UKC

My road bike is a 10 or so year old Forme Longliffe complete with skinny tyres and rim brakes. It's lovely on the flat, but a slightly hairy descent yesterday made me think that bigger tyres and disc brakes would be nice.

I'm not in the market for anything more than about £1200 - £1400, and have looked at the Boardman ADV8.9, Ribble CGR AL and Sonder Camino as possible replacements, with the Tiagra groupsets. I'd probably use the bike mainly for road cycling, but the option for some off-road gravel riding would be good (which my current road bike definitely isn't suitable for).

The Ribble bike is currently on sale, with Tiagra and 105 options. Would a 105-equipped version be worth the extra £400, or would I not really notice the difference? 

Thoughts, opinions and real-life experiences of these three bikes would be very welcome, and I'm sure that in true UKC fashion, alternatives will be offered!

I've owned both Boardman ADV 8.9 and replaced it with a Sonder Camino about a year ago. Reason for replacement was that I'd bought the ADV during lockdown bike craze and couldn't find a bike in the right size for the right price, so compromised on a slightly smaller than optimal frame size... 18 months later my work had started doing the cycle to work scheme so I decided to sell on the boardman and get the Camino in the right size.

I thought the ADV was great for the price. The wheels were the only thing that let it down: they were pretty heavy. Moving to the Camino apart from it being the right size I think the wheels are better (I did pay extra for the higher quality wheel option) and it has a few more mounting options which are useful if you ever plan on touring, but otherwise not a big deal.

I also went for 1x with the Camino but if you're mainly thinking of using for the road I think a 2x is probably more flexible.

Latest on discs on descent from a few days ago at the Vuelta:

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/UKrNa7TBGIE

I did a lot of reading up and shopping around for a gravel bike earlier this year (I basically of wanted a heftier road bike for a somewhat heftier rider).

So as you expected here's an alternative and a bargain at that. I ummed and ahhed between this one and a higher spec model with 1x GRX group set but went with the 2x Tiagra in the end. https://www.merlincycles.com/merlin-malt-g2p-tiagra-gravel-bike-2024-197427...

Consider the geometry as well as the groupset.

The Camino has a nice slack head angle which makes steep off road descents more pleasant.

My mate has a Ribble and finds it disagreeable on the rough downs.

Yes, pro cycling was famously devoid of anyone locking up their back wheel or crashing before the riders started using disc brakes.

Melted tarmac that one

Ah you deleted it. Poor old Beloki, that was curtains for him.

Alternatively, if you are likely to be on the road more and want a livelier feeling bike then a steeper head angle might be what you want. Its one big bunch of compromises at the end of the day.

I have the CGR in steel. Its great both on road and for most of what I want it for off road. Slightly weighty (to be expected) but still acceptable - about 10.5kg in XL (Ultegra drivetrain and a good alloy wheelset). I also have a full carbon CX bike. Its really really nice to ride and a good compliment to the Ribble. But... if I could only choose one bike and I wasn't regularly doing one specific race on the carbon bike then it would be the Ribble that I kept. Probably.

Thanks - that looks exceptional value!

Yeah, sorry about that, I realised my error pretty much immediately!

Wasn't it his tyre coming off the rim due to the glue on the tub melting? Possibly caused by heating of the rim when braking...

But yeah, poor old Beloki. Just one dramatic moment in what I think is still the best tour I've watched (despite you know what)

I always assumed a patch of road surface had turned to treacle due to the heat of the day and he just found himself on the wrong line, with lucky LA on solid road to the left. Then LA got lucky again in the field of stubble, like that kids book with the drawing of people jumping off a train, enjoying a picnic and jumping back onto their carriage after the U-shaped bend in the track. Certainly more fun than the Sky train.

Many thanks for that - your direct experience of two of the three bikes on my list is just the thing I was hoping for!

I've had my 8.9 ADV for 5 or 6 years, can't remember which now! I do about 3000 kms a year on it mainly commuting about half and half road and track (canal tow paths mainly for me). I'm off to try the Rebellion Way in Norfolk tomorrow on it - I'm planning on doing the the 370 kms over 3.5 days. It's been my best bike ever I think. I've still got a road bike that I use very rarely now, I don't really need it as the Boardman is virtually as fast in anything close to 'normal' conditions. I've got a mountain bike too and ride technical off road on that although I've got down many local rocky bridleways on the  ADV - I have a 50 mm tyre up front and a 40 mm at the back so it handles rough stuff quite well. 

I wouldn't go back to a bike without hydraulic brakes now, I had cable discs on my old Boardman CX and they're never as good. I think the Merlin linked above had cable discs, I'd try to go up in any range to get hydraulic (those hybrid ones that Decathlon use might be ok but I don't know). I chose to get better wheels when the free hub broke on the original back wheel, and I have had to replace the shifters on my ADV - they weren't actually Tiagra on the early 8.9s rather some Shimano non series ones, but that was last year after I think 5 years and about 15 000 kms including 5 winters of commuting through mud and damp and me not continually keeping the bike spotless. Otherwise just the normal consumables. 

p.s. my mountain bike is a Sonder and I do have a soft spot for Alpkit, but I think the Caminos look ugly! That's just me and I know that's not an important thing really, but yeah, unlike Sonder's road bikes, the Camino just isn't to my taste! 😀

Thanks for your detailed reply and for this one - I must admit I've never really thought about the look of bikes, and I don't think I'd know what is considered 'ugly'.

