I fancy having a go at some CX races so thought about getting the Ribble CX. But realistically I’ll be doing many more miles just riding around local bridleways so thought perhaps the CGR would be better.
Not having ridden either, I’m not sure which is the bigger compromise. A CX bike on long casual rides or a gravel bike for racing.
Any advice much appreciated.
I live in Warwickshire and am a mid pack finisher in MTB races if that helps.
Thanks

A change of tyres and or wheels and a CGR would probably make a perfectly good CX race bike…

If the non racing miles were exclusively on the road I might consider the cx. If they were off-road I’d prob go with the cgr.

I ride a cx bike after dabbling in racing and find myself wanting just a bit more tyre clearance for wider tyres sometimes when I’m off-road, so I’d definitely lean towards the cgr.

I doubt either bike will be limiting factor if you’re not at the pointy end. It’ll more likely be your hr bouncing around max for 45mins!

I have CGR Ti which is used only on road. First road bike so nothing to really compare it with. I wanted something comfy for 9 mile A road commute and general riding. It takes 28mm tyres with full mudguards and I love it! Speak to Ribble, they are very helpful and full of advice.

I would go CX bike because they look better to me (good reason eh) and I like the handling.
In fact I ride a CX bike as my only bike (road, gravel, single track). It all goes down to what size tyres you want for the bridleways and what size tyres the CX bike can fit (I am happy riding 33c off road and prefer that size for weight and feel)

Guessing a lot of the new disc brake CX bikes can take much bigger tyres than 33c (even many old canti CX race bikes can fit much bigger tyres than 33c as that was a UCI rule limit rather than a physical frame limit)

Once you get say a 40c tyre on the cross or the gravel bike and you get the fit the same I can’t see it making much difference.

CGR stands for cross gravel road.

So in theory cable of all of the above.

I have CGR SL and would thoroughly recommended it for what you suggest.

However, what they have in stock may be the deciding factor.

I ride a Cx bike (PX xls or a norco), as does Mrs kilo (ibis) along local trails Mtb runs etc, it’s perfectly fine. Most Cx bikes will take a 40c on the front even if the rear is limited to 35 which makes a difference.
Mrs kilo now has a Santa Cruz which is a bit more “gravely “ I think she prefers the ibis and has mentioned getting rid of the curly swept bars for normal drops.

Have a look in the geometry and see which fits better Linky.

I have a ribble cgr but only used it on the road so far. Its just as fast as my previous road bike but can take a 50mm tyre. So much flexibility. Really like the bike so far.

I am similar to you in terms of bikes, I have a Vitus Energie Evo CR as my main CX race bike, I also have a Vitus Substance CRS gravel bike that I’ve C’xyfied by changing the wheels, tyres to match the main race bike and gone single ring 40t and 11/36t out back, and made the set-up the same as my race bike – this involved pretty much slamming the stem and dropping it to 80mm to get the shifters in the same position on each bike – and you know what, yes it does feel different, the head tube is massive and the fork legs are deeper on the CRS, but there’s no discernible difference in lap times during races.

See which one has the most scope to play with set-up wrt bar position etc as you don’t really want a sit up and beg / relaxed position, and make sure it has a near horizontal top tube so you can shoulder the bike, sloping top tubes are sodding useless for this as you can’t get your arm through quick enough, if at all.

Thanks for the replies. I’ll try and speak to Ribble (couldn’t get through earlier) and see what they say.

I had a CGR for a couple of years. Did everything from 100 mile road rides to bikepacking off road on Dartmoor. Decent bikes 🙂

The valve lengths in the stock pictures of the Ribble CX make me all twitchy.