Ribble R872 Matt Silver review

Looking at it on paper alone, you would find it hard to believe that the Ribble R872 is the price it is (£2,626 as specified), as it has a fantastic list of parts that wouldn’t be out of place on a bike costing twice the price.

When purchasing from Ribble, every part can be changed and built to your own personal taste, giving you all the flexibility needed while still being incredible value for money, although they do also have a range of suggested builds on offer.

The Ribble R872 range starts from just over £1,000 (with 10-speed Tiagra), but we’ve pushed the boat out for our test bike, which features exactly the same frame but loaded with almost the highest possible specification from Ribble’s parts box.

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Stand-out components are the Mavic Cosmic Carbon Pro wheels, with their hybrid carbon/alu construction, which gives the benefits of a deep-section carbon wheelset but also maintains the superior braking of alloy rims.

The wheels are a real highlight and have a very direct, responsive feel that has a knock-on effect for the rest of the bike.

The finishing kit is mainly supplied by Deda. The bars have a good comfortable shape while the seatpost, despite being carbon, feels a bit basic.

The full Ultegra 6870 Di2 groupset delivers fantastic performance, although we felt it could have been better integrated into the frame, as there was the occasional rattle from the internal cable routing.

Still, this is a minor quibble and not something that really makes a major difference to the ride experience.

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Talking of which, the R872 provides what might be called a reasonably neutral and safe ride. This makes it very easy to handle, although more confident, experienced riders may prefer something a little more nimble.

It’s by no means slow, though, even going uphill, and those superbly responsive wheels help give a really fast feel on any sprints or climbs, with very little flex.

And while at 7.8kg (size 51cm) the R872 is hardly a lightweight, in the real world it made no major difference to climbing speeds out on our test ride.

Ratings

Frame 8/10; Components 9/10; Wheels 10/10; The ride 8/10

Verdict

For a bike equipped with a full Shimano Di2 groupset and fantastic Mavic wheels which turn it into a great all-rounder, this bike offers incredible value.

At the higher-priced build the frame may be near the limit of where it's competitive, but it's still a solid performer, ideal for sportives or long sociable rides.

Specification

Ribble R872 review

By Josh Cunningham, 22 April 2016

The R872 replaces the Stealth in the Ribble line-up, keeping the same black-on-black aesthetic but with a few tweaks that prioritise stiffness and move the R872 into the path of speed-hungry racers.

The entry level model comes in at £829.95 – not bad for a carbon road bike – but Ribble sent us a higher specced iteration, which provides serious bang for your buck.

However, while Ribble does offer a collection service, it is an online-only brand, which means buying without a firm knowledge about how it rides could be hazardous. Is it worth taking a punt? Let’s find out…

The frame

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Ribble has employed the T800 fibres of widely used carbon fibre heavyweight Toray in the R872 layup, but it’s the design of the frame that matters, and here it’s been made with stiffness as top priority.

To do this, extra layers of carbon have been applied to flex-prone areas like the bottom bracket, which uses the BB30 standard, and the head tube, which is tapered. 

Being wider at the bottom than at the top gives the head tube more robustness and strength, while allowing for a standard-sized stem. The BB30 bottom bracket, meanwhile, optimises weight baring through the spindle and shell diameter, rather than a widened placement of the bearings, which means a narrow and yet stiff system.

The downside is that to use a regular crankset such as the Shimano Ultegra that comes with the R872, you need adaptors, and these metal-on-metal marriages are known to creak. 

The streamlined fork certainly helps from an aero perspective at the front end, while internal cable routing keeps the bike looking tidy, and at the rear we see super deep chainstays, which should help reduce energy loss throughout the pedal-to-drive motion. 

Groupset

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Ribble has really made a bike out of the R872 with the standard of groupset fitted to our test model. Everything from the chainset and STI shifters to the brake callipers and cassette are Shimano Ultegra, which is very much the same as 105 on a technology level but lighter and with a slightly more solid feel behind the shifts, thanks to differences in materials. It’s an impressive addition at this price point.

Finishing kit

The complete Deda finishing kit is a complement of well chosen parts – nothing to get overly excited about, but then again there’s nothing here that will cause any harm or distrust in the bike.

The Selle Italia Flite saddle is fairly unpadded, and has a lot of give when you exert a force on it, so if it’s not for you then you’ll know about it, but Ribble offers the buyer the chance to swap out anything that won’t suit in its bike builder app.

But still, it’s nice to see Ribble employing the established expertise of brands like Deda and Selle Italia, which again is an impressive feat considering the total price. 

Wheels

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The foldable Schwalbe One tyres are a nice finishing touch, and provide a supple, confident contact point with the ground below. We were unlucky enough to ride the R872 a few times in soaking wet conditions, but the Ones held their ground well throughout. 

The ride

Straight out of the blocks, it felt immediately apparent that the R872 is a real road rider’s bike, with its snappy accelerating capabilities and general will to be ridden quickly.

The compact, sloped top tube geometry is an easy way of making lots of body shapes compatible with the bike, but we don’t think it can do the bike’s racy, punchy feel any harm either, with the small triangles doing their bit to enhance stiffness. 

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At the back end, that small triangle provides a solid base when making harder pedal efforts, but doesn’t feel too harsh over rough ground either, which is actually a little surprising given how chunky the seatstays and chainstays are, but perhaps this is in part thanks to the wheel and tyre choice on this particular test machine.

We were happy to let the bike get up to some fairly eye-watering speeds on some of our test rides in the hills, which is testament to the confidence that the bike was able to inspire, even only after a fairly brief acquaintance.

The front end feels reassuringly stable, and as confident gliding through sweeping downhill corners as it does nipping in and out of traffic through town. In the race environment that the bike was designed for, we reckon it would have no trouble navigating the delicate ebb and flow of a fast moving bunch.

The R872 is, in short, a fantastically enjoyable thing to ride; it behaves like the raceable road bike you buy it for, but retains more than enough comfort to make it worthy of long days in the saddle and sportives, too. 

Geometry

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Spec