheme (black and blue IIRC) and a new frame which looked more aero and with a finish like the R872 (to be fair it looked quite nice actually).

Not sure if there is anything else but thats what i noticed in the few mins i was in there and i'm in there once or twice a month usually.

DiscoBoy

duckson wrote:

I was in Ribble yesterday and they have some new bikes coming out very shortly (they were on display in the shop).

A Gran Fondo with a different paint scheme (black and blue IIRC) and a new frame which looked more aero and with a finish like the R872 (to be fair it looked quite nice actually).

Not sure if there is anything else but thats what i noticed in the few mins i was in there and i'm in there once or twice a month usually.

Any with disk brakes?

KrisHawk

Thank you for all the replies, very helpful.

duckson

DiscoBoy wrote:

duckson wrote:

I was in Ribble yesterday and they have some new bikes coming out very shortly (they were on display in the shop).

A Gran Fondo with a different paint scheme (black and blue IIRC) and a new frame which looked more aero and with a finish like the R872 (to be fair it looked quite nice actually).

Not sure if there is anything else but thats what i noticed in the few mins i was in there and i'm in there once or twice a month usually.

Any with disk brakes?

Didnt notice any.

DiscoBoy

duckson wrote:

DiscoBoy wrote:

duckson wrote:

I was in Ribble yesterday and they have some new bikes coming out very shortly (they were on display in the shop).

A Gran Fondo with a different paint scheme (black and blue IIRC) and a new frame which looked more aero and with a finish like the R872 (to be fair it looked quite nice actually).

Not sure if there is anything else but thats what i noticed in the few mins i was in there and i'm in there once or twice a month usually.

Any with disk brakes?

Didnt notice any.

Okay, thanks

RoboRider21

Ribble Bikes are what they are and they dont make or need to make any excuses for it.

They put paint on off the shelf open moulds from Taiwan or China that are cheap to produce as they have no design or development costs.
Open mould bikes can be of very good quality and Ribble dont put on huge margins to rip off the customer.

These days the bike market is over flowing with new brands who just just put paint on off the shelf open mould designs that are available to anyone to use as they try to cash in on the cycling boom in the UK. The London Show had plenty of these sadly.

As already mentioned Ribble charge a very fair price and offer excellent value for money.
They are thought of as a low quality brand because of their price point but the truth is that their quality will be the same as all the other brands using the same methods but charging a much higher premium which I think is out of order.

I have never owned or ridden one of their bikes but I know plenty of people who have and they all are very happy with what they got for their money.

Camcycle1974

Well said that man.

I am obviously a bit biased as I have an R872. The snobbery around Ribble and PX really winds me up. No, they don't do their own R&D (although I would think they work closely with the frame manufacturer to specify what they want from an individual model) but neither do you pay an excessive amount for it as you do with the likes of Cervelo or Parlee or Colnago. The fact that they are low price (in comparative terms) does not preclude them from being good bikes. The worst offenders it would seem are those that use open mold frames without making that clear to the end customer.

Would I buy a Cervelo or Parlee or Colnago if funds were no issue? Yes, probably. Would it be 10 times better or give me 10 times more performance then my 872? No, probably not.

RoboRider21

Camcycle1974 wrote:

Well said that man.

I am obviously a bit biased as I have an R872. The snobbery around Ribble and PX really winds me up. No, they don't do their own R&D (although I would think they work closely with the frame manufacturer to specify what they want from an individual model) but neither do you pay an excessive amount for it as you do with the likes of Cervelo or Parlee or Colnago. The fact that they are low price (in comparative terms) does not preclude them from being good bikes. The worst offenders it would seem are those that use open mold frames without making that clear to the end customer.

Would I buy a Cervelo or Parlee or Colnago if funds were no issue? Yes, probably. Would it be 10 times better or give me 10 times more performance then my 872? No, probably not.

A very high percentage of bike brands use open molds in exactly the same way as perceived budget brands like Ribble and Planet X etc.

The quality is very similar with all these brands but a high price point gives the illusion that you are buying a better quality product when the reality is that they are all made in same the way, in the same country and in some cases the same factory's.

I prefer to look at brands who do their own R&D if possible but at the end of the day value for money is very important and Ribble offer that in spades.

