Ribble R872 105SE vs Planet X ProCarbon SRAM Rival?

PlanetX got back to me today.

PlanetX got back to me today. I can visit the showroom and try bikes out on a turbo trainer but no taking them out for a spin. They tell me the admin fee is variable depending on who runs the scheme.  I was sure I told them it was Bike2Work but I have responded so they can tell me how much it is.  As far as fitting is concerned they would do a basic fitting if I visited which would get me to pretty much the right size, I could then order the bike on click and collect, then return for a full retul fit.  At the moment it does not sound too different from Ribble’s or Dolan’s offer but at least with Dolan I have no admin fee to pay and I could do all the fitting in the one visit. I’ll wait to see what the admin fee is like.

I had seen the Eastway Emitter R3 before, It looks a solid spec at this price point and at 8.2kg the lightest bike with the frame being a couple of 100g’s lighter than the Dolan. Not that 200g matters too much to me and the weight isn’t on the wheels were it’d probably hurt more (actually around 380g difference as far as I can tell but I would have the SRAM Rival groupset on the L’etape which would save around 190g).  As negatives, and this is a personal thing but I hate the Blue/Blue colour scheme, it would have been nice to have two options to choose and reviews seem to swing wildy in opinion about the ride.  As far as Wiggle go I’ll need to look into their returns policy on bike 2 work but it is unfortunately another retailer that seems to only offer their 30 day trial on normal purchases and then we are back into the argument of at least having seen the bike in the flesh and preferably having a ride before.

Still feel like the Dolan or the CAAD12 are my best options but there is still time to see what crops up as 2017 bikes start to get cleared out for 2018.

skwarczek wrote:

Where are you based Punches? If you’re local to south wales, you are welcome to take my r872 for a test ride. 

North of London so it’d be a bit of a Schlepp but thanks for the kind offer skwarczek. To be honest though I think I’d rather not give my money to Ribble, even if it is relatively small fry to them.  I know you like your bike, and it probably is a very nice machine but I just get the feeling from Ribble that they won’t be very accomodating or easy to deal with and I totally begrudge the £100 admin fee with them.

It’s just a cash grab. There cannot be that much additional Labour. Say it was 2 hours total to complete a form, send off the voucher and then check you get reimbursed for it and allocate the funds against the sale that’d still be only £30 labour for an admin memeber of staff. I could probably accept that, or even up to £50, but I bet it is much simpler than that and done on some form of Portal to cut the admin costs down for those running the scheme. I even suggested I pay the £100 and they do the upgrade to the Aksium wheels but they weren’t interested. That’s their choice obviously and I think the guy at Ribble was aware that I’d likely notpurchase after hearing his response to my email.

In other news no response from PX.  I will resubmit my email to them.

I’ve started to look a little

I’ve started to look a little in-depth at how feasible test riding these bikes will be:

• Dolan are not insured to allow you to take the bike out of their showroom for a ride or return it if you don’t like it under the bike2work scheme. They do allow you to try it in store on a turbo and they offer a fitting service for £40 on a showroom bike that they will then transfer to your bike if you order from them. They responded very promptly to my enquiry and their website did cover what their fitting service covered, it’s not a retul fitting but will probably suffice my amateur needs. None of this rules the Dolan out but it would have been nice to see what is what like on the road. The only criticisms of it in reviews are down to the geometry being a little racy and the saddle being to taste but I think I could ascertain the first on the turbo and with the aid of the fitting.
• Ribble are also not insured to allow you to take bikes out for a test ride, they did offer a 30 day trial but this is not available on cycle to work schemes. They did offer an instore fitting on a jig but not a lot of detail provided as to what that covers although it appears to be free of charge. They would exchange the bike if I got the wrong size but if I simply did not like it they will not offer a refund. I also asked if there was any chance of a discount on their £100 admin fee or upgrading the Rodi wheelset to Aksiums (which is normally £50 extra) since some of their competitors, i.e. Dolan don’t charge it. They have refused to budge on that and claimed that £100 covers their additional costs.  Since the Dolan L’etape is the same groupset as the Ribble but comes with the better Aksium wheels Ribble are charging effectively £150 more for their Frame and the “admin/profiteering” charge. It must be a lot of Paperwork and labour to justify £100. My overall impression is Ribble really are not that interested in selling bikes on the cycle to work schemes and since the R872 frame has a history in reviews of being harsh and overly stiff I cannot commit to buying one without riding it or being able to return it.
• Planet X I am still awaiting a reply from, and I had to email them through their website. (I dislike this as it is harder to provide an email trail after). I have asked them similar questions regarding fitting, visiting them to test ride and the admin fee. They do Retul bike fitting for £75 on one of their bikes or £125 on something else so I have enquired about the possibility of getting this done if/when I visit. It’ll be interesting to see what they charge considering the circumstances and that they’d have to copy the fit on to a new bike. I have also enquired about the admin fee. They definitely could provide me some movement on that as they do a cheap Autumn/Spring Clothing bundle that I am also interested in. (I know it won’t be fantastic quality but it’ll likely get me through a season or two while I slowly upgrade it). I’ll let you guys know.
• My Local ish bike shop, (my absoloute Local bike shop seems to carry a very odd range of very high end esoteric fair and iirc Trek, they also have a crap website which seems to be down or throwing out security warnings half the time), is a Cannondale stockist and is selling the CAAD12 at a discount but not cheap enough to get it on the scheme. I want to test ride the bike but I could not afford it at that price, it is elsewhere for £999+£100 admin fee. I will give them a call and see if test riding it is possible but I feel a bit of a douche knwoing there is very little realistic prospect I will buy it from them.

Anyways, I am making some progress I feel and have at least ruled out the Ribble.

As for picking up a cheap end

As for picking up a cheap end of season bargain, that may be tricky with having to use the bike 2 work scheme depending on how flexible the retailer is. Some charge a premium and I imagine others will just flat out refuse. It’s the first time I have used the scheme but it appears that I have to select the bike and retailer first, they then supply my employer the details and then I get sent a voucher which I then exchange for the Bike. The whole process takes some time and if I was a retailer I am not sure how bothered I’d be on a product that will be next to £0 profit for them. It’s not impossible but I think I’d have to have researched a shortlist of options beforehand that may come down to the sub £1000 mark and preferably have ridden them to make it easier so I could choose and act fast if what appears to be a bargain comes along. The timing is right though as the next window for our bike to work is September 9th and I was planning to order almost straight away.