Ribble’s carbon fibre R872 ticked all the boxes as a value-packed, rim brake race bike, becoming one of the Lancashire-based brand’s best-selling bikes in the process. Now, having been updated for 2017, Ribble have built on that success even further.
To say Ribble Cycles have been busy over the past 18 months would be an understatement; their road bike range has been totally overhauled and grown exponentially this year, and all this while the previously online-only brand’s first pop-up stores have been cropping up across the UK.
New disc-equipped models have hit the road, while the super-light Ultimate SL went straight in at the top of the range as the Ribble’s lightest frame yet – and then there’s the R872. It’s always something of a gamble whenever a brand takes a popular model and revamps it, but it’s a move which has paid off here.
If you’re not familiar with the bike, the original R872 was first launched in 2012 with stiffness as its calling card, and proved immediately popular thanks also to the competitively light frame. The latest version of the bike retains the same race-ready geometry of its predecessor, but a number of changes beneath the surface have beefed up the stiffness-to-weight ratio, while Ribble have also sought to improve comfort.