Lancashire-based Ribble is best known in the road cycling world for making some impressively high-value machines, but their new CGR range aims to allow you to hit the dirt too, with titanium, carbon, steel and aluminium frame options available.
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We’ve got our paws on this £1,299 CGR AL Shimano 105 model, which as the name suggests has an aluminium frame, carbon fork and Shimano 105 build kit, complete with hydraulic disc brakes. If you hadn’t twigged, the name stands for Cross, Gravel and Road, as it’s designed to be a bike which can happily turn it’s hand to all three, plus being peppered in mounts for racks and so on if you want to do the other C, namely commuting.
As well as offering impressive value, Ribble also allows you to custom-spec your bike when you buy, with everything from groupsets to different bars and stems to mudguards on offer. We thought we’d take advantage of this by getting our bike with some SKS guards fitted (taking the total cost to £1,344) as we plan to try this machine on everything from gravel to commutes to big distance Audax riding.
Despite the guards, there’s still plenty of space for fat rubber – 40mm on this build – but if you don’t care about a soggy bum then you can shove in a 45mm tyre on a 700c wheel and up to a 47mm on a 650b. Whichever you choose, they’ll be held firmly in place by 12mm through axles at either end, with the disc brakes sat on road-spec flat mounts.
The double-equipped Shimano drivetrain sends leg power to a set of Mavic’s Allroad wheels shod in Schwalbe G-One tyres though, as with all things Ribble, you can spec something else should you fancy it. That said, this nearly-standard spec looks pretty on point for a do-it-all bike.
We’re going to be putting this bike through its many paces over the new months, so check back for a full review soon. You can find more information about this bike and the rest of the CGR range below.
