Ribble Ultra Grit gravel bike review: Ribble has really delivered with it's latest race bike

Ribble has been making bikes for a long time, a lot longer in fact than some riders may realise. The company seems to move with the times, and while things are not always easy in bike land, its models have been regular features on British club rides and in races for decades.

Ribble launched its new Ultra Grit gravel race bike back in June this year, and I've been testing it out for several months.

We spotted the bike being raced at Unbound Gravel this summer, and it's been raced by the Ribble Outliers gravel race team. The bike was also ridden to victory at the Three Peaks cyclocross race by Jenson Young in September, a feather in the cap of any brand, especially a British one.

Ribble overhauled its gravel range this summer. The Ultra Grit models are now the brand's racier, big clearance, pretty much bang up to date gravel machines.

I've been riding the second-tier Force XPLR Ultra Grit model since the summer across all kinds of terrain, and I must say it's impressed me.

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Design and aesthetics

One of, if not the last, Ribble gravel bike we tested was the Gravel SL back in late 2023. That model, which we touted as one of the best budget gravel bikes, is now gone, superceded by The Ultra Grit, which Ribble calls its fastest gravel bike ever. For more relaxed riding, there's also the All Grit range.

The Ultra Grit range is five models strong, and each bike shares the same carbon frameset. There's even a flat bar option, which is probably quite a fun bike to ride.

Regarding the frame, this is an aero-influenced, racy gravel machine with 50mm tyre clearances (a 5mm increase over the old Gravel SL), fully internal cabling, hidden fender mounts and internal downtube storage. It can also accommodate suspension forks, and you can upgrade to one for around £300 more.

There's also a checklist of pretty user-friendly frame details. This bike uses a SRAM full-mount derailleur, meaning the Force XPLR mech bolts directly to the frame. It makes for a hassle-free arrangement and is very strong in my experience. The BSA threaded bottom bracket won't trouble anyone, and a blanking plate comes installed if you want to run a double chainset, which I suspect is unlikely for most.

The downtube storage hatch uses a clip, and the bottle cage bolts to the hatch door; it's easy to remove. One point to note is that frame storage bags are sold separately, so you will have to buy one if needed. I have used my bike's storage area once to store a pair of gloves, and it worked well for that. One slight niggle was that the paint finishing wasn't perfect around the openings on the hatch, but it is covered by the door in use, so you won't see it.

The frame looks good; you can tell it's a Ribble, and I mean it in a good way. Design-wise, the chunky down tube, dropped seatstays, and D-shaped seatpost are all familiar features and help the bike present well overall.

There are a pair of standard bottle cage mounts, along with a top tube mount for a bag or storage box (when did we start calling bike storage bags bento boxes?) and another mount underneath the down tube. There are no extra bag or rack mounts here, though, as this is a race-focused machine.

Ribble says the bike borrows aero frame profiles taken from its road bikes, and you can see some of the same design language across the ranges, in the fork and downtube areas, for example.

There are two stock colours available for the Ultra Grit: midnight metallic blue, which is a block blue colour, and the Pink Team Edition, which I have been testing. Officially, the Team edition paint is only available on the top spec SRAM Red XPLR bike. Ribble seems to have sent me a bit of a custom pairing here.

I've only heard positive comments on this purple and pink paint; people seem to love it. I think it would go down very well if offered on more models.

That brings us nicely onto the Ribble custom website configurator. Ribble has bike showrooms, but you can also order a bike via the website, and you can spec quite a lot of build options.

You can choose custom colours and get quite close to the team paint job if you wish, but it won't be exactly the same, and custom paint can add up to £500 depending on what you go for.

You can also spec a RockShox Rudy Ultimate XPLR fork if you desire one for an extra £300, which seems a heck of a deal if you ask me. That's a lot less than the top spec fork's official retail price.

You can then choose between Vision or Zipp wheels, several handlebars and sizes, and several saddles. There are also plenty of accessory add-ons and even the option to have the frame ceramic coated, like you would a car. My bike has the Ribble carbon aero gravel bar and stem, which I really like. The shallow drop and light flare both work well.

