I’ve done almost 1000km on this now so a chat about it is probably a little overdue but here are my thoughts so far on it. First up a bit of background. A few years ago I bought my first (official) gravel bike, a Ribble CGR. Initially I was really pleased with it but three … Continue reading Review: Dolan GXC Gravel Bike
My new Dolan GXC bike came this week. Out of the blue, just in time for my trip to Scotland tomorrow. Yesterday I spent a few hours swapping wheels, rotors and saddles round getting my Dolan GXC and GXA ready for the trip and preparing my Ribble CGR to sell. I took the GXC for … Continue reading Green for Go
This time next week I’ll be well dug in to a 2 bed cottage all to myself in Aberfoyle, Scotland. I’m there for a week in gravel heaven, Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park which is about an hour north of Glasgow. It’s so good apparently they’ve nicknamed it Gravelfoyle. It’s my treat to … Continue reading Buying for Bonnie
If not ordering a new bike is enough to make me happy, friends and readers of my blog will know of my affection for oval chainrings, in particular sub compacts. When I bought my Ribble CGR I took my Shimano 105 compact (50/34) chainset off and fitted a 46/30 GRX 2x chainset which has been … Continue reading Oval does it
It took a while to get there but I’ve just pressed the button on a new bike. In my last post I was gushing about the Dolan Tuono and how I’d been looking at it for quite some time. Well, when I did my final geometry checks I realised that everything was fine except the … Continue reading Button Pushed
I worked a rare Saturday in one of our stores yesterday to cover some annual leave. Typical then, it was a beautiful sunny morning. Knowle near Solihull is a bit of a hotbed for cyclists when the weather is good. All the Rapha wankers on their Specialized and Pinarello bikes get out of their Porsche … Continue reading Just Press The Button
When you ride, it’s important to be able to stop. My Ribble CGR has just not been performing recently. I’ve had a consistent front brake pad contamination problem which eventually led me to just replacing the whole brake and lever recently. Even then the brake performance gain was only marginal. I’ve been off the bike … Continue reading Hola! New pads and discs
I took delivery of some new wheels a couple of weeks ago from Scribe Cycling. Destined for my Ribble CGR for commuting, the original Mavic Asksiums on there had performed reasonably well but recently were beginning to creak and groan too much so I decided to upgrade. The Race-D’s took a couple of months to … Continue reading Prescribed
I’ve just had to spunk £185 on a new right hand hydraulic shifter for my Ribble. That follows another £60 for a new front caliper a couple of weeks ago. Shimano 105 used to be the go to groupset. A workhorse, faultless. I’ve had loads of 9, 10 & 11spd incarnations of it over the … Continue reading Shimano Shame
My Ribble CGR AL hasn’t been immune to a few issues. Firstly the paint flaked off at the dropouts which, in my opinion, was premature and unusual but Ribble washed their hands of it and sent me some touch up paint. I was plagued with rear dropout issues for a while. Coming loose and creaking … Continue reading New Hoops
