Ribble CGR SL - Sport

Versatility often comes with compromise, but not so with the Ribble CGR SL Sport. As the entry-level model in Ribble's carbon fibre range of 'do it all' bikes, it's well specced for the money, is very easy to ride regardless of terrain and it's a looker too. With impressive tyre clearances it's a capable gravel machine, and with a full set of mounts for mudguards it makes for an ideal winter trainer or commuter too. In fact, it could be one of those N+0 bikes, if there is such a thing.

Prefer something more specific? Our guide to the best gravel bikes has more off-road options, our best road bikes guide reveals our favourites for the tarmac.

CGR stands for 'cyclocross, gravel, road' and Ribble launched the range a fair few years ago as the gravel thing started to take off. It was the type of bike that was designed to sort of ease a roadie into gravel or general riding away from the tarmac, without using a bike that felt completely unfamiliar.

I reviewed the first aluminium model back in 2017. Nothing has changed really, apart from the fact that the CGR is now available in pretty much every material going – steel, aluminium, titanium and carbon fibre, to suit all budgets and preferences. In fact, since the launch of Ribble's specific Gravel range of bikes, the latest CGR can comfortably maintain that road bias with added versatility.

Ride

Let's kick things off with the gravel side of things.

The CGR may come with a roadie bias in its build, but the geometry is very much in the gravel camp, with slacker angles and a longer wheelbase than you'd expect to find on, say, an endurance road bike.

It's a surefooted bike, that's for certain. The wheelbase is over a metre long, which gives a feeling of stability especially on looser surfaces, and with a neutral front end the steering speed feels well balanced and very easy to live with. It's still quick enough that it doesn't feel ponderous or dull, but there'll be no surprises regardless of what the terrain throws at you.

I risked the odd gravel excursion on the stock tyres, which we'll describe as brave considering how wet the weather has been, and with the grip on soft mud being severely lacking, it was no surprise that the CGR spent the majority of its time sideways. It feels super controllable, though, thanks to the mild-mannered handling, which makes it a lot of fun to ride, and on faster, dry gravel sections you can really let this bike fly. It just feels planted.

At 9.5kg it's not a light bike, but it never feels bogged down by its weight either. It's still pretty flickable as you swerve and bunnyhop around and over potholes or tree roots.

Its eagerness proves the 'C for cross' part of its name too. It's not as nimble as a racier, pure cyclocross machine, so if you have the legs to be at the sharp end of the race you'll be at a slight disadvantage compared with your faster competitors, but for everyone else it's very capable, with plenty of mud clearance.

The lower part of the frame and the rear triangle feel incredibly stiff, so you aren't going to be hindered when you smash that power down through the cranks. It takes off well out of corners and it's no slouch on the climbs, and if you have the budget for some lighter wheels for quicker rides then you could easily drop half a kilo from the overall weight.

The one thing I'd switch is the handlebar for gravel riding. This bike would definitely benefit from one with decent flare at the drops for added stability. It wouldn't be out of place on the road, as I find the flare also works well on wet and tricky road conditions.

Speaking of which, the CGR doesn't feel out of its depth on the tarmac either, with all of its attributes on the gravel translating to winter riding or commuting. On wet or greasy roads, that predictable front end gives you confidence in the corners or when negotiating roundabouts.

The CGR isn't shy on the feedback front either. It has a frameset that transfers road feel well to your contact points, which also boosts confidence levels.

For longer sessions on the road I switched the tyres to some 36mm WTB Exposure TCS Fasts, which worked a treat. They are fast-rolling slicks, but with a decent sized contact patch, and made the CGR SL feel lively.

Unless you are joining the summer chaingang or heading out with mates on their lightweight summer machines, you aren't going to be at a disadvantage. The CGR accelerates well thanks to the frame stiffness, and I found I could get my body position fairly aero too. It feels very much like a road bike, not a gravel bike trying to be a road bike.

The only place you'll need to rein things in a touch is on high-speed technical descents. The slightly slower handling means you'll be working hard to clip the apex at speed. It's the only time the handling feels a little sluggish, although I'm not throwing massive criticism here at the CGR; it's a capable road bike but it's no race machine, and cornering like this is a bit out of its remit.

I'm just pointing it out for reference, to highlight that its limitations are very much at the extreme of what we ask a road bike to do. The fork does at least perform well when facing the heavy loads from sharp corners and a hauling on of the anchors. With plenty of stiffness in the necessary planes, it keeps the front end tight without the slightest whiff of understeer.