Aside from the team paint, though, I've been riding the stock Force XPLR bike, and didn't make any custom changes. This test model sits below the top-tier team spec RED XPLR model and costs $6,570 /£4,399 / €6,175.

Performance

I've only been impressed with the Ultra Grit. Ribble has put together a really solid gravel bike here.

It's very close to exactly what I want in a gravel machine, in that it's a racy, fast feeling bike, that you can still comfortably tackle technical and rough terrain on.

The ride reminds me of the Canyon Grail CF SLX I tested at the start of the year; both are nippy, nimble bikes to ride. And they share very similar geometry that I really like. The Ultra Grit has a stack of 545mm and a reach of 394mm in a small, the same size Grail comes out at 573mm stack and the exact same reach number.

Angle-wise, the Ultra Grit has a 71.5 degree head tube angle, a 74 degree seat tube angle and a wheelbase of 1031mm. It's a racy blend that still feels composed off-road.

I've been totally comfortable on the bike; the reach is comfortable enough for all gravel riding, but it doesn't feel too upright and slow on the road. The reach number on this bike is actually 11mm more than the brand's size small Ultra Race road bike with a setback seatpost, and the head and seat tube angles are almost identical.

I think the inline seatpost fitted here really helps. I'm enjoying riding bikes with inline posts more and more of late. For me, they seem to eliminate that old school, slightly stretched out feel that I now sometimes sense from a traditional 15mm offset post or similar. Ribble has done well to spec one, I feel.

I ran into one issue straight away with the bike regarding the seatpost. With my seatpost set at my usual height of 75cm, my size small bike's seatpost was extended past the minimum insertion mark, meaning I would be running a risk of frame or post damage riding the bike like that.

Ribble kindly sent me out a longer seatpost, but this is the first time I have ever encountered this on any size small bike with my usual post height. Ribble lists a max seatpost height of 72cm for a size small frame, which seems very conservative, and does recommend choosing the smaller frame size if you're between sizes, which could lead to this happening more often for riders.

I'd say the stock post is a touch on the short side, something to be aware of if you are buying. Long story short, if you want the smaller frame in general, you may need a longer post to check the max height on the website against your own seatpost height.

The spec is solid, I don't need to say much on the Force XPLR groupset. It's been fantastic, and the brakes especially are a real asset off-road. If you're shopping for a gravel bike, my advice would be to make buying one specced with an AXS XPLR groupset one of your priorities.

The wheels and tyres are also good performers. I like the Vision SC45 wheels; they bring speed, but have also stood up to all sorts of rocky, harsh descents off-road without issue. The 45mm Schwalbe G-One R PRO tyres are a sensible choice. You can tackle a wide range of terrain on them, and they never feel sluggish. Tyres are not an area to scrimp on on any bike, and I'm pleased Ribble has specced some quality rubber here.

One thing you will have to do, if you want to run tubeless tyres, is invest in rim tape, valves and sealant, depending on the wheels you spec. The Vision wheels come with regular rim tapes fitted and no tubeless valves or tape. So put aside some extra cash for your tubeless conversion. I expect most customers will want to do this, but I'm currently riding the bike with tubes, though, and it's just fine.

Riding-wise, this bike has not put a foot wrong. I've ridden it on the road exclusively, and it performs very well there; it feels fast, handles well, and the geo creates an exciting ride.

I've tackled all sorts of gravel off-road, including all the good stuff from classic British 'gravel' riding, muddy, rutted bridleways, gravel tracks, rocky, mtb descents, muddy woods and everything in between.

The bike has tackled it all well, providing an assured ride and giving me plenty of confidence on all kinds of technical terrain. I've had zero issues of any kind, and everything has performed exactly as it should.

Comfort hasn't been an issue for me at all, 45 or even 50mm tyres will always help, but this machine is no harsher than many other rigid gravel bikes I've used off road. It certainly hasn't beaten me up.

