What constitutes a cheap road bike? There’ll always be some disagreement over the definition of ‘cheap’, but with the advent of the Cycle to Work Scheme and other similar purchase offers, most really serious road bikes kick off at around £1,000.
We took a quick straw poll in the office and when most of us took our first proper steps towards becoming cyclists, we each spent around £500 on our first bikes.
Some researched their purchase for months, others went straight out to their local bike shop and asked the staff for their advice. But time and time again the ballpark figure was somewhere between £500 and £1,000.
It’s here that road bikes begin to look like serious racers: the gear shifters are combined with the brake levers so your hands can stay in one comfy position and the frames are made of lighter materials such as butted aluminium or perhaps even carbon fibre.
You can pick up bikes for less than £500 but often they’re heavy, inefficient and will grumble if you really up the mileage. They might be fine for fair-weather weekend riding, but start training for a sportive and their shortcomings will soon show.
With that in mind, here’s a rundown of what we consider to be the best road bikes under £1,000. There’s been significant bike price inflation in the last few years and some bikes which used to cost comfortably under £1,000 now cost uncomfortably over £1,000. We’ve included a couple of bikes that now exceed £1,000 at full price. You might be prepared to pay that, or you may just be able to find the bike you’re interested in at a discount.
Plus further down you can find a buying guide to help you with sizing, the right questions to ask when deciding what you need, what accessories to buy, and how to go about planning your first big ride.
The nine best cheap bikes under or around £1,000
- Pinnacle Laterite 3: £655
- Giant Contend 2: £879
- Triban RC520: £850
- Trek Domane AL 2 Disc: £1050
- Specialized Allez E5: £899
- Ribble Endurance AL Disc Tiagra: £999
- Fuji Sportif 2.3: £850
- Cannondale Synapse 3: £1,100
- Genesis Day One: £899
1. Pinnacle Laterite 3: The best on a tight budget
- Price: £655
Evans’s house brand Pinnacle offers top value. This is the poshest of its Laterite models. Spending top-money sees the bike’s compact 6061-T6 heat-treated aluminium frame and carbon fibre fork hung with a Shimano Sora groupset. A treat usually reserved for much pricier bikes.
The crankset might not be Shimano but is decent nonetheless. The brakes are acceptable, and the Schwalbe Lugano tyres reputable enough. With space for mudguards and a rear rack, it’s a great introduction to drop bar riding.
- Buy now from Evans Cycles (£655)
2. Giant Contend 2: The best compact budget road bike
- Price: £879
By some distance the largest bike maker company in the world, Giant is pretty handy at creating fab bicycles regardless of how much you have to spend.
One of its cheaper machines, the Contend 2 is nevertheless impressively light, managing as it does to scrape under the 10kg mark. At the same time, its geometry is quite nippy for a more budget road bike, meaning that you’ll still get proper racing bike pizzaz out of the Contend if you push it. Adding to its ride comfort, Giant has also employed a D-Fuse seatpost for a gentler ride.
Yet, at the same time as being nicely racy, the Contend is also versatile. This means there’s still space for wide 32mm tyres and attachments for mudguards and racks making it an able commuter or touring bike as well.
- Buy from Giant (£879)
3. Triban RC520: The best for versatility
- Price: £850
Part of an updated range offered by European sports warehouse Decathlon, the Triban RC 520 represents incredible value. With a short top tube and upright front end, its frame and carbon fork are designed for endurance.
However, it’s the superlative 11-speed Shimano 105 R7000 groupset and hybrid mechanical/hydraulic brake callipers that really set it apart. Backed up by lightweight wheels with cartridge bearings and tubeless-ready tyres, it’s also ripe for future upgrading.
There’s an even cheaper model and a gravel-spec edition also in the range, and both are equally good value.
- Read our first ride of the Triban RC 520
- Buy now from Decathlon (£850)
4. Trek Domane AL 2 Disc: The best endurance bike
- Price: £1050
The Trek Domane is a name to conjure with, and a pleasing amount of the tech from the range’s top-flight machines has found its way down into this budget version of its Domane platform. Aimed at riders after comfort over long distances, the AL 2 Disc provides this via a relaxed geometry and 32mm tyres.
With both frame and fork including robust bolt-through axles, this is a bike unafraid of being pointed at rough surfaces. In fact, depending on how you define the term, it’ll even cope with light off-road work.
With handling that’s less skittish than more aggressive designs, the Domane is a versatile machine that can take mudguards and racks for touring or commuting, yet is equally happy to tackle a speedy weekend century ride.
Fitted out with a full Shimano 2×8-speed Claris groupset, in both looks and operation it could easily be mistaken for a more expensive bike.
- Buy now from Evans Cycles (£779)
5. Specialized Allez E5: The best all-rounder
- Price: £799
A light aluminium frame, full carbon fork, minimalist wheels and a cool paint job… what more could you ask for from a bike costing under £1000?
