Ribble Gravel AL e Sport

Ribble's Gravel AL e is a solid buy, a well-specced and capable e-gravel bike that offers a composed ride and plenty of off-road capability. The motor system is well matched to the bike, and you're getting a lot of bike for your money.

For more gravel choices of the acoustic variety, have a read of our guide to the best gravel bikes, and for more e-bikes check out the reviews on our sister site ebiketips. 

Ribble Gravel AL e: Ride

The Ribble Gravel AL e is a fun bike to ride both on and off the tarmac, with a motor system that assists rather than takes over, and it's capable enough to throw at some tricky terrain although it's definitely at its best blasting along more well-graded trails. It's a pretty composed ride overall, and does pretty well at hiding its 14.1kg weight for the majority of the time.

If you're looking at a gravel bike in the UK and you don't live in a remote hut in the Scottish highlands then you're not going to be using it exclusively for gravel, so it needs to be able to perform on the tarmac too. The Gravel AL e in the size reviewed has a stack-to-reach ratio of 1.48 which isn't especially upright; gravel bikes vary, but some are pushing towards (and past) 1.6. The Gravel AL e allows you to tuck in against the wind, especially because the bar, although flared, still has a reasonably deep drop, allowing you to get lower. On the road it's not far off the position of an endurance road bike, really.

At the front, the head tube angle gets steeper as you go up through the sizes, which isn't uncommon. Our bike's 72-degree head tube lends it a fairly responsive feel at the front and there's plenty of stiffness in the fork legs and head tube to get the bike going where you want it, although that's mitigated a bit by the big tyres. Chuck it down a steep tarmac descent and it'll still turn in to the apex but a big tyre with a bit of tread is always going to feel more vague than a slick. It's no slouch on the road, though, and on the flat it's easy enough to wind the Ribble up to the 25km/h motor cutoff point.

Overall, the response is spot on for a bike that you're most likely to ride along a paved road to some trails that aren't too gnarly. Once the terrain gets a bit more chunky – and especially when you're climbing steep, rocky stuff – you might find yourself wishing that the front end was a bit more relaxed so it tracks a line more efficiently, but for the vast majority of the riding a bike like this is likely to do it's pitched just about right.

It's a similar story at the back: fairly long (435mm) chainstays add stability and composure to the ride in most circumstances but make the bike feel a bit long underneath you when things are really tight and twisty. But you're more likely to find that a benefit than a deficit.

Ribble Gravel AL e: Motor power

Mahle's X35+ motor system is used on a lot of e-gravel bikes and for good reason: it's a reasonably simple system that works well and is configurable to your needs. A 250Wh Panasonic battery in the down tube controls a 40Nm rear hub motor, and the only physical control on the bike is the iWoc button in the top tube which acts both as a battery indicator and a system control.

Left to its own devices this will show you your battery state in a fairly sensible traffic-light-style progression (white > green > orange > red > flashing red), and when you press it it'll show you what mode you're in. A further press will toggle through the modes. The system is Bluetooth compatible and in the associated app you can adjust the motor response in the three modes to your liking.

I like the iWoc button on a road bike, but I have to say it's significantly less good off-road. There are too many times when you want to change mode but can't, because taking your hand off the bar to operate it is likely to plant you in a hedge. The gold standard of motor control on a gravel bike, for me, is the Giant Revolt E+ which has Di2 shifters and a single-ring drivetrain, and uses the redundant left shifter to control the motor. That's an expensive solution, but Mahle does offer satellite shifters for this system and I'd like to see them specced more than they are.

The motor itself is powerful enough to make a serious difference to your ride. It's not like a Bosch CX motor where you can basically do anything with zero effort – you'll need to add some power of your own – but it's certainly doing a fair bit of the heavy lifting. I pointed the Ribble at Old Midford Road, one of my harder local climbs, and it turned what's normally a bottom gear slog into a pretty straightforward ascent. Albeit still in bottom gear. Off road you have to be a bit judicious with the power when it's greasy out, to keep your rear wheel from spinning out, but on better graded and drier trails it's mostly just like being a lot fitter. Even in top assist mode the motor is reasonably quiet, and the overall experience is a lot like riding an acoustic bike more quickly than you normally would.

Hub motors and mid motors both have their pros and cons. The X35+ system's main plus points are that it's light and relatively cheap, so it's a great choice for a bike like this. The main downsides are that you're adding weight to the rear wheel, which can affect the handling and put you more at risk of grounding the rim off-road at lower tyre pressures, and it also makes the rear wheel harder to remove if you puncture. In Mahle's newer X20 system it's as simple as removing a thru-axle, but with the X35+ you still have to disconnect the power to the hub and remember to bring a spanner for the axle bolts.

Ribble Gravel AL e: Range

While 250Wh isn't an especially big battery, the X35+ motor isn't an especially powerful motor, and those two things cancel themselves out to a certain extent. The Gravel AL e has a decent range; you can go out for a few hours without worrying too much about whether you'll get home. I've done 200km on one charge on a bike using this motor, albeit on a road bike where you're spending more time above the assistance limit.