I also tackled a 200km gravel audax in October, which was an excellent test with over 8 hours in the saddle. Riding with four mates on the road, sharing 15-minute turns in one line and then cracking on off-road, it shone as an all-road machine if you want to use that label.

Things are pretty muddy and wet on my local gravel loops now, and I've fitted some aggressive Vittoria Terreno T90 mud tyres for lots of grip. I can throw the bike down anything currently, and the comfortable position, thanks to the inline post, nicely shaped handlebars and fantastic brakes, means I can just put it pretty much wherever I want without slipping and sliding.

I don't think the ride feel is quite as refined and exciting as some of the top spec Canyon CFR gravel bikes I have ridden, for example, but this bike is very close to that mark. The ride experience has been very good; I can't really find fault with the performance at all.

Maintenance and servicing

That's how the bike performs and rides, but how is it to live with longer term? That's what I'll try to give you an idea of in this section.

Overall, this bike doesn't come with any major maintenance dos and don'ts or key foibles to be aware of. Like many modern bikes, the headset is the most involved job-wise.

The majority of maintenance tasks should be easy to carry out at home or at a bike shop. The threaded bottom bracket is an easy standard to work on. SRAM DUB chainset crank bolts can become very hard to undo over time. I'd recommend getting the cranks off at least once a year for a check, clean and regrease.

The wheels are easy enough to service and work on; the hub end caps pull off, as does the freehub body, meaning you can clean and regrease the three-pawl freehub easily if needed.

There is some hardware on the bike to be aware of, I'd recommend removing, cleaning and regreasing all the mount bolts every few months, like you would any bike. And more importantly, get that carbon seatpost out of the frame and clean and regrease both it and the integrated clamp that lives in the frame; you don't want that seizing up on you or corroding over time.

Headset services will be the biggest job if replacement or bigger overhauls are required. You will need to cut brake hoses to remove the forks.

Access to the headset bearings for cleaning and regreasing in place is easy, as long as the brake hoses are left long enough.

If you are playing around with headset spacers or lowering your handlebars, you will need to remove a standard round headset spacer and topcap above the stem to achieve the correct headset preload.

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Value

Ribble has a reputation for sensibly priced, even affordable bikes. How does this one stack up?

My Force XPLR version comes in at $6,570 /£4,399 / €6,175. If you were to order this spec bike it would come with the blue stock paint job, just to be clear.

It's meeting a very similar price point to the Canyon Grail CF SLX 8 AXS RS, one of the best gravel bikes, which is just over a couple of hundred pounds more. Both bikes have Force XPLR and named wheelsets, Vision for the Ribble and DT Swiss for the Grail. However, the Ultra Grit's 50mm clearance beats the Grails slightly conservative 42mm. And I really like that inline seatpost.

Some of Ribble's add-on accessory options leave a bit to be desired. You will need to add the Ribble computer mount and frame storage bag to your basket at checkout if required, adding some extra spend. It would be nice to at least see these two items included with the bike from the off.

I think this bike is competitively priced against some key competitors, and the ability to customise components is probably also attractive for customers.

Being realistic, I think Ribble has done a really good job here, but will someone plump for a more premium brand's name on their bike's downtube when shopping? I'd at least suggest you give this bike the time of day if you are shopping; it has performed flawlessly for me.

Verdict

I have found the Ultra Grit an exciting and enjoyable gravel bike to ride. As mentioned, it hasn't put a foot wrong in testing, with no issues or problems of any kind.

I like the way the frame itself looks, and the purple and pink team colours have really grown on me. It feels fast on the road and off it, and has handled a range of off-road and technical terrain deftly, in part thanks to the well-designed geometry. I also like the tyre options that the 50mm clearance gives, and it makes the bike competitive and up to date. Big thumbs up from me there. There's not much this bike can't handle.

The ride quality isn't quite as refined for me as some other top-end gravel bikes I have ridden, but there's not very much in it. Apart from that, and the fact that the bike does not come with a computer mount or frame storage bag included, it really is a job well done by Ribble on the Ultra Grit.