Made by one of the giants of the bike business, Specialized’s legendary Allez is a top pick for entry-level bikes.
Thin-walled aluminium tubes contribute to a class-leading frame weight and a sprightly ride for an entry-level bike.
It is fitted with Shimano’s Claris groupset, which is much improved over previous versions, looking from a distance much like its more expensive stablemates. Gearing may be limited to a 2x 8-speed setup, but the wide 11-32 cassette range should provide confidence when heading into the hills.
This older model Allez with rim brakes is still available, and often with a discount, but the latest model Allez, introduced in 2023, has disc brakes and much wider tyre clearance of 35mm, plus a price increase.
- Buy now from Evans Cycles (£899)
- Read our reviews of the (rim brake) Specialized Allez Sport, the next tier up in the Allez range and the newer disc brake Specialized Allez Sport
6. Ribble Endurance AL Disc Tiagra: The best for customisation
- Price: £999
At the heart of the Ribble Endurance’s appeal is a frame that’s designed for comfort over the long haul. This is then fitted with a customisable assortment of components – none of which look remotely like a weak link.
Available at different price points dependent on the groupset, we think this Shimano Tiagra-equipped model hits the sweet spot. Giving you a 2x 10-speed drivetrain to play with, the ratios provided can be chosen at checkout, perfect for tailoring it to your nearby terrain.
Fixed in place via stiff bolt-through axles, the Ribble’s Mavic Aksium Disc wheels are tough and infinitely serviceable. With Tektro MD510 mechanical disc brakes taking care of the stopping, a sub-10kg weight is respectable for such a bulletproof build.
Using what was formerly Ribble’s audax geometry, the Endurance is happy to take a rack or panniers, making it good for light touring or winter use. At the same time, it’s still easily sporty enough for sportives or club runs.
- Read our Ribble Endurance AL review
- Buy now from Ribble (£999)
7. Fuji Sportif 2.3: The best for climbing
- Price: £850
Possessing a geometry that balances speed and endurance, the Fuji Sportif is made from a lightweight aluminium frame and carbon fork with a taller head tube and longer chainstays for maximum comfort.
Built with internal cable routing and wave seatstays that minimise vibrations from the road and bring vertical flex, it’s primed for riding all day long. It also has mudguard and rack mounts making it suitable for commuting, all-weather riding and even a bit of adventuring.
Employing an alloy wheelset and wider 30c Vittoria Zaffiro V tyres, the bike is fast to get rolling, while keeping it moving is Shimano’s reliable 8-speed Claris drivetrain. Its combination of compact chainset and 11-34t cassette means you’re unlikely to run out of gears on even the most fearsome of hills.
- Buy it now from Wiggle (£850)
8. Cannondale Synapse 3: the best for long-haul rides
- Price: £1,100
For a little more than £1,000 you can get what for us is one of the best looking bikes you’ll find for anything like this kind of money, if your budget will stretch a little.
The Cannondale Synapse isn’t just a pretty frame. Its geometry means it is comfortable over long distances while a light frame and entirely carbon fork do nothing to sandbag its progress, providing top-drawer handling on top.
It is fitted with a Shimano Sora 2x 9-speed drivetrain, giving you a decent range of gears for climbing. With clearance for up to 32c tyres as well as Save Micro-Suspension flex zones at the back it’s extra comfortable on rougher roads, making it as versatile as they come.
- Buy now from Tredz (£1,100)
9. Genesis Day One: The best road bike for commuters
- Price £899
For stop-start and all-weather riding, the Genesis Day One is designed to provide maximum comfort with minimum fuss.
It’s a hub gear bike, so should require very little maintenance while still providing eight sequential gears. Perfect for inner-city cycling, what more do you need? On top of that it has Promax mechanical disc brakes to make sharp stopping easy, which is especially handy when dealing with unpredictable traffic, unpredictable weather and the variables of traffic lights.
The Day One also allows for comfort on rough surfaces and tough terrain thanks to big 37c tyres that are sure to have you flying. With plenty of mounts, it’s ready to carry all your luggage and will happily accept fenders. All considered, it’s a great city bike that’s also happy on touring-style trips too.
- Buy now from Freewheel (£899)
Getting the perfect fit
Getting the right frame size is one of the most important aspects of buying a new bike and one of many reasons to visit, support and buy from your local bike shop and eschew the temptation to buy online.
With a wide range of sizes available, often with small jumps between them (2cm in most cases), finding the right size from an online chart can be a daunting – often impossible – task.
Fortunately, a good bike shop will take care of you. A word of warning, though: be careful when referring to bikes by their frame sizes. Some manufacturers measure things differently.
The main two things to worry about are saddle height and reach. There are lots of different methods to work out your correct saddle height, but as a general rule, when your foot is at its lowest point your knee should have a 30-degree bend, as that’s the angle that gets your big glute muscles firing.