On the Ribble my default setting is green, the lowest of the three modes; that way you're getting a bit of help any time you're going slow enough to need it. On steeper hills, and especially when you're off-road, the higher two modes will get used a lot more. I've completed a 90km loop up on to Salisbury Plain and come home with 20% in reserve on this bike, being pretty judicious with the assistance but not sparing the boost mode when I needed it.

That ride is a good example of what bikes like this are especially good at, too: the ride out to the Plain is a bit of a slog on a gravel bike, and the assist takes some of the weight on the way there and back, with the result that you enjoy the middle gravelly bit more.

How far you'll actually go depends on, well, everything. The weather, the conditions, what modes you decide to use, how heavy you are... it's a usable range though, and there hasn't been a day ride I've decided was going to be too far.

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If you're heading out on an epic, you could always sling the charger in a backpack and try to sneak a charge at a cafe along the way. That's made harder by the fact that the battery isn't removable, so your bike will need to be near the socket... not so easy if the cafe is rammed and your bike is covered in trail filth.

If you do manage to run the battery flat then at 14kg the Gravel AL e is a bike you can reasonably ride home without power. The motor doesn't really add any significant drag. It won't exactly be fun, but it's very achievable.

Ribble Gravel AL e: Build and spec

The Gravel AL e is built around a heat treated 6061-T6 Aluminium frame. It's neatly put together, and the paintjob, which is somewhere in the hinterland between olive and khaki, is neat and seems hardwearing. You can, of course, spec any colour you like through Ribble's custom shop, if you're prepared to pay. And wait.

The fork is an all-carbon affair with a tapered steerer, and you get a standard three-bolt mount on each side for cages or panniers.

There are mudguard mounts, too, front and rear, and rack mounts at the back, and three bottle cage mounts.

The only missing mount is a bento box one on the top tube, because the iWoc button is in the way.

The battery and button integration is neat, as it usually is with the Mahle system. It's not obviously an e-bike to look at.

Also integrated are the cables and hoses, running through the front of the spacer stack into the head tube. I have mixed feelings about this. Okay, it looks neat and it's potentially helpful if you're using a bar bag, but it introduces a lot of extra faff into servicing, and for a bike like this I'm not convinced it's necessary.

Our bike is the Sport spec, which is the cheapest build at £2,799, but not quite the build you'll get if you buy one today. The main change is the groupset: our bike is running SRAM Apex 1x11, whereas now you'll get Shimano GRX400 2x10.

There are pros and cons here: the lack of a front mech is a definite benefit if you're planning to head anywhere muddy because 1x systems shed much much more efficiently. On the other hand, the 2x10 groupset has a significantly wider gear range (470% versus 380%) and lower bottom gears, which will be a benefit if you're loading the bike up to head off for a night in a hedge. If you want a single-ring system now then usually the cheapest build would be the GRX810 bike at £3,499, although currently the GRX Di2 build is £900 off and comes in £100 cheaper, so that's obviously the pick.

The rest of the spec is mostly the same as the current list spec, although don't forget that Ribble's BikeBuilder allows you to swap out various bits of the build. There's a fair helping of Ribble's own-brand Level componentry, including the Level Gravel Riser, a 42cm flared bar that also incorporates a 20mm rise for a more upright position. It's a good all-purpose bar, although I found it a bit compact for more technical off-road stuff, where I prefer one with a wider and shallower drop, like the Ritchey VentureMax.

The Level 2 stem and Level 1 seatpost are both alloy and perfectly decent kit, and the Level cork tape is okay too, although for extra comfort and grip that's a place on the bike where a small spend can make a big difference. Check out our buyer's guide for some suggestions.

Mavic has partnered with Mahle to offer a motor version of its Allroad 650B Disc wheelset, and they're very solid all-rounders. I've been running a set of the 700C Allroads on my everyday bike for thousands of miles and they've been pretty hard to fault: they're strong and dependable, with a steel freehub body that doesn't get chewed up, and they're easy to set up tubeless.

The 19mm internal width is good for tyres up to and over what the Ribble's frame and fork will accommodate.

The stock tyre is currently a Panaracer GravelKing SK; our bike came with Halo GXC 650x47 tyres, which are great all-rounders unless it starts to get sloppy, where they lack a bit of bite. They're not dissimilar to the Panaracers that have been well reviewed on road.cc in the past.

Ribble Gravel AL e: Value and conclusion

At £2,799 for a well-specced and genuinely off-road-cable e-gravel bike, the Ribble is good value for money. Scott's Speedster Gravel eRide 50, for example, is £500 more for a very similar spec. GT's eGrade Bolt with a GRX groupset costs almost the same as the Ribble, Merida's eSilex 400 a bit more at £3,000. All those bikes have the same motor and essentially the same groupset.

Overall I've enjoyed riding the Gravel AL e. It's a well-considered e-gravel bike that you could bung some bags on and go on an adventure, or fit some mudguards to and use as a commuter, or pretty much anything in between. For the money, it's a solid buy if you want a bike that'll easily handle road and light trail riding, and the motor system works well as part of the package. It's not perfect – the motor needs a remote control option, and it deserves a wider bar for better control off road – but there's nothing that can't be addressed down the line if needs be.

Verdict

Very good gravel all-rounder with a good motor system, at a tempting price