RIBBLE

Founded in 1897 in a frame-building workshop on Water Lane (later Watery Lane), Preston, Lancashire, on the banks of the River Ribble — the source of the brand's name. Ribble started as a steel-frame and fork builder using lugged steel tubing, and over the next century became one of the best-known British performance road brands. Under the long ownership of Hughie 'The Cycle King' Sandiford, Ribble was named official bike supplier to the British Olympic cycling team in 1956. From 1985 the business pivoted from frame manufacturer to direct-to-consumer retailer — one of the earliest mail-order cycle brands in the UK. For more than a century the company passed through just three Preston families before being relaunched and reinvested in the modern era under CEO Andy Smallwood. Today Ribble designs its full range of road, gravel, hybrid and Hybrid Electric (e-bike) models in-house in Lancashire and assembles every bike to order at its Bamber Bridge / Preston facility, with a modern showroom in Clitheroe and German, Italian and other European storefronts. Brompton aside, Ribble is the most recognisable British performance-cycling brand still designing and assembling bikes domestically.