The reach is something that you need to get a feel for, but if you’ve never ridden a road bike with dropped bars before, the appropriate reach can actually feel quite stretched at first and will take some getting used to.
It’s almost always the case that when your saddle is the correct height, you won’t be able to remain sat on it and have both feet flat on the floor, since in reality you never really have to do this while cycling. If you’re nervous about it, plan ahead for your stops so you can pull up at a kerb and rest your foot on that.
Choosing your pedals
A lot of new bikes don’t come with pedals, so your first big decision is whether to go for flat pedals or clipless road bike pedals. Flat pedals may be more versatile (because you can use them wearing regular shoes), but they’re inefficient. Trainers flex a lot at the sole, so you lose a lot of pedalling power wearing them – it’s like trying to knock in a nail with a rubber hammer.
Clipless pedals (so-called because they replaced traditional toeclips and straps) work by binding to a cleat that’s screwed onto the sole of the shoe. The shoes that go with clipless pedals have far stiffer soles to make pedalling more efficient and a lot more comfortable.
There are two distinct patterns of clipless pedal – two-bolt (Shimano SPD) and three-bolt (including Shimano SPD-SL and Look) pedals.
Two-bolt cleats are usually recessed into the sole of the shoe to make walking easier – these are favoured by mountain bikers, gravel riders and commuters, since there is typically more walking involved. Walking is possible in three-bolt cleats, but you may look like a penguin. Also check that your shoes are compatible with your pedals – the shop will be able help with this.
With a little perseverance, once you’ve got the hang of clipless pedals, you’ll be able to release your foot far quicker than you could pull your shoes out of old-fashioned toeclips.
Ask the right questions
Before you go and take a look at what your local bike shop has to offer, it pays to do your research and have a good think about what you want from your purchase. Mudguards and a rack? Rim or disc brakes?
Is the bike going to be used mainly for commuting or leisure riding? There are so many different models to choose from, that if you don’t have a good idea of what you need from it, you’ll likely end up totally bewildered. It also helps the shop, as they’ll then know what they can safely recommend, rather than relying purely on guesswork.
Most shops will include a servicing package to help keep your bike in good shape and will probably offer a discount on accessories. If you’d like to swap some parts on the bike straight out the box, ask – but don’t count on the shop doing it free of charge. If it’s an own-brand stem, they might not have one in stock, but things like cassettes or tyres are normally done for the cost difference.
Sale bikes can be great, but don’t compromise on getting the correct size for a groupset upgrade. You’ll be much happier – and faster – on a bike that’s comfortable. Buying a second-hand bikes can net you a bargain but equally can be a minefield: unless you know the pitfalls to avoid, we’d recommend steering clear.
Essential extras
When buying a new bike you’ll have to reserve a portion of your budget for essential kit. Luckily, most shops will cut you a deal if you buy these at the same time. Expect to spend a minimum of £50 for a decent helmet, and try several makes and models to find the best fit.
Whether you’re planning to ride on your own or with friends, you’ll need enough small tools to be self-sufficient. You will get a puncture at some point, so practise changing an inner tube at home until you’re confident you’ll be able to do it on the road when all your friends are watching (and heckling).
The minimum kit we’d recommend would include a set of tyre levers (Topeak Shuttle levers, £5.99, extrauk.co.uk), two spare inner tubes (around £5 each; ensure you get the correct type – road bikes use Presta valves), a pack of glueless patches (Park Tool Super Patch, £3.49, madison.co.uk), and last but not least, a mini pump (Lezyne Gauge Drive HP, £40, upgradebikes.co.uk).
Some big brands such as Bontrager and Specialized produce kits that includes all these items, and a saddlebag to stow them in. Buy yourself a multitool – look for something that includes 3, 4 5 and 6mm allen keys (Topeak Mini 20 Pro, £29, extrauk.co.uk). Make sure you’ve got the correct size allen key to remove your wheels, usually 6mm, if you have a disc brake bike with thru-axles without levers. We’d also recommend getting a bottle cage and bottle, too.
Plan your first ride
Once you’ve got the bike all and your kit together, you’ll be keen to get riding, but it pays to spend some time planning your first outing to avoid potential problems that may arise. We’d say 20 miles is a good distance to start with – you don’t want to risk running out of food, water and energy, or discovering a fault in your bike when you’re a long way from home.
If you don’t know the best roads for cycling in your area, the Strava website is useful – it has a great ride-planning tool that makes route suggestions based on their popularity with other cyclists. Although you’ll need a paid subscription to access this, you can try free for a month.
You can then use the Strava app on your smartphone to navigate, while recording your journey. We’d also recommend komoot for its route-planning tools and ride recommendations from other cyclists.
During your first ride, pay particular attention to how the bike feels. Is the saddle a little low? Get your multitool out and shift it up a little. Short test rides are good for working out any small adjustments like this you may need to make.
Need some help with the basics? Read our beginner’s guide to the parts of a road bike