Anthracite with silver accents, Ribble's latest graphic, the SL e, is perfect for e-bike road riders who value a more stealthy appearance.

Ribble is best known for its titanium frames, but the SL e features a sleek composite construction.

Ribble's industrial designers blended T1000 and T800 Toray carbon fiber in the appropriate areas of the frame, resulting in a bike that is laterally stiff and longitudinally compliant.

With the advent of battery-assisted road bikes, the issue of frame stiffness has become paramount. Riders can use the hub motor assist to apply a sustained surge of power, but it can bend stays and cause unnecessary energy transfer losses.

To address this issue, the rear triangle of an e-bike frame needs to be sturdier to ensure optimal energy transfer from the crankset to the hub. The dropped seatstays and oversized chainstays help keep the rear tracking of the SL e straight as the rider escalates power output by applying force out of the saddle.

Ribble's design goal for the SL e has always been to provide an agile and efficient carbon road bike, with the added benefit of an e-power system for extended range.

The SL e has a sleek appearance that masks a 250W on-board power system with a German hub motor supplied by Mahle. A Panasonic lithium-ion battery pack provides the necessary energy density, and Ribble's SL e features meticulous calibration to ensure that each of the three power assist levels feels natural and matches the cadence input.

The SL e battery takes only 3.5 hours to charge, provides assistance up to 15 mph, and seamlessly deactivates beyond that; the total endurance range of the SL e battery assistance system is 60-80 miles, depending on the route profile.

MAHLE's ebikemotion system has a compatible smartphone app that allows owners to customize the SL e's performance levels and settings.

Design details such as cable routing, where the handlebars and frame are fully integrated, are typical of boutique bikes; the SL e weighs only 11 kg, which is surprisingly light for an e-bike.

Ribble offers the SL e in a variety of specifications starting at £2,799.