I've got one of the current caminos and couldn't be happier. I was worried the slackness would make it boring on the road but I actually really like the geometry. One thing I would say though is I demoed one with the really flared bars (bombers?) and my wrists were in agony after a couple of hours. When I bought mine I had it built with spitfire(?) bars instead.

As an example, most people consider this extremely ugly: https://www.sigmasports.com/item/Bianchi/Oltre-RC-Dura-Ace-Di2-Disc-Road-Bi...

I have a Salsa Vaya which is roughly the same geo as the Sonder Camino and I think it's a really good looking bike as long as you don't put too many spacers under your stem and don't overdo it on the flared handlebars. Bikes like these are designed to be comfortable over long distances, hence the high stack and sloping top tubes. They just go (get it?)

Mine has 16 degrees of flare which for most things I would consider 'all-road' is perfect. Doesn't stick out too much in traffic, still comfy when the roads get worse. I wouldn't want anything over 20 degrees I'd think. 

Hello!

I would suggest perhaps having a look at the Planet X London Road. I've loved mine over the last few years for exactly the purposes you have mentioned. 

I bought a Sonder Camino AL late last year and have really rated it. I went with the GRX option and was similarly divided about whether to go with 1x or 2x. After much deliberation I went with 1x, which I was worried would leave me feeling short of gears, but it's actually been much better than I anticipated. I've certainly never felt like I'm lacking for gears, unless I'm absolutely pelting it downhill, but even then it's not been bad.

I think what's impressed me most about the Camino is just how comfortable a ride it has, both on and off road. I've done a blend of riding with it, with everything from really rough MTB terrain (where it's obviously a bit shaky) to smoother gravel and pot holed tarmac and it's been brilliant across the board. Even on the rough stuff, it's just like riding a rigid mountain bike from the 90s, so pretty familiar (if you happen to be within the same sort of age demographic as I am).

Interesting thoughts abut the flared bars. I'm certainly not used to flared bars, but then I'm very rarely down on the drops, so I'm not sure how of a consideration this would be. Something to think about ...

Thanks for this, but unless I'm looking at the wrong thing, this is a bit above my budget.

Thanks Rob, useful thoughts about the gears.

From all the replies, I suspect I'd be fine (for what I want to do) with any one of the Sonder/Ribble/Boardman options.

(Slightly different age demographic - I've just hit 65, although I try to pretend I'm a bit less advanced.)

The good news is that you're familiar with how rigid bikes ride. I think anyone growing up with full suspension might have a shock, but if you've ridden bikes like that before then you're more likely to know what to expect

Enjoy whatever you do end up buying. I've had loads of fun with mine!

From my tent just to the north of Norwich - two days on the Rebellion Way done, about 225 kms I think. The Boardman has been doing great! There's plenty of tarmacked lanes but a fair amount of gravel of various roughness as well. This morning I even did a fair bit of wooded single track! 

I got the Sonder Spitfire bars and put them on my older road bike and they're great. They are a modern compact bar with a slight flare. They feel much better than the original much less compact bars. But if you go for an ugly 😉 Camino get those bars I reckon - much less ugly and maybe more comfy!

Love it - real-time reviews! Many thanks Toby. I'm veering towards the Boardman, swayed to some extent by the tubeless set-up, which comes at considerable cost on the Ribble.

My Ribble CGR AL is just coming up to two years old. The current deals look very good.

It's been great, mostly used for on-road commuting plus stuff like the Monsal trail, but I've given it a proper gravel workout this summer going over Stanage Causeway etc. It's not much fun on rough steep downhill but I suspect any rigid bike would be similar.

Have a 2x GRX setup which has been great, I spent a lot of time researching the gears and ended up with 46/30 and 11-34 cassette. It's been great.

I still can't get the mechanical disk brakes on by Tiagra equipped CGR 725 to bit consistently and not slacken off with two weeks of fettling them so I would say the 105 option would be worth its weight in gold.....

Soncer Camino owner here. Love it. I had a Cannondale Topstone but the SRAM brakes and derailleur inconsistency were a nightmare. Sold it and got a Camino. Vastly superior for me.

I used it for gravel and some MTB rides. The slacker head angle and longer wheelbase make it so stable. I also use it for 40 mile road rides and it is very comfortable.

Friends have Ribble eCGR and they like them but they are not as capable off road as the Camino and Topstone. I have ridden the Boardman and liked that.

I also have a Ridley CX bike with cable discs. Old school CX geometry 1000mm wheelbase so quite quick handling. Camino is better off road.

All the bikes will do the job. Alpkit do offer test rides if you are near to one of their shops.

I don’t know what calipers you have but I have TRP Spyre C’s on my Vaya and they’re almost as good as hydraulics imho. And easier to repair on the go if necessary. Pros and cons to every choice really.