When you’re buying your first road bike, the range of bike types, materials and component options can road bike reviews 2024 be bewildering. Let us steer you through your choices and help you find the right road bike for you.
There’s never been a better time to buy a new road bike. While the pros might belt around France on bikes costing anything up to £10,000, you don’t need to spend anywhere near that much. Over the last couple of decades entry-level bikes have become ever better value for money, with much of that Tour de France advanced technology trickling down to bikes we can all afford.
First, you need to decide how much you’re prepared to spend. Decent road bikes start from about £300; the more you spend the lighter and better specified a bike will be. There is no right price. There’s a great choice between £300 and £600, and from £600 to £1,200 you’re entering the territory of very capable road bikes. Beyond that, well, you’re entering a world of choice to suit all tastes.
With a budget in mind, you want to do some research. Sure, you can just walk into your nearest bike shop, slap down some cash on the counter and leave with your first road bike, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But a bicycle is an investment and, as with most expensive investments, it’s worth spending some time researching the options.
Our forum is a great place to ask questions about road bikes, and our review database gives you valuable advice for sorting the wheat from the chaff. They’re both very good places to start. Below we outline some of the important considerations to think about.
The frame is the heart of your new road bike and it’s where the majority of the budget goes. Frames are made from a range of materials, the most common being steel, aluminium, titanium and carbon fibre. Broadly, frames made from any particular material will have common characteristics, though what the designer does with a material is as important as the material itself.
Aluminium is the most common frame material for road bikes costing under £1,000, and there are plenty of excellent aluminium-framed bikes at higher prices too. It’s inexpensive, and a very good material to make bikes from because it builds into stiff, light frames. The latest aluminium frames boast some advanced features and design touches.
Better aluminium frames use butted tubes. These have varying wall thickness, with the ends thicker than the middle to handle the greater stresses at the joins. Butted tubes are lighter too, and can offer more comfort. Frames with stickers indicating the use of tubing from top manufacturers Dedacciai, Easton, or Columbus will command a premium.
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Steel was the dominant road bike frame material until the 1980s and is still a lovely material in the hands of a good designer. It’s most often found on custom bikes and those designed for touring because in those applications its weight penalty is less important. It’s heavier than aluminium but can be wonderfully comfortable.
The latest ultra-high-strength stainless steel tubes from Columbus and Reynolds demonstrate the material’s suitability for lightweight race bikes but they don’t come cheap.
However, titanium is difficult to work with and this means that it has always been an expensive option. It’s slightly more affordable now than when it was the hot new material back in the 1990s, but it’s still not exactly cheap.
Carbon fibre is now the most coveted road bike frame material. Once an ultra-expensive choice, bikes with carbon fibre frames are now available from about £1,100.
Carbon fibre frames aren’t all equal though. There’s a huge difference between cheap and expensive carbon fibre, down to the type of fibres used, how it’s manufactured and other important factors that make a big impact. Carbon fibre can be relatively easily manipulated by designers to create frames with the particular balance of properties they want, whether that’s low weight, comfort, stiffness.
If you’re facing a choice between a bike with a carbon fibre frame, and another with an aluminium frame, don’t dismiss aluminium. Often you will get an aluminium bike with higher grade wheels and components than you could get on a carbon bike of a similar price, and that will contribute to a lower overall weight. That can lead to a far more enjoyable ride than you’ll get from a carbon fibre bike where the manufacturer has had to cut corners (with heavy wheels or a low spec groupset) to make a price point. So don’t just put carbon fibre at the top of your list because your friend has bought a carbon fibre bike.
Choosing the right size
Choosing the right size bike is absolutely critical when buying your first road bike. Take advice from the bike shop but don’t go for a bike that is too small or too large just because it’s a bargain. Only with the correct size bike for your height and dimensions will you really get the most out of your new hobby.
Guiseppe measures saddle height
Picking the right size can be difficult. Generally, road bike sizes are given in centimetres but the way in which frames are measured varies between manufacturers. Some offer three sizes and some offer 10 with smaller increments between them. However, as everyone has their own individual body shape it can get complicated.
The best thing is to have a good look at the size chart on each manufacturer’s website, and sling your leg over any bike you’re considering buying. If you can get a short spin on a bike, even better. The minimum rule of thumb is that you should be able to stand over the frame with a couple of centimetres of space between you and the top tube. If you can’t, it’s definitely too big.
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