Ribble CGR AL Enthusiast

 Have you tried to buy a new bake lately?  How about a gravel bike?  They are NOT easy to find.  After  searching high and low, I settled on an unconventional solution for those of us here in the United States.  I wanted a mid tier bike which to me, translates into aluminum frame & Shimano 105 components. One would think that these requirements would be simple to meet but, one would be very, very wrong in our almost post-pandemic world.

I was excited but also a bit nervous.  I had never bought a bike without throwing  a leg over the saddle and going for a test ride. This time,  I just accepted Ribble's suggestion and ordered a 56cm frame to fit my 5'11" frame.  My height was at the top of their suggested size limit however, having ridden a 54 cm triathlon bike for many years, I thought I'd be safe. 

Without dragging things out, here's the star of the show it's first gravel ride on the Katy Trail in Missouri.  I introduce to you.... The Ribble  CGR AL Enthusiast.

After ordering from Ribble on June 11th, my new ride arrived at my doorstep on September 18th. As  expected, assembly was about 98% complete.  Unboxing the bike.   I quickly realized that the good folks at Ribble have packed bikes before.  It was carefully wrapped in copious amounts of bubble wrap.  All I had to do was drop in the seatpost which already had the seat installed, put on the front wheel and attach the handlebars to the stem.  Unfortunately that expert packing, didn't prevent a ding on the frame which appears to  have occurred during shipping.

insert picture of frame here

The other issue I discovered while unboxing was that whoever routed the front hydraulic cable did so while the forks were turned backwards.  In order to mount the handlebars, I had to unwrap the bar tape, peel away the brake hood, disconnect the hydraulic cable, turn the forks forward and then properly reconnect hydraulic line.  Now if you've done this a couple times, I'm sure it wouldn't be a big deal but I've never had disc brakes, so I spent the better part of a Sunday reading, watching videos and then carefully doing the work.

Finally, I did a short test ride and found that the front disc was rubbing on the pads.  That was quickly fixed by loosening the two screws holding the brake assembly to the fork.  While squeezing the brake lever,  I tightened the mounting screws and voila...problem solved. 

Finally....The First Ride

Fortunately, there's a nearby trail head for the Katy trail so off I went!  Getting on the bike, I realized that the seat felt like it was angled  slightly upward.  I stopped  on the side of the trail and made a slight adjustment.  Fortunately, there are handy little lines on the seat post to assist with these kind of adjustments.  I made my adjustment and hopped back on.  This put the contact point right on my sit bones where it should be. Once properly adjusted, the saddle is quite good.

So how'd it ride? It was great! After a 20 mile ride, the frame felt efficient getting up to speed and the more I rode, the more I realized that there seemed to be an ease at maintaining speed that reminded me of my triathlon bike on it's old Zipp 404 wheels. This is a high compliment! 

Let's not forget that Ribble's CGR is meant to be a solid all arounder. CGR actually stands for Cross Gravel Road. As such, there are better gravel bikes for going fast on gravel. The CGR is meant to be a solid multi tool. It's comfortable enough to be ridden extended distances, stiff enough to serve as a decent road bike and has enough clearance to allow 47mm tires on a 700c wheel. The 40 mm Schwalbe tires currently fitted seemed well suited for a mix of gravel and road duties. 

Handle bars and hoods provided plenty of options for moving my hands and finding a comfortable position.  My only complaint was that getting in the drops, the diameter of the bars felt too narrow.  That can be resolved with an extra layer of bar tape.

More miles, hills, and varied surfaces are needed before the CGR gets an thorough review.  There are also some typical accessories to be purchased but the outlook is good. Expect more reviews in the near future.