For such a stiff frame, comfort isn't a problem either. Yes, large volume tyres help but you can't use air alone to hide a poor ride quality. The CGR isn't the plushest bike I've ridden, but the frame doesn't feel like it transmits a lot of vibration from the road or trail, and as I've said, overall feedback is good, which is a sign of a well-designed carbon fibre layup.

Overall, from a ride point of view, the CGR SL has a lot going for it, and it's an impressively capable machine.

Frame & fork

The CGR SL uses a blend of Toray's T1000 and T800 grades of carbon fibre in its frame construction, giving a claimed weight of around 1,150g. That's not superlight, but far from a heavyweight when you consider the type of riding the CGR is designed for; you need an extra few sheets of carbon fibre to protect the vulnerable sections, for example to ward off rocks pinging the lower section of the frame.

It's a good-looking frame I reckon, with the dropped seatstays making quite a statement thanks to the minimal rear triangle they create, and the sharp angled lines. From the rear it looks very much like your performance road bike, and its side profile doesn't look too dissimilar either.

The main deviations from something like an endurance road bike is the much slacker head tube angle, and a lengthier wheelbase that brings that stability mentioned earlier.

For instance, this is a medium, sitting midway in a five-size lineup. It has a head tube angle of 71.5 degrees and a seat angle of 73.5 degrees. The top tube is 545mm in length, while the head and seat tubes are 150mm and 500mm respectively.

The chainstays are 435mm, while the overall wheelbase length is 1,025mm, and the BB drop sits at 69mm. The fork offset is 50mm.

If you work out your sizing via stack and reach numbers then you are looking at 561mm and 379mm.

Something that is impressive is the tyre clearance, which is definitely on the gravel side of things rather than road. The CGR will take 45mm-wide rubber on a 700C wheel, and up to 47mm if you go for a smaller 650B wheel.

You can also fit full mudguards, although that will impact on overall tyre compatibility slightly, but you are still going to end up with a winter commuter or trainer that can be wet weather ready and still run big tyres, on the whole. All you'll need to use is a removable brake bridge to sit between the seatstays to mount the guards.

The CGR isn't littered with mounts like some bikes of this ilk. You get positions for a couple of bottle cages in the traditional manner and that's about it really.

Not a major blow, as if you wanted to use the bike for touring or bikepacking there are plenty of frame and bar bags on the market to allow you to carry kit.

Ribble has resisted the urge to run the cables and hoses down through the headset and head tube. Instead, the outers sit in front of the head tube before passing into the top of the down tube. This means the rest of the frame is clean and there is nothing to get in the way or rub when adding those aforementioned frame bags.

Ribble has also stuck with a threaded bottom bracket, using the BSA standard external threaded cups. Parts that are easy to source, remove and install even for the home mechanic. Ideal on a bike that is likely to see a lot of poor weather and gritty conditions.

The fork is also a full carbon fibre design with a tapered steerer, internal routing for the brake hose and mudguard mounts in a traditional position.

As you'd expect, it is designed to work with flat-mount brake callipers and a 12mm diameter thru-axle. All of which is mimicked on the frame.

Builds and groupset

There are three models in the CGR SL lineup – well, four if you include the frameset-only option, priced at £1,699. All three of the main builds are road inspired, with the range-topping Hero model coming with Shimano's Ultegra Di2, Mavic Cosmic SL 45 Carbon Disc wheels and a carbon fibre cockpit for £4,799. The Shimano 105 Di2 Enthusiast build also comes with those wheels, at a price of £3,799.

Both of those builds are heavily discounted at the time of writing, too, at £3,799 and £2,999 respectively.

The Sport build we have here is fitted with mechanical 105, but in its latest 12-speed guise. I've been using this bike to give that groupset a full review, too, since it was only released a few months back. I'll be going into much more detail in that review, but to sum it up – the 12-speed feels exactly the same to use as the 11-speed it replaces, it just has another sprocket on the back. This is a good thing; if it ain't broke, don't fix it!

As standard, the CGR SL comes with a 50/34-tooth crankset paired with an 11-36T cassette. As I said earlier, that's very road orientated, but you still have low enough gears to cope with off-road riding. If you came over to gravel bikes early on, it's the typical sort of gearing you would have found on most bikes before the introduction of Shimano's gravel-specific GRX groupsets and those from other brands.

