Ribble Gravel Ti Hero review

Exclusive build from Lancashire's finest

This competition is now closed

By Warren Rossiter

Published: May 11, 2023 at 11:00 am

Ribble's elegant and tech-laden triple-butted titanium gravel frameset is available as a complete customisable bike from £2,799.

I, however, thought I’d splash out on the ‘Hero’ model to see if one of the world's best-value bike brands can cut it when it comes to superbikes.

The heart of the new Gravel Ti is a beautifully finished triple-butted titanium frame matched to a matt-finished, straight-legged carbon fork.

The quality of the frame's detailing is excellent. Clean welds, tidy fittings (all welded rather than riveted) and etched graphics on high-polished tubing put the Hero on a par with frames from the most respected titanium builders.

The bike's drivetrain is SRAM's adventure/gravel-specific take on its wireless groupset Force AXS, with a broad 10-44t cassette matched to a 40-tooth chainring.

The range is all I’d ever need, with a big enough gear to keep the pace high and a lowest gear that's less than 1:1, meaning you can get up the steepest inclines. The only limiting factor here is your own engine, and grip.

The Gravel Ti's running gear pairs ENVE's 650b AG28 carbon wheels with Halo's supple and cushioning 47mm-wide GXD tyres. The Halos grip superbly in the dry and the big volume means bump-smoothing brilliance when smashing through ruts and troughs.

The smaller 650b wheel size has fallen out of fashion a little over the last year or so for gravel riding, though it has its merits, especially off-road. Here, the smaller wheel accelerates quickly, making the Ribble great for navigating technical trails and proper singletrack.

Being able to up my speed quickly certainly helped me get through sections more smoothly than on my big-wheeled gravel bikes. On tarmac stretches between trails, I had to put in more effort than my friends with 700c wheels to maintain the same speed, though.

The wheels are stiff and responsive, and the rim is designed with a hookless shape that's perfect for setting up tubeless and gives you more scope to adjust tyre pressures.

ENVE claims a hookless rim reduces the chances of a pinch flat by more than 60 per cent over a conventional hooked rim.

The wheels are paired with tubeless tyres. However (this is a bit of a bugbear), they arrived set up with conventional tubes. I got more than my fair share of punctures throughout testing thanks to very dry conditions and spiky branch detritus on my favoured testing trails.

There are obviously some issues to overcome around sending bikes direct to customers when it comes to tubeless, but I’d have preferred it if Ribble provided tubeless valves and a bottle of tubeless sealant rather than this compromised setup.

However, the Hero handles itself admirably in the rough. The Level riser gravel bar is a great shape that elevates the front end a little and the flare on the drops turns in the shifters slightly, almost aero style, narrowing your hold when riding on the hoods.

I’d have preferred the bar to be a little wider than the 42cm version supplied, though the increased width of 51cm at the drop was more welcome.

The 72-degree head tube angle is matched with a steeper 73.3-degree seat tube angle on my Large test bike. Allied to a 603mm stack and generous 406mm reach, it certainly edges the Ribble more towards road endurance than being a slacked-out, monster-truck-style gravel machine.

The wheel choice and big tyres even things out somewhat and the Gravel Ti is nimble and agile in the technical stuff, while not feeling lazy on smoother terrain.

It would also work well with a second set of wheels in 700c size with more of an all-road tyre as a fast, go-anywhere endurance bike or luxury commuter bike.

The frame has an abundance of fittings: triple bottle bosses, bento box mounts on the top tube and triple ‘anything’ mounts on the carbon fork, along with proper rack and mudguard mounts.

The SRAM drivetrain and brakes performed flawlessly throughout the test, and the wireless configuration avoids snaggable cables.

The Ribble frame is designed around compatibility with mechanical and electronic drivetrains, so there are a lot of extraneous ports and holes on this Hero model.

There's also a version purely for wireless drivetrains.

It all adds up to a very capable jack of all trades: a bike that's happy on fast, flighty day rides and ready for traditional touring or wilderness bikepacking endeavours. It's a slice of metallic luxury with a specification to die for and handling fun to match.

The heart of the Ribble Gravel Ti is a stunning titanium frame made from premium triple-butted tubing. The burly build with big-volume tyres and ENVE's 650b wheels makes the Gravel Ti Hero very well suited to British gravel riding.

The handling and contact points are well suited to the rigours of more challenging gravel terrain, and in typical Ribble fashion the bang per buck is rarely rivalled (even though this is a pricey ride).

So, if your idea (like mine) of a great gravel day out involves as much twisty singletrack and rolling elevation as it does wide open gravel roads, this might just be the ride you’re looking for.

If, however, your preferred version of gravel is head-down speeding with mates or pinning on a number, you’ll be better off looking elsewhere, or digging into Ribble's comprehensive Bike Builder service and switching out the 650b ENVEs for a set of 700c gravel wheels.

Senior technical editor

Warren Rossiter is BikeRadar and Cycling Plus magazine's senior technical editor for road and gravel. Having been testing bikes for more than 20 years, Warren has an encyclopedic knowledge of road cycling and has been the mastermind behind our Road Bike of the Year test for more than a decade. He's also a regular presenter on the BikeRadar Podcast and on BikeRadar's YouTube channel. In his time as a cycling journalist, Warren has written for Mountain Biking UK, What Mountain Bike, Urban Cyclist, Procycling, Cyclingnews, Total Bike, Total Mountain Bike and T3. Over the years, Warren has written about thousands of bikes and tested more than 2,500 – from budget road bikes to five-figure superbikes. He has covered all the major innovations in cycling this century, and reported from launches, trade shows and industry events in Europe, Asia, Australia, North American and Africa. While Warren loves fast road bikes and the latest gravel bikes, he also believes electric bikes are the future of transport. You’ll regularly find him commuting on an ebike and he longs for the day when everyone else follows suit. You will find snaps of Warren's daily rides on the Instagram account of our sister publication, Cycling Plus (@cyclingplus).