Ribble Gran Fondo

I pulled up behind a Gran Fondo at the lights whilst lapping Regent's Park at the weekend. It looked very nice and certainly accelerated away pretty smartly.

I'm getting a Sportive Bianco with SRAM Rival when my Cyclescheme voucher arrives. It got a great review recently, so might be worth considering as well. I've ordered the cheapest wheels as I will swapping them with my Pro-Lite Braccianos.

Gran Fondo or Sportive? which is "better"? thoughts?

I have a pair of RS30s, and am about 11 stone 7.

They don't flex for me - maybe the deeper rim and hence shorter spokes are bit stiffer than RS10 / 20's?

Actually they give quite a nice ride, comfy but pretty stiff.

Aksiums seem to divide people. Some say they are bombproof and love them as a training wheel, other seem to constantly shed spokes (more so with recent versions?).

ah, they're out of stock mind

Racing 7s are pretty solid, Aksium Race are worth considering too IMO. Pity they don't do the Pro-Lite Braccianos on the bike builder, they're ace. They do stock them: if you can, swap them in.

Not had experience with the Gran Fondo, but have put in 3k kms on a Sportive Racing. Upgraded to Shim Ultegra, nice Deda bars/stem and Fulcrum 7s for the wheelset. Nothing has gone wrong with the bike (except for a wee crash I had and destroyed the Ultegra STI's, so downgraded to 105s)Any contact i've had with the Ribble folks has been top notch, so much so that I (I'm in Ireland)ordered a set of Tacx Antares rollers from them as well as the forementioned 105's...LBS couldn't come near to the price Ribble were offering...
So I'd say they're worth a punt

Isn't this frame the /same one/ as seen 'branded' on the DeRosa that won Cycling Weekly's bike of the year? At half the price? If it is, bargain.

I got a Gran Fondo in May. Unlike stuke, it's my first road bike so not much to compare it to but I am well happy with it. I was in the Specialized concept store today looking and bikes with a similar spec for twice the price. I found Ribble's infamous customer service to be top notch as well. Good communication and answers to emails were prompt.

I bought a bottom of the range Ribble 7005 Race and have really enjoyed it.

The build of the bike to my spec seems to me to be really good and I have had no problems with it; everything worked well from day one. I have had two years of great fun out of it - real value for money!!

I even went to Preston to get it sized properly on their jig and they spent loads of time changing things around until I felt comfortable.

So, I can only say that the customer service that I received was excellent.

I've recently bought the Gran Fondo frameset and I'm really impressed. Its light and stiff but also very comfortable with good handling. I ride a lot of different bikes testing them for roadcc and i'd put the Ribble up there with some of the more expensive makes. The fork is a bit heavy having an alloy steerer but this doesn't really make much difference. Rival is a good solid groupset and works well with solid shifting and good looks.
As for Ribble's customer service it did get a bad press for a while but I've dealt with them many times of late and had no issues whatsoever.

never had any dealings with Ribble, but on the SRAM groupset side i can say that Rival is damn fine. its not super bling stuff but works well and ive not had any problems with adapting to the one tap shift system, its easy, and works especially well on the drops. and as bangs per buck go it wins hands down, well almost, as a 105 groupset seems to be getting cheaper and i would say pretty similar, except Rival, overall is lighter if you believe the relevant websites/or its an issue for you.