Ribble 531 Competition Raw Steel

Cheers for that.. managed to get lucky with the wheels, were an eBay find... built up and not used. I guess the Sapian stainless double butted spokes give the wheels a lift as the aero section DT Swiss rims look and are quite heavy...
The cockpit is classic Cinelli with a 110mm 1A stem clamped onto Criterium 65-40 bars all wrapped up in Cinelli Bubble tape. The brake levers are by TRP and have a great classic look with their tan hoods satin drilled blades...bit of a nod towards Super Record. The hoods have a modern comfortable feel and give easy reach to the levers.This setup all turns through a smooth Dura Ace sealed bearing headset which I've added a carbon spacer due to its low stack height... not to sure if I should swop this out for an alloy one.. let me know...

Nice job

How have you got on with the Lidl clearcoat? And have you put a coat over the black on the forks?

I've found the only clearcoats with any real damage resistance are 2K based ones unless I bake it or leave it a very very long time (I'm talking months) before I attempt any assembly

This is my first attempt at clear coat on a frame so it's a bit of test piece I guess. I only applied about three coats warming the frame up first and between coats with a hair dryer. After a final blast with the dryer frame was touch dry and left for a couple of days before I started building it up. I don't think it's going to be as tough as 2k or powder coat finish so I just have to be careful. Also I'll only be riding the Ribble on dry roads as much as possible which should help. I did a test with satin black and satin clear-coat on the forks and the finish was similar to the gloss black only. I went with gloss only and these were just left out in the summer sun for a week and have a good tough finish. What I have noticed starting to appear around the lugs and braze on's is a slight gold tinge which could be some kind of reaction due to the flux still engrained in the steel... will have to keep an eye on this but it looks ok and adds to the dull almost mottled effect the satin clear-coat gives to the brushed steel.

I once had a steel frame clear powdercoated but the paint cracked when headset, BB and seatpost were inserted so there was rust within a few months.

Without wanting to hijack, here's a pic as promised!

Cheers for that MartinB, it's all come together nicely. How many speed you running on the back and are you indexed with your shifters ?

7 speed indexed

Now that's a lovely looking bike!

Thanks... glad you like the build....I'm still scratching my head what make the carbon seat post is. It is a two bolt clamp with a knurled nut for easy adjustment upfront and allen key rear ?
Saddle is a carbon railed Brooks Cambian C13 which has a timeless classic look and very comfortable on longer rides. Keeping everything pinched up tight is a seat clamp bolt from Campagnolo..

A quick update on the Raw Ribble... I'm fitting new 28mm tyres on my Holdsworth Mistral ready for the winter, so as the Ribble was originally built for narrow section 700c's with the option for mudguards I thought I'd give the 28's a try.
Looks like I've got plenty of safe clearance upfront which is great news as I do plenty of gravel riding... will chuck the rear in later..