The Allure of Carbon Fibre

**RIBBLE SPORTIVE BIANCO**

Or should I say, the allure of the Cycle2Work scheme?
I´d gone from having a dodgy old mountain bike to having a Trek for shopping/trips to the park with my kids, a single speed for commuting, and the road bike for weekend rides. By now I was reading the cycling mags, in particular the bike reviews, and when the Cycle2Work window opened at ITN I couldn´t reisist to allure of Ribble´s Sportive Bianco which had received a 10/10 review in Cycling Weekly. I changed the spec including the groupset on their online bike builder as I wanted to stick with Campagnolo, and filled in the Cycle Scheme forms and awaited
delivery. I´d decided that the Ribble would be my summer bike and that I´d equip the Acciaio with mudguards and use it as my winter trainer. Bit of a luxury I know, but it saves wear and tear, and I figured both bikes would last longer than either of them would if I thrashed it all year round (ok thrash might be too strong a word for the relatively gentle work out I´d be giving them!)
But by now I´d been to Brighton on the Acciaio (3hrs 54mins, not including cake and coffee in Ditchling, just before the Beacon climb), so I felt like I fully fledged roadie (hah!)


The Ribble arrived and was
assembled by LCW boss Simon England.

A check on the scales revealed a weight of 8.8Kgs, but after swapping the wheels from the Acciaio (Campagnolo Khamsin to Campagnolo Vento Reaction) the weight was reduced to 8.6Kgs - not bad.

TWO bottle cages at 48g each.
Controversial!






[Left] Just about to set off for our maiden voyage. I immediately noticed the smooth ride, the Ribble gliding over cobbles stones with none of the vibration I was used to.