Anthracite with silver accents is the Ribble’s latest graphic offering with the SL e, most appropriate for those e-bike road riders who value something stealthier in appearance.
Despite Ribble being best known for its titanium frames, the SL e features a sophisticated composite structure.
Ribble industrial designers blend T1000 and T800 Toray carbon-fibre in appropriate parts of the frame, to deliver a bike which is laterally stiff but vertically compliant.
With the advent of battery-assisted road bikes, the issue of frame stiffness has become paramount. Riders can apply surges of sustained power, harnessing the assistance of a hub-motor, potentially flexing the stays and causing needless energy transfer losses.
To counter this issue, an e-bike frame’s rear triangle needs to be even more robust, to ensure optimal energy transfer from crankset to hub. Dropped seatstays and oversized chainstays help keep the SL e’s rear tracking straight when riders are escalating their power output, with out of the saddle efforts.
Ribble’s design objective with the SL e has always been to deliver an agile and efficient carbon road bike, with the benefit of additional range – courtesy of its e-power system.
The SL e has a slick appearance, which masks its onboard power system, worth 250w, thanks to a German hub motor, supplied by Mahle. A Panasonic lithium-ion battery pack provides the requires energy density and Ribble’s SL e features meticulous calibration, to ensure that each of its three power-assistance levels has a natural feel, matching your cadence input.
Recharging the SL e battery takes only 3.5 hours and it provides assistance up to 15mph, disengaging seamlessly as you speed past that. Total endurance of the SL e battery-assistance system is 60-80 miles of riding, depending on the route profile.
Mahle’s ebikemotion system has a corresponding Smartphone app, allowing owners to customise the performance levels and settings of their SL e, whilst also harvesting a flood of ride data for analysis.
Design details such as the fully integrated handlebar-into-frame cable routing are typical of boutique bike building awareness. The SL e is credibly light for an e-bike, weighing only 11kg.
Ribble offers the SL e in a variety of builds, starting at £2,799.
