Entry-level Ribble carbon
Michelle Arthurs-brennan has a blast on this entry-level road machine
he Ribble R872 is no stranger to the Cycling Weekly tech team. Its last appearance in the office was in 2018, when a Shimano 105-equipped model (costing £1,199) walked away with a 10/10 score, scooping up an Editor’s Choice award along the way.
The Ribble R872 is designed to tick all the right boxes for customers after their first carbon bike. It’s more relaxed in geometry than the brand’s ‘Endurance’ race models, and favours comfort over out-the-blocks race-ready stiffness.
The current iteration of the Ribble R872 frame and fork uses Toray 700 carbonfibre. T700 isn’t as high quality as the T800 and T1000 carbon-fibre used on the model we reviewed in 2018, and generally doesn’t result in as stiff a frameset.
That said, the Ribble R872 certainly isn’t overweight. A complete bike in a size small
TToray T700 carbon-fibre Shimano Tiagra R4700, 50/34 chainset, 11-32 cassette Mavic Aksium Continental Ultrasport III, 700x28mm Level, aluminium 8.64kg (size small) ribblecycles.co.uk
Frame and fork: Wheels: Tyres:
still weighs in at 8.64kg – impressive at this price.
The frame in its current iteration offers the oversized profiles we’ve come to expect from Ribble, particularly the tapered head tube, where there’s a real bulge going on as the tube reaches the stem spacers. The logic behind this is improved front-end stiffness, and getting out of the saddle, I certainly didn’t notice any issues.
The chassis did lack stiffness at the bottom bracket shell compared with more race-orientated bikes, resulting in a less punchy ride, but not every rider will be prioritising rapid acceleration.
Groupset: Weight:
The fork is wide and claims an aero profile, while at the back the seatstays follow the modern convention of a dropped position, promising comfort via creating distance between the rider and shocks from the road. There’s ample tyre clearance; this model came with 28mm rubber but you could boost that to at least a 32.
The Ribble certainly shines on both smooth and lightly rutted roads. Sailing around my favourite test loop, I could really relax into this bike and imagine tackling day-long sportives and longer club runs on it with great pleasure. Hitting broken sections of road, the road buzz increased significantly – more in line with what you’d expect from a stiff race bike. A clattery ride on uneven roads is a common trait of lightweight carbon frames and swapping the supplied Continental Ultra Sport III tyres to something more supple would take care of a lot of this.
Ribble is able to offer internal cable routing, and the brand opts for a threaded bottom bracket.
Comparing geometry charts, a size small has the same stack height (521mm) in both the R872 and the Endurance, but the reach is significantly shorter here, coming in at 271mm compared to the 285mm of the more racy model. I felt comfortable and at home on this frame, and would certainly be happy to take it on extended adventures.
Shopping with Ribble means you can use
Handlebar, stem, seatpost: Contact:
Shimano Tiagra R4700 Prologo Kappa RS
Brakes: Saddle: