Just when you got over having to explain the difference between a gravel bike, a cross bike and an early mountain bike, along comes ‘all-road’, bearing a striking resemblance to an endurance bike, a pared down gravel bike and a beefed-up race bike. It just depends who you ask.
Take the Italians, for whom an all-road bike means a road bike with 35mm tyres; or the Americans, who would find it hard to tell you where an Enve Mog (gravel) stops and an Enve Fray (all-road) begins, then stops again for the Enve Melee (road); or the Irish, whose FiftyOne Sika has 40mm tyre clearance but a 690g climbers’ frame.
All-road means many things to all-people, and perhaps most wild so far in this potential frankenbike territory is the Ribble SL R, a bike that would look at home in a bunch sprint yet has mudguard mounts and room for 38mm tyres.
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Ribble Allroad SL R: All-fast
‘The Allroad SL R has been designed to allow for larger tyres for maximum versatility, but tube shapes are derived from the Ultra [Ribble’s flagship aero racer],’ says Ribble’s head of product, Jamie Burrow. ‘It benefits from the Ultra programme’s extensive CFD analysis and testing both in the wind-tunnel and the real world to combine aerodynamic advantage with endurance-focussed geometry for speed and comfort. It is first and foremost a road bike.’
I’d actually go one better than Burrow and say the Allroad SL R is first and foremost an aero road bike. It bears more than a striking resemblance to the Ultra – think Donald and Kiefer Sutherland – and despite being a pared down version in terms of tube dimensions (check out the Ultra, it is a beast with a capital T for truncated), I could be fooled into thinking the Allroad was a standalone aero bike.
The frameset is zeitgeist-appropriate, with lowered seatstays, bow-legged fork, deep head tube, wheel-hugging seat tube and a wide down tube that bulges around an integrated bottle cage to make this another bike that claims to be ‘faster with a water bottle’.
Up front, Ribble’s own UB-2 bars are nth-degree aero (more on those later), and though 32mm tyres might not sound all that drag-reducing, the wheels those Pirellis are paired to certainly are: a pair of Zipp 45mm-deep 353 NSWs.
Ribble offers no specific data around how much faster the Allroad is for these things, but it does claim its Ultra is worth 75 seconds over 40km compared to its more regular looking Endurance SL sibling, and Burrow does say ‘every tube profile has been aero-optimised’ based on the ‘trickle-down effect’ of the Ultra’s development. All I can say is on flat roads on a still day, the Allroad has a superb lick of speed and satisfies all the aero clichés around ‘carrying speed well’.
At 8.1kg there’s a fair amount of bike to accelerate, but the frame is very stiff, which goes some way to compensate in that there’s the sense pedalling effort isn’t being lost to flex.
For a type of bike where ‘all-day riding’ is a buzz phrase, such stiffness does feel at odds with comfort. Yet here’s that wonderful thing – as a race car has a super-stiff chassis and suspension to compensate and hold the road, so too can wider-tyred road bikes push the stiffness-efficiency envelope without ending up with a jarring ride that skitters through corners. Just drop the tyre pressure and regain that suspension squidge.
In blending stiffness with (tyre-derived) comfort, the Allroad is a great success. Less successful – for me at least – are the bars.
Ribble Allroad SL R: Bar brawl
Borrowed from the Ribble Ultra, the Allroad’s UB-2 bars do away with the band-on clamp system of Shimano levers and instead use a direct mount system where the levers’ usual front clamping bolt screws directly into the bar (there is still room for 30mm lever height and 15° angle adjustments). This allows a part of the bar that otherwise must be round to be sculpted into what Ribble calls ‘wake generators’ – wing-like sections just behind the lever that are designed to push airflow around a rider’s legs.
To the best of my knowledge there is no comparative data to support the claim these bars ‘represent a giant leap forward in aerodynamics’, but I can imagine their advantage and they certainly look fast. But my goodness I found them uncomfortable.
My natural hood-holding position has my little fingers tucked behind the bar for greater braking stability – I feel, at any rate – but this plus the wedge of wake generator resting in my palm made for an uncomfortable position. Likewise the tops, which again contain a significantly bigger slice of carbon than any bar I’m used to. And then there’s the tape situation.
You can fit tape but these bars are designed to be used without it. Instead, the drops have a textured surface that is OK in the dry but feels unsecure with gloves on or in the wet. The hood grip is entirely smooth save for the hood rubber itself, which again is acceptable in the dry but is slippery in rain or when hands are sweaty or wearing gloves.
I get it – speed at all costs – but I’d need to see some serious drag-reducing numbers on this or any bike before I’d be willing to sacrifice ergonomics and a feeling of being connected safely to my bike controls.
Burrow says that Ribble’s rider feedback had been ‘extremely positive’ regarding the bars’ ergonomics, setup and serviceability, so I guess we’ll just have to agree to disagree. Nonetheless it’s a feat of thinking-outside-the-box engineering and the direct-mount idea is intriguing, if indeed both Shimano and SRAM’s official party line is their ‘products should always be used in accordance to user manuals’.
Ribble Allroad SL R: A fine example
The Allroad SL R is another interesting take on a category I think is best summed up as ‘manufacturers finally making bikes for normal people’. In this, the Allroad is a great success.
Geometry is a nice balance of slightly higher stack and shorter reach than an all-out racer for an all-out pro, but without losing that feeling of ‘being in the bike’. That is, I was still sat low for greater handling stability and a more efficient aerodynamic position. Handling was quick and nimble too, thanks in large part to a short 985mm wheelbase and 59mm trail for this medium (545mm top tube) size – numbers I’d expect to see on a classic racer.
Oh, and I nearly forgot (credit to how neat it is): under the integrated bottle cage is a storage compartment replete with tube, mini-pump, tubeless tyre plugs and a multitool. Not only is it a nice touch, you can knock 340g off my quoted bike weight with those inclusions, and all without a drag-inducing saddlebag. So subjective judgements about handlebars aside, the Allroad SL R satisfies its brief superbly as a versatile, fast road bike suited for all-world riders.
Ribble Allroad SL R spec
- Price: £8,299
- Weight: 8.1kg (medium, including bottle cages and spares)
- Groupset: Shimano Dura-Ace Di2, 50/34, 11-30t
- Wheels: Zipp 353 NSW
- Tyres: Pirelli P Zero Race TLR 32mm
- Bars: Ribble UB-2
- Stem: Ribble RS-2
- Seatpost: Allroad carbon
- Saddle: Selle Italia SL R Boost 3D Kit Carbonio Superflow
- Contact: ribblecycles.co.uk
