Bike of the Week | Ribble Endurance SL Disc

Welcome to the inaugural edition of Bike of the Week – our new weekly in-depth look at one of the most interesting, important or innovative bikes to land at BikeRadar in any given week. Kicking things off is this handsome blue Ribble Endurance SL Disc.

As a brand, Ribble has seen massive changes in recent years, with updates to its overall image and every bike in its range bringing it bang up to date with modern trends.

The Endurance range's SL Disc caught our eye as one of the most competitively priced direct-sale bikes in the UK right now, offering stock builds that go head-to-head with the likes of the Canyon Endurace, Vitus Vitesse and Rose Reveal. It's also well set up for year-round riding.

The Endurance is, as the name suggests, Ribble’s comfort-focused bike and, with geometry that sits at the more relaxed end of the spectrum, it's a bike well-suited to long days in the saddle.

At the top of the Endurance range is the carbon fibre SL R. It isn’t clear what the material difference between the top-tier model and the Endurance SL is, with the two sharing the same marketing copy on the Ribble site.

The second-tier Endurance SL is the bike in question here, pictured in a disc version (every road bike in the Ribble range is available in both rim and disc brake variants). The range is rounded out by the alloy-framed Endurance AL and the steel Endurance 725.

The Endurance SL Disc is a thoroughly modern road bike, with dropped seatstays, moderate aero forming and internally-routed cables. Where the bike stands out is the clear thought that has gone into making it as versatile and easy to live with as possible.

To start – and, as a self-proclaimed mudguard evangelist, this is the most exciting feature – the bike is compatible with full-cover mudguards.

Few modern carbon road bikes, even those that purport to be endurance bikes, have the provision to fit full-cover mudguards. Do none of these designers live, work and ride in the UK?

The Endurance proudly goes against this trend.

Ribble even goes as far as including a neat threaded eyelet on the underside of the crown, meaning you can forgo an L-bracket on the front mudguard.

Officially, the bike has clearances for 30mm tyres without mudguards and 28mm tyres with mudguards fitted.

To the delight of home mechanics the world over, the bike also features a standard threaded bottom bracket.

As an observer, it’s been entertaining to watch the industry make a wholesale move from threaded bottom brackets to press-fit and back again to threaded solutions (where it is now marketed as an upgrade).

Chances are, it’s not been nearly as entertaining if you have owned a bike with a troublesome press-fit bottom bracket but, shade-throwing aside, we can all probably breathe a collective sigh of relief that the consensus has swung towards practicality.

The fork also has two hose routing options for the front brake: one for a fully internally-routed hose when used in conjunction with a compatible cockpit and one for a regular semi-externally-routed hose.

As with all Ribble bikes, the Endurance SL is based on a stock build that can then be modified to the buyer’s exact specifications.

In our case, we have the Shimano Ultegra Di2-equipped model, which has been upgraded from Mavic’s Aksium Disc wheels to Ribble’s house-brand Level 56RB Elite carbon clinchers.

These tubeless-compatible wheels weigh a claimed 1,660g for the pair and would set you back £800, which is about standard for a mid-depth aftermarket carbon wheelset. Buying them as an upgrade here presents a £49 saving over buying them separately.

Fitted to these is a set of Vittoria Corsa Graphene 2.0 tyres. Note that these are not the tubeless-compatible version of the tyre. If you want to take advantage of the wheel’s tubeless compatibility, you will need to opt for Continental’s GP5000.

The one-piece carbon cockpit also comes courtesy of Level. These are available in a range of widths and lengths, starting from 38cm wide with a 75mm equivalent stem right up to 42cm wide with a 125mm equivalent stem.

It’s notable that longer stems are not available on the narrower bar options. Riders who prefer a long and narrow position may be better served by a traditional cockpit.

While the Endurance SL does feature some aero-friendly forming around its head tube, which flows neatly into the dedicated aero spacers, it also ships with a flat headset top cap. With this, the bike should still look pretty slick when set up with a conventional bar/stem combo.

As well as allowing you to tailor the build to suit your needs, many models in the Ribble range also have the option to have the bike custom-painted. Prices for custom paint start at £299.

It’s no exaggeration to say that, as design conventions and trends on road bikes have converged, the overall look of road bikes has become far more homogeneous. Having the option to custom-paint your bike is no bad thing, providing you're willing to stump up the extra cash.