Buyers Guide: £500-700 road bikes
RCUK takes a look at what bikes you can get if you’re just starting out
Road bike developments have been coming thick and fast in the past decade and there’s now an incredible amount of choice at the top-end. But thanks to the trickle down effect, there’s also a huge choice if you’re on a budget, with entry level bikes now offering outstanding value for money along with frame design and componentry that would have never been imagined just a few years ago.
So, if you’re just getting into road cycling and have a budget of between £500 and £700 to spend, what can you get? Let’s take a look:
Material choice:
Generally at this price the majority of bikes will feature aluminium frames, but the variety of technologies present can vary widely. Some will feature butted tubing, which is desirable over plain gauge – non-butted – tube sets. Carbon fibre forks will feature largely at this price too, and offer a little vibration damping which can make rides more comfortable.
Shifting duties:
Shimano has a strong presence with its affordable 2200 and Sora groupsets, which offer high quality shifting and braking performance, decent durability and reasonable weight levels. Expect to see a mix of different level groupsets from the same manufacturer, and different brands filling such spots as the chainset and brakes, as companies strive to meet the desired price.
Getting the right size:
Size is the most important factor to consider when buying a new bike. This is where visiting a helpful and well-stocked shop that can offer expert advice becomes a vital step in buying your first bike.
With more and more women taking up cycling, manufacturers are now providing women-specific designs, with such elements as the geometry, handlebars, stem, crank lengths and saddles designed to accommodate the differences between men and women.
What's available then?
This list of course isn’t comprehensive but instead highlights just some of the choices available. For more bikes we suggest heading to the RCUK Member Reviews section where there are thousands of bikes listed with real-world reader reviews.
Trek 1.2 Double - £575
At under £600, Trek’s 1.2 provides a smartly finished Alpha aluminium frame, with a Bontrager carbon fork. Shimano Sora fills most spots except where FSA supply its Vero chainset. Bontrager handles all the finishing components, including wheels and tyres. www.trekbikes.com
Specialized Allez - £549.99
The long-running Allez uses Specialized’s A1 Premium aluminium frame with a bowed top tube borrowed from Tom Boonen’s Tarmac SL2. The downtube is oversized to provide a stiff frame and a carbon fork reduces vibrations reaching the hands. A complete Shimano Sora groupset is available with either a double or triple chainset. www.specialized.com
Felt F95 Team Issue - £699.99
Dressed up in the same paint and decals as being raced by Team Garmin, the F95 uses an aluminium frame with F-Lite butted tubing at its core, with a carbon fork slotted into the head tube. Felt opt for a mix of Tiagra and 2200, with an 8-speed setup. www.feltracing.com
Giant Defy 3 - £570
An AluxX Sl aluminium frameset with hydroformed tubes and a striking design ensues the Giant stands out, while a carbon fork smoothes out the bumps nicely. The Giant is built with Shimano’s Sora groupset, with a 9-speed cassette paired with a FSA Vero triple chainset and Tektro dual pivot brake calipers. www.giant-bicycles.com
Scott Speedster S60 - £659.99
The Speedster’s frame has been hydroformed from aluminium and is double butted, with an integrated head tube and carbon fibre fork. Shimano’s Sora offers nine rear gears and a Truvativ Isoflow provides three chainrings up front for a good spread of gears. www.scottusa.com
Bianchi Nirone 7 - £639.99
A taste of Italian style and heritage with the Nirone 7 from Bianchi, an aluminium framed and carbon forked offering. A Shimano Sora 9-speed groupset is complemented with a decent finishing kit comprising Deda handlebars and Vittoria tyres. www.bianchi.it
Lapierre R Lite 200 - £679.99
French firm Lapierre offer the R Lite 200 which sports a classily packaged 7005 aluminium frame and Lapierre branded carbon forks up front, fitted out with an 8-speed Shimano 2200 groupset. A Shimano FCR triple chainset makes ascending hills less daunting. Five sizes are available. www.lapierre-bikes.co.uk
Specialized Dolce - £566.99
Catering specifically for women, Specialized’s Dolce features an A1 Premium aluminium frame with geometry suited to women, with a carbon fibre fork. All components are suited to the specifics of women too, with shorter crank arms, narrower handlebars, a shorter stem and a Body Geometry saddle. www.specialized.com
Discuss this story
I know this will have just been an oversight, but you appear to have clear forgotten to include the Boardman Comp, better specced than all of those, in this rundown. Coming in at £650, but often discounted to £500 or £550. Especially good given the Tiagra/105 groupset and Richey finishing kit. Also, inexplicably, you've missed out on the Focus Variado, once again, better specced than the lot. Coming in at a very reasonable £674.10. Once again, the Tiagra groupset is better than all above? Finally, the choice of 'build it yourself' from Ribble? Forgot that too? Also likely to be easily specced to include much improved groupset for simliar prices.
