Ribble bikes

Leisure lakes seem expensive to me

Try popping in to Leisure Lakes, they have a good selection of well known brands and you can test ride them. They will price match internet prices too, they did for me anyway.

Hey, I own two Ribbles, a winter/trainer work horse and a Carbon Sportive and straight out of the box they were road ready bar a little basic spanner work. However unless you live fairly close to the Ribble Shop and you are able to visit the shop it's a case of pot luck when it comes to sizing as both bikes were not consistent with there sizing guide. If you know exactly what components and sizes you require Ribble are fantastic value for money bikes. As with a lot of LCB and cyclists there is a lot of snobbery when it comes to bike manufacturers which Ribble and Boardman suffer but the frames at Ribble are made in the Far East alongside many of there more illustrious competitors and the components are stock items so for me it's a no brainer.... Ribble,Dolan and Pearson are great British online retailers to be trusted.

My mates brother owns a LBS and he rides a Ribble R872.....

You can't do too much research....the only disadvantage with online sales is not being able to try the bikes out beforehand
...unless you know someone with that specific bike...and really that's pot luck
...look how well Canyon does though.
...and my experience with Ribble was good, from picking the bike right through to delivery...(mate in Northern Ireland, hence only £20 delivery...which would have been another £100 had it been delivered to ROI).
...bagged a great component set (full 6700)...so even if the frame didn't suit me (which it does)....for the money I paid, I could've shelled out for another frame if needed
...I quickly moved to a set of Fulcrum 5s, and am waiting on a new set of Fulcrum 3s.
As time moved on I've swapped out the alu bars/stem and heavy oem CF seatpost - replaced with carbon...mid range light (ish) Taiwanese CF bits, but had no problems....and still had less outlay because it's all been done online...

Some people live in their LBS and build up a great rapport with the owner/mechanic...so if that's the situation you're in then fair play, put business his way. But if you go to a 'shop' and he's reluctant to do any work on a Ribble/etc...then that doesn't say much about his/her ability to fix, what is essentially just another bike with different stickers on from the 'reputable' brands...open mould or not
...if kudos or prestige branding is what you're after, then they can still be had online at better prices than most LBS or local bike superstores...so get 'researching'...please yourself in the end up...it's your money and you need to feel comfortable on what is probably a fairly substantial outlay of money.

My carbon Ribble has given great service for over 4 years.
There is nothing wrong in buying a bike at a specific price point - online gives cheaper prices and better specs usually (Mines came with full Ultegra 6700 and Fulcrum 7s)

As I maintain the bike myself, I have no 'LBS' giving me sideways glances...
If I'd visited him for a bike in that price range, I'd be pedalling away with at least 3 groupsets down from Ultegra...but that's Ireland for you.

...or I could have gone to Halfords and come away with a Boardman...and had to rebuild/refit..if you believe the stories regarding their mechanics capabilities...

If you're handy at spannering, then by all means get a Ribble...or any other online retailer's own brand..like Vitus, etc.
Just because it's not a Colnago or other premium branding, doesn't make it any less of a bike...

There's plenty of them in the club, no problems with them. That includes one owned by the club mechanic, a really good bike rider who wouldn't tolerate rubbish. I had a quick spin on an R872 Stealth, stiff and fast bike, and the owner loves it.

In fairness, I think they're the same frames as you'll get from Dolan, Graham Weigh, possibly Planet-X etc. None of these brands really have huge amounts of kudos compared to say a Cervelo or a Kinesis, although plenty of top riders have ridden Dolans.

The only thing I can see LBS having against Ribble is that they're an online operator often undercutting them, especially on parts (for fitting yourself) and clothing. It's just that as an own-brand bike it's a constant reminder of that- buy a bike from Wiggle etc and the LBS wouldn't know where it came from.

This is nonsense. Think about it; a Ribble is a frame with parts from (probably) one of the big three group set boys. In the same way a Spesh (or whatever) is most likely a frame with a group set from one of the big three. The bloke in the LBS is a twit.

I've got one of their audax winter bikes and also had one of the Gran Fondo carbon ones, both great bikes for the money and no trouble with either.

Both were framesets and when building them up I certainly didn't find them anymore difficult to work on than any other bike.

A mate bought one and the rear mech limits weren't set up right leading to the mech catching in the rear wheel, cracking the hanger and generally wrecking the mech. Think it took him a fair while to get it fixed through their customer services too.

I guess you'd do well to have a good check over all the set up before a first ride in light of this. The kind of thing your LBS would do for you but that's why you pay a premium I guess.

I've got a Ribble R872 and its great, when I needed a little tune on the gears the LBS joked about the bike but it really is good spec for the cash in this country over off the shelf bikes.

I've had one for a year and a half and I've been very happy- though I've not owned many bikes. What doesn't he like about them? Only thing I've had an issue with was the bearings on the stock Rodi wheels wearing out- but that's because they're cheap stock wheels with an unsealed bearing.