How to build a Ribble for one handed operation

Cycling is an inclusive sport and everybody should be able to partake of our great sport / hobby and obtain the freedom and access to the great outdoors that we all take for granted. But what if you have a disability, one that limits you to the use of one hand? Very occasionally we receive a request for such a one-off build, it goes along the lines of ‘can you build me a bike that allows me to operate the front and rear gears from one side of the handlebars, because I ……..?

Now in previous years the answer has resulted in a regrettable but heartfelt ‘sorry we cannot build such a bike for you’. Then the enquirer has missed out on the chance to own that Ribble bike that they have had their eye on, through no fault of their own but rather our failing.

As many people may or may not know Ribble custom build bikes to order. If you are left wondering quite what a custom build entails, please allow me to explain. Any prospective customers can access a BikeBuilder on our website and using the many options available through this configurator can build the bike that they want. Practically the entire bike can be customised from choosing choose a frame size to then picking from a selection of groupsets, wheels, bars, stems etc.

So, given the fact that we build our bikes to order, from scratch and to a customers requested specification then if anyone can build a custom one-off bike for someone with a disability it should be us right?  

When the opportunity came our way to build such a bike we decided to seize the bull by the horns and find out just what building such a bike entails. After all it’s not every day that you get a 2 x Paralympic medallist in need of a replacement for his trusty Ribble Audax bike.  A bike that had unfortunately just recently been stolen. Louis Rolfe MBE was the man in need of a training bike to rack up those winter miles to be race fit come the spring.

At the 2016 Paralympics in Rio, Louis won a Bronze medal in the 3000m Individual pursuit and despite being a late replacement went on to become a Paralympic champion when winning Gold in the Team Sprint.

The Bike

Like any self-respecting cycling company we like a challenge and ours was how exactly do we build such a bike. After a little research this is the bike we came up with.

Frameset

The bike chosen was the Endurance AL Disc, the successor in many ways to the 7005 Audax that had served many a club rider for daily commutes or winter training rides for the best part of 2 decades.

Groupset

Shimano 105 is arguably the best value groupset on the market today and has enjoyed huge popularity over the last few years. This is largely down to its excellent shifting performance, relatively low weight and reliability, all of which are more than welcome on a winter bike that is subjected to some harsh conditions.

Brakes

Whichever side of the disc vs rim brake discussion you fall on there is one immutable fact. Disc brakes perform well in the wet and this makes them and ideal choice for a winter bike. For the Louis’s bike we chose TRP Hy / Roads which are a hybrid cable actuated hydraulic disc brake. Why not a full hydraulic system? We’ll explain why further in the blog.

Wheels

Mavic’s Aksium disc wheelset offer near bombproof reliability and I will always stand by these when I say they are one of the best budget disc wheels on the market. For a sub £200 set of wheels you’d be hard-pressed to find something better.      

Finishing Kit

In 2018 Ribble employed a certain Jamie Burrow as head of Product and Jamie quickly started to work with the various factories to upgrade the bike range and also to introduce our own components for the bikes. Level is the name of the new range and you can now see these on our bikes. Louis’s bike was fitted with Level 1 6061 Alloy bars and stem with a level 2 carbon seatpost to provide improved compliance. The kit was rounded off the excellent and comfortable Prologo Kappa RS saddle that is supplied on most of our range as standard.

The Build

The important aspect of the build of course was how do you go about setting up the bike so that both the front and rear derailleurs are operated from only one side of the bars rather than the usual both sides? Not to mention that the brake lever needs to operate both brakes!

Gears

Obviously when running only the one STI lever it is not possible to operate both the front and rear derailleurs from this single shifter. So, we fitted the 105 left-hand shifter and had it operate the front derailleur as it normally would (unless you operate a continental brake set up of course). To operate the rear derailleur we fitted a Dura Ace SL-BRS1 bar end shifter in the end of the handlebar drop.

Brakes

How do you run 1 brake lever but operate 2 brakes? The answer to this is the problem Solver Cable Doubler. This nifty piece of kit is a simple piece of engineering but is very effective. You run a single brake cable from the brake lever into the top of the anodized aluminium tube and 2 brake cables from the bottom to the brake calipers. One pull on the brake lever then operates both brakes, a very neat solution we think you’ll agree!

This requirement for brake cables is the reason that a hydraulic brake system could not be specified. TRP Hy / Road brakes are the best solution for anyone looking to run disc brakes but without having to change from their existing mechanical shifters. Mechanical disc brakes are fiddly to set up and maintain and the Hy / Road brakes trump these, in terms of braking power, ease of setting up and maintenance.

The secret to this superior performance is a hydraulic master cylinder and pots are built into each caliper. The cable runs from the shifter as normal and operates what is essentially a hydraulic caliper at the business end of the braking system.