Ribble Endurance SL R Series

Shimano Ultegra

First a bit about me and my riding, I am 66 years of age, I have been riding since I was 10 years of age my riding includes, road, single speed (for commuting to work 12 miles each way in London) mountain biking (C2C and other off road tours), touring bike and over the last 4 years I have been bike packing riding in different parts of Europe. I currently live on the island of Crete, I cycle most days riding 250 to 500 kilometers a week, I am a member of the White Mountains CC; as a club we do a Gran Fondo every other month which normally includes 2,500 meters of climbing, I also do 5 day bike packing rides across Crete aiming to ride up to 200k a day. On an average ride here in Crete, 40% to 60% of every ride is climbing.

Following a visit to the Ribble bike store in Bluewater shopping center and after some discussion with the shop staff about my riding and my riding plans for the future, I decided to purchase an Endurance S-LR with Di2 Ultegra with 172.5mm crank arms, 34-50 front chain rings and an 11 speed 11-32 cassette. I decided to stay with the Aksium wheels as winter is coming with a view to upgrading early next year or changing to a pair of Dura-Ace wheels I already have.

Throughout I was kept up to date with the build and my questions to customer services were answered promptly and professional. The bike was delivered to Greece on time very well packaged and undamaged.
Having ridden the bike for the best part of 945 kilometers over the last 5 weeks I can report the bikes handing is excellent, it is a very comfortable and stable ride. In my view the spec I ordered was value for money, but of course that is subjective all depends on how much one has and wants to spend.

I ordered a medium sized bike. The bike is quick, with excellent power transfer and no flex that I could detect. I ride sometimes on rough roads and dirt tracks and the bike copes with the vibrations very well. It’s fair to say the roads here in Crete are not the smoothest, thankfully there is space for me to fit 700/28 tires and most useful for the sometimes wet winters here in Crete there are mudguard mounts. This means I can use the bike year-round. The Di2 works well on the local roads and climbs that have gradients up to 15%. The shifting and braking are excellent.

If you like riding as I do long-distance’s and climbing in comfort at a reasonable speed, the Endurance SL-R is an excellent bike 10/10.