Camcycle1974

Indeed. The same thing happens in all industries. Tennis strings being a case in point. There are only so many factories in the world making frames so it stands to reason that they will contract out to different bike companies. If one is paying a premium for something it's nice to feel that it is a little bit exclusive I guess. De Rosa 838 vs R872 for example?

navrig2

Camcycle1974 wrote:

If one is paying a premium for something it's nice to feel that it is a little bit exclusive I guess. De Rosa 838 vs R872 for example?

I agree but exlusivity nis largely based upon numbers.

Ribble probbaly sell loads of bikes around their home territory which means you'll see loads of them. As you get further afield sales per head of cyclists will drop and you'll see fewer of them on club runs or on sportives. Certainly I see fewer Ribbles than Spesh, Trek, etc when out an about.

Doesn't that make Ribbles exclusive?

As far as quality is concerned it can be very difficuly to define quality when comparing bikes. All the main components come from one of 3 manufacturers, the finsihing kit is a personal choice and varies very little within the main price point range. That leaves the frames and as everyone keeps stating it is the same factories which churn out frames for most bike names.

Are these factories really going to drop the quality of the manufacture for Ribble over another more mainstream name? I doubt it. It would be more expensive to have a different system.

There will be diffrences in performance of the frames - some will have more strength or stiffness for less material because the deisgn has been refined and improved but that isn't quality that is performance.

Most amatuer/leisure riders wont notice the difference between a Ribble and a higher end frame. On that basis Ribbles are as good as any for us mere mortals.

passout

I had Nero Corsa back in the day and liked it. The reason to buy from them is value - you can't fault them on that front. I always found their customer service good but I live nr Preston and can pop in. I would certainly travel to the shop - they measured me up on a jig, made sure I got the right frame size & stem length.

Merlin cycles may also interest you - not far away from Ribble, flexible with spec & offer some good value bikes.

Camcycle1974

Navrig2 wrote:

Camcycle1974 wrote:

If one is paying a premium for something it's nice to feel that it is a little bit exclusive I guess. De Rosa 838 vs R872 for example?

I agree but exlusivity nis largely based upon numbers.

Ribble probbaly sell loads of bikes around their home territory which means you'll see loads of them. As you get further afield sales per head of cyclists will drop and you'll see fewer of them on club runs or on sportives. Certainly I see fewer Ribbles than Spesh, Trek, etc when out an about.

Doesn't that make Ribbles exclusive?

As far as quality is concerned it can be very difficuly to define quality when comparing bikes. All the main components come from one of 3 manufacturers, the finsihing kit is a personal choice and varies very little within the main price point range. That leaves the frames and as everyone keeps stating it is the same factories which churn out frames for most bike names.

Are these factories really going to drop the quality of the manufacture for Ribble over another more mainstream name? I doubt it. It would be more expensive to have a different system.

There will be diffrences in performance of the frames - some will have more strength or stiffness for less material because the deisgn has been refined and improved but that isn't quality that is performance.

Most amatuer/leisure riders wont notice the difference between a Ribble and a higher end frame. On that basis Ribbles are as good as any for us mere mortals.

I agree entirely with your assessment. There will always be those who would rather pay over the odds for the same thing essentially but the world would be a boring place without the freedom to choose so more power to them I say.

Pross

Still (occasionally) ride a 653 steel framed bike I had them build for me back in 1991. They were a joy to deal with back then and it's nice to be able to select your components at source rather than changing things that come as standard which you don't like.

Rhigos Boy

I have been riding a Ribble New Racing Sportive for the last 2 years. I upgraded the wheels, tyres and added a Shimano 105 groupset so it came in at around £1500. It's been fantastic value for money. It looks great, is very, very light (7.3 kgs) and handles really well. I used to ride a beautiful Scott CR1 Pro until I wrote it off and couldn't afford to replace like for like, so reluctantly went with the Ribble. I have been very pleasantly surprised by the quality and you definitely get bang for your buck. If your budget is under £1500 then you can't go wrong.

xixang

Pross wrote:

Still (occasionally) ride a 653 steel framed bike I had them build for me back in 1991. They were a joy to deal with back then and it's nice to be able to select your components at source rather than changing things that come as standard which you don't like.

+1

I had a 653 Record from Ribble around then, handbuilt by Terry Dolan when he used to build for them (had his signature on top tube). Loved it, then it got nicked in '97 :evil:

by then ribble had stopped building frames themselves (I think they got alloy frames from overseas and painted in Belgium) so I went to Paul Hewitt for a replacement handbuilt steel job. It's on its 3rd paint job and still used as my winter frame