If your riding is going to be mostly spent on gravel tracks and byways, you'd probably be better off with one of the bikes in Ribble's Gravel range instead, but the CGR SL is still versatile enough.

The gear shifting works well right across the range, and it can cope with being used in poor weather conditions too. Each time the number of sprockets increases, the chains tend to get thinner, and thoughts of fragility start to make their way into your consciousness. No need for that here, though – I've treated this grouspet pretty badly and it has coped well with everything it's had thrown at it.

Ribble has specced Tektro CL 160mm rotors instead of Shimano, but the braking performance has still been very impressive, with loads of stopping power and, you've guessed it, modulation.

Finishing kit

Away from the going and the slowing you'll find a lot of Ribble's own finishing kit under the Level brand name.

It's all decent kit. Nothing flash, aluminium alloy throughout, but their black anodised finish is tough wearing, and the graphics give it an upmarket look.

As standard you get an 80mm stem on this medium frame and a 42cm handlebar, but by using Ribble's configurator you can change sizes at the time of ordering, plus you can always upgrade components too. This is available for the stem, handlebar, saddle, bar tape, tyres and wheels.

Sitting atop the alloy seatpost you'll find a Selle Italia X3 Boost saddle. It's a model I find okay. It's not exactly uncomfortable, but I find it a little flat in shape and a bit too thick in terms of padding.

There are a range of options that I could swap it to, though, many of which don't require an increase in the overall price. I'll take a Prologo Kappa RS saddle instead, please.

Wheels & tyres

This SL is specced with Mavic Allroads, wheels I have always found to be reliable, robust and good allrounders. They are on the weighty side, at around 1,900g a set, but at this sort of money it's definitely not a dealbreaker. They look smart and you can ride them on any terrain without treating them like they need to be wrapped up in cotton wool.

If your riding routes tend to take in a lot of climbs or stop/start heavy traffic routes, you'll find that dragging them uphill or away from a standing start can feel a bit laborious after a while.

When out of the saddle they feel stiff enough from a lateral direction and they aren't a harsh set of wheels in terms of the ride quality. They can also be set up to run either tubed or tubeless, depending on what you are after.

Fitted to them is a set of Schwalbe's G-One Allround tyres in a 40mm size. They are a great choice if you want to dabble on varying surfaces.

I like the way they feel, too. Even pumped up for road use there is a decent amount of suppleness in the carcass, and the tread is made from quite a soft compound.

Schwalbe offers the G-One in a range of tread options, and these are intended more for hardpacked surfaces rather than anything too soft or muddy. They are a good compromise for dipping in and out of gravel and taking in some road sections as they roll well.

They aren't the most durable out there, but that is one of the drawbacks of having a tyre that is more focused on performance than robustness.

Value

It's a sign of the times that a carbon bike with Shimano 105 mechanical and entry-level wheels is north of two grand, but at £2,399 this Sport model is competitively priced.

Orro's Terra C has always scored well in our reviews, on account of the blend of the ride quality and the geometry that makes it as easy to ride as the Ribble on a range of terrains. It's quite similar in being a good crossover gravel machine, although it does lack the tyre clearance of the CGR SL.

A 105 12-speed mechanical build with Fulcrum Rapid Red 900 wheels and Deda Zero finishing kit is exactly the same price, bar an extra 99p.

Dolan's GXC is a capable gravel bike which has geometry influenced by the road side things. This also makes it the kind of gravel machine that can be pressed into other duties like commuting or winter training with a switch of tyres. Tyre clearance is a roomy 45mm on a 700C wheel while it can manage 50mm on a 650B.

With a similar build to the Ribble, you are looking at spending £2,149.99, while for £2,399.99 you can get an 11-speed Ultegra mechanical build.

We've reviewed both the GXA and GXT, the aluminium and titanium versions of the Dolan.

Conclusion

I'm a big fan of the Ribble CGR SL. It's not the best gravel bike out there, or the best road bike, but as a bike that can do both it is actually very good. Aside from the racing end of either discipline it's a very capable machine, and I think that's what makes it such a good choice. It gives you that versatility, with very little in the way of compromise.

You could meet your buddies for a club run on the road or gravel, and with the right tyres fitted you aren't going to be under biked ever.

Verdict

Smooth-riding, good-looking crossover bike that works on a range of terrains without compromise