Posted: 09/04/2009 18:47
Decent seelction, but two comments: 1) I agree with Stephen Casey - there are quite a few british brandes not mentioned, including Ribble, Dave Hinde etc 2) What I really want to know with all of these bikes is do they take full mudguards (or, to put it another way, could I use them as a winter bike)?
Posted: 12/04/2009 20:53
Steve - I bought the Giant Defy 3 as my winter bike - it does have mudguard eyelets. It takes Giant proprietary mudguards (about £30 - but you might be able to get your LBS to throw them in for free?) They're not bad mudguards - they go a long way round the wheel, but frustratingly there is a slight gap underneath the rear brake bridge to allow you to squeeze them in, so that calliper does get crudded up quite quickly. I also found that the 25mm kendas specced as standard would rub when fully inflated (I think my bike shop left them slightly underinflated when I bought it) I've now swapped to some 23mm Vittoria Zaffiros I had laying around, and they fit fine. Will experiment with some 25mm Continentals I have, as sometimes different manufacturers have slightly different widths anyway. As for the bike itself, once that little tweak was made it's been fantastic! The frame is really very good, it's really right up there with my Cannondale "good" bike in terms of ride quality, and for me, Sora's a great groupset for winter riding, as £25 for a new cassette is much more manageable than the £50-odd for a 105 cassette.
Posted: 13/04/2009 12:18
"It wasn't long ago when you could get an aluminium framed Focus with full Ultegra for gbp800." I bought a 2007 model Focus variado expert, with full Ultegra and Racing 7 wheels for £600 early last year! Bargain!
Posted: 14/04/2009 11:27
Then explain the lack of the Boardman? I could be wrong, but it smacks more of elitist than accessible to me. How many of us live near a shop that stocks the Lapierre R Lite 200? Me, I'd never heard of it. Money, mouth... Boardman Comp - £649.99 The high street's answer to serious road bikes. Bringing their buying power into the mix, Halfords supply this well respected frame with not one, but two levels better Shimano components including 105 and Tiagra alongside a predominantly Richey finishing kit. Little of the cool, but the best kit available at this end of the market. http://www.halfords.co.uk Focus Variado - £674.10 Online retailer Wiggle's in-house brand, this takes on the big boys by including the Tiagra and FSA finishing kit at the least expensive end of the road bike market. Available in 5 sizes from http://www.wiggle.co.uk Ribble - from £575 Another online choice, this time allowing you to choose from several frames, starting with an aluminium Audax, horizontal or sloping top tubes through to expensive carbon. From there you're free to choose every minute detail of the bike to match perfectly to your budget. Probably not one for the first time buyer (although it does fill in all the blanks automatically), but some great value to be had including a Tiagra specified bike for a mere £606. http://www.ribblecycles.co.uk.
Posted: 15/04/2009 14:15
I don't like mass produced big name budget frames, they seem to be very poorly made and crack under our road conditions, esp if you weigh a bit.I don't like going over the same old ground endlessly,but the frame is the key.As far as I'm aware, in the budget end, dave Hinde use a triple butted and double heat treated after forging alu frame from Columbus, a highly respected Italian frame manufacturer.It's carried my weight nicely for nearly 3 years in London, a.k.a. Paris roubaix. Then you have the wheel upgrade to aksiums-best ever wheel for me.Avoid aluminium axled super lightweight wheels if your a podgy and live with cruddy road conditions, which.i guess, is the whole country.Until it got stolen last night, I had a cheap mountain bike as my daily steed mon-fri, and I'l guess I'l get another one.
Posted: 16/04/2009 07:32
I simp-ly told them my height,the salesman said he was the same height, and recommended the correct frame size.He upgraded my casette to ultegra, I asked him to upgrade the wheels to aksiums and he did it for a nominal fee, he respected the fact that i knew my onions, and wanted better tyres as well. I havn't needed any aftersales whatsoever, all for around £650. I repeat, the frames the thing, and then the wheels.Any better deals around? Nope.
Posted: 16/04/2009 10:42
Fine, but for me for instance, my inside leg is 1/2 my overall height. The assumption of which frame is correct might not work out. All sorts of things could happen, it could be destroyed by the courier, it could lose bits in transit, it could... If that happens they've a bad reputation.
Posted: 16/04/2009 11:08
Focus Variado - been riding this bike now for 12 months, summer and through the winter. The only fault - the cables are bit bit cheap and have corroded. Otherwise this is an excellent bike for the money. Fulcrum wheels are still true (I live in Cardiff where potholes are a plenty). Great frame and fork and finishing kit is super - except for the white bar tape! Upgrades - saddle and carbon seat post, but the stock versions were just fine. Mudguards - I use SKS raceblades.
Posted: 17/04/2009 06:45
+1 for the Variado, which my brother in law also rides around Cardiff; and the Variado Expert, which I've been riding for two years including in the Pyrenees. No problems to report at all. Incidentally AFAIK Focus is not just Wiggle's in-house brand (that's dHB) - in Germany they're available from many LBS.
Posted: 17/04/2009 09:14
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