NBD – Gravel Content Within

Well, I’ve been needing a bit of positivity in my life after the last few weeks, so my new Ribble Gravel Ti arrived a week early yesterday. I’ve always wanted a titanium frame and decided to treat myself. I have bought it to ultimately replace my Ribble Endurance AL road bike and make the road rides more interesting all year round. It’s a Gravel Ti in XL, base spec with SRAM APEX AXS and Mavic Allroad wheels. I’ll upgrade the wheels at some point.

A quick spin yesterday down the street was all I had time for, but it feels really nice. I’m sure some gravel purists will wince at the fact it will spend most of it’s time on the road, but I’m not a fast road rider by any means and ride solo 99% of the time.

Ribble Gravel Ti by Colin[/url], on Flickr

Very nice. I came to the same conclusion a couple of years ago about road bikes. And a good 50% of roads round here are basically gravel and potholes anyway, so they’re the ideal choice.

Lovely. Get a second set of wheels with an 12-28 on the back for road riding and you’ll. fly along.

Yea, I’ll be interested in how the gearing feels. I have a high cadence naturally, so might not effect me too much.

Nice. I have SRAM Apex 1x on my gravel bike which also sees mostly road riding and I’m sure I could nip along quicker with a more roadie gearing setup but I’m not racing so I don’t really care. It’s nice having one less mech to set up and keep adjusted.

That does look very classy. —insert OK hand emoji—

I too am of the view that if your not racing or chasing Strava, a more comfortable and capable bike has very few downsides while on road.

Just been out on my new Crux. Roads round here are like off-road anyway so a gravel bike felt much safer than a road bike, and more comfortable.

The Ribble is lovely.

Tighter block is really for the gaps. And you don’t need <1:1 for most roads. I’m running a 42 on th front and the smaller ring on the front gives nice spacings. Enjoy it.

Lovely. I’ve got a Mk1 tripster that does the same job.

BTW , DT Swiss wheels are on sale at sportpursuit again…

https://www.sportpursuit.com/search?type=Wheels&s=dt+swiss

That is a great looking XL bike, looks nicely in proportion.

Yea, it is nicely proportioned. More like a large really, only the big head tube giving it away.

First ride complete. I must say, very impressed. It’s probably a combination of the titanium frame, bigger tyres, and the geometry, but I felt much more comfortable on it compared to my road bike. I might drop the bars a bit, but I do love the flared drops. It looks fantastic, it really does. The Apex AXS was nice, need more miles to really comment, but the range is okay for now.

I was roughly 1mph slower than my road bike, so that really isn’t much at all. All I need now are some good mudguards, it was filthy out there…

@tired how will a 12/28 be faster than a 10/40 odd?

As he said, smaller gaps between ratios on the road is a big benefit (not necessarily faster) but far better.

I run 2 sets of wheels on my gravel bike and it doubles as a road bike. Given that I came back from a 40k road loop today looking like I’d been riding constantly through mud then it feels like the perfect road bike for me.

Very nice. I use a Specialized Crux as my road bike. The roads around here just suit a fast gravel/’cross bike. Enjoy!!

That is a great looking XL bike, looks nicely in proportion.

Was going to say the same, does not look like a “big” bike the way some do.