The new Ribble Sportive

Although I had a Ribble Audax for winter training, I wanted another bike to build  over the winter which would cover both winter and summer rides. So I felt a carbon frame would be no good and I settled for an aluminium frame being sturdier and cheaper cost wise.

Ribble were selling off the last of their 2018 sportive aluminium frames cheaply and I managed to pick up the very last at a reasonable £60. 
Via eBay I managed to get most of the components at a reasonable price and even managed 105 gearing, although it was 10 speed, but in all honesty that really didn't matter to me.

I decided I would take most of the 2019 winter to slowly build up the bike and perhaps use it with my Elite smart trainer. Getting the front derailleur to work efficiently proved a bit of an issue and also fitting the headset, something I hadn't done for a while. But eventually after much swearing and moaning, it all fitted in to place! 

The Ribble in the process of being built with my Zwift training setup in the background.

Finally, once the bike was built I first put it on a mount and then the Elite to see that all components were working correctly. It was a bit clunky with changes and before I made any alterations I decided to use the mount to just tune up a wee bit and took it out for a proper ride. As I suspected it was more to do with the Elite rather than the Ribble and everything worked nice and smooth,  Suffice to say it was a very nice ride!

Change of plan, think this summer along with the Cube because the Ribble is so smooth, I shall use it as my spare!