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A new road bike in 2025 can cost anything from a beginner road bike at £400 to a pro cycling super bike at £10,000+. But what price road bike offers the best performance for it's price. We discuss 2026 road bike pricing and see what road bike features you can expect at each price point.
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00:00One of the questions that we get asked literally all of the time is how much should I spend on a
00:06new bike? Well obviously that is going to be influenced a lot by your personal budget but is
00:12there a sweet spot of price versus performance? Should you perhaps stretch to get that bike that's
00:18a little bit more expensive or should you actually save some of your bike budget to spend on
00:23things like kit or a holiday or less important things like families or something like that
00:29to find out we're here in London at the decathlon store and behind me i have a selection of bikes
00:35from a variety of price points so make sure you're subscribed and let's get into it
00:44right i think we found it this is the cheapest drop bar bike currently in the decathlon store this is
00:49the tribun rc120 it's got an alloy frame it does have a carbon fiber fork which is quite a nice
00:55bonus for a bike this price so if you're looking for a bike that's sub 500 pounds then something
01:01like this is probably the way to go it's nice and versatile it's got decent tire clearances it's got
01:07nice robust tires on it that aren't going to puncture as soon as you take it outside and this one
01:12actually has disc brakes as well it's also got a two by eight speed group set on it now i think that's a
01:20really good choice for anyone just getting into cycling it's got plenty of gears to get you up some
01:26steep hills and plenty of gears for powering along on the flats as well this is definitely a bike
01:31that's going to have no problems getting you from a to b and it's got loads of rack mounts you can fit
01:37a set of mud guards to it it's got no proprietary parts on it so easy to swap out if you did ever want
01:43to upgrade it now obviously this is a bike towards the lower end of the range and what that means
01:48is it's going to be a bit weightier than the ones that we're going to see in a minute so with that
01:53in mind let's move up a price point and have a look at something a bit more premium
02:01right so representing the 500 pounds to a thousand pound category we have this tribe and rc520 now this
02:09is a bike that has won all sorts of awards for its value for money but what sort of features can you
02:15expect from a bike under a thousand pounds well i think the main difference between this bike and
02:22the bike we just saw is that you'll notice that this has shimano branded group set components now
02:30shimano is a huge brand sram is a huge brand um there's nothing wrong with the with the ones on the
02:35other on the other bike but when it says shimano on it you know you're getting some quality stuff really
02:41so like the bike we just saw it's got a double crank set at the front but then if you come back
02:46here look at all these one two three four five six seven eight nine ten eleven it's got a two by
02:52eleven speed group set so as you spend more you can generally expect to have more gears to play with
02:59at the back that is you don't necessarily want more at the front but more at the back is tends to be a
03:05good thing because it closes up those gaps so if you for example wanted to go on a group ride i think
03:10you'd be a lot more comfortable on a two by eleven speed group set because you can find a comfortable
03:16cadence it's less of a problem if you're going on solo rides because then you're dictating your own
03:21pace but if you're riding with someone and they want to ride at one pace then this is going to be
03:26a good way of finding a comfortable cadence so another difference between this bike and the one we
03:31saw a minute ago is that it's got these drop seat stays now we're going to see this become a bit of
03:36recurring theme on the bikes that we're going to see in a minute as well but basically drop seat stays
03:41can add to the compliance of the frame you've got more area that can flex and that means that when
03:49you're going over some bumpy roads you're going to get a bit more compliance from all those bumps we've
03:56still got external cables aluminium frame carbon fibre fork still got all those mounting points
04:01again a really versatile frame with some really quite generous tire clearances and you can fit your
04:08racks or mud guards on this so yeah if you're looking to spend under a thousand pounds on a bike
04:13then the features that you can expect i'd still be going for disc brakes the rim brake bikes they're
04:19just getting fewer and far between and i know this we said a minute ago is a controversial topic but
04:25disc brake bikes so this bit here it basically means that you'll wear this bit out and not the rim
04:32of the wheel so you can keep using it through all conditions they often offer a bit more modulation
04:38especially in wet weather as well and this really is a bike that you'll be very happy on whether you
04:44want to ride big distances potentially commute on it or even join your local group ride
04:49right moving on up and we've got this our first van riesel the ncr cf tiagra now i know what you
05:00might be thinking tiagra is lower than shimano 105 and yes it is this is only a 2x10 speed group set in
05:06fact but actually i don't think that matters too much i think 2x10 is more than enough gears
05:12and there's plenty of other features on this bike that more than make up for that so what are those
05:17features well i'll try and rattle through them as fast as possible first up we've got a full carbon
05:22fibre frame and that is going to shed a lot of weight off of the total build so again got a carbon
05:27fibre fork you'll also notice that these are hydraulic disc brakes so they are actuated by hydraulic fluid
05:36rather than cables and that means a lot less maintenance and a lot more stopping power as well
05:41another thing is you'll notice that this one looks a bit cleaner because it's got integrated cabling so
05:46the the brake hoses and the gear cables are routed through the frame now that adds a bit of complexity
05:54to it but it certainly looks cleaner and is supposedly a little bit more aerodynamic but
06:00shouldn't worry about that too much so at this 1000 to 1500 pound price point you begin to see that you
06:07get a lot more branded components so for example this has got shimano series components throughout
06:13so everything says shimano on it even the brake calibers it's also got mavic wheels again they're
06:18a they're a quality brand at this price point you can expect a full bike bill to be under 10 kilos as
06:24well and actually thanks to the carbon fibre frame this one is just over nine i think the key distinction
06:30between this bike and the previous two that we've just seen is this is really for people who are
06:35looking to for that extra bit of performance so whether you want to dip your toe into racing your
06:42mates on a local group ride then this carbon fibre frame is going to reward that
06:49between 1500 and 2500 things don't initially seem to change that much in fact this is exactly the same
06:58frame as the one that we just saw it's still got a carbon fibre frame it's still got internal rooted
07:04cables although you might notice that there's a few missing now that's because this is the first
07:10price point that we're introduced to electronic shifting so what that means is that well there's
07:16little batteries in the shifters up there and they wirelessly control the front mech and the rear mech
07:22now don't get me wrong i absolutely love electronic shifting but it is a luxury rather than a necessity
07:30and that's why i think at this price point i would either save a bit of cash and go for the price
07:36point below or i would try and get all my coins together and stretch a bit further for a bike like
07:43the next one we're going to see
07:47so this is it the van riesel rcr r and this is the same frame shape as the ones that you'll find team
07:56decathlon ag2 are riding around in the world tour and pro races now what makes this bike stand out
08:02to me well quite a few features actually first of all it's still got an electronic group set still
08:08got full carbon fiber frame and fork it's also got this frame that's tailored well it's kind of sculpted
08:13by the wind it's been it's had some wind tunnel time is what it's had and that means that you are
08:19going to have a bit of an advantage especially on flat roads it's also really quite lightweight so you're
08:23not going to be held back on the hills and at this price point we've got a set of carbon wheels for
08:29the first time now they're going to be lighter they're going to be stiffer and they're going to
08:33be more aerodynamic than their aluminium shallow counterparts so what that means is out on a group
08:40ride or a solo ride you're not going to have any excuses the other good thing about this price point is
08:46there's not actually anything that i'd want to change on it in a hurry so it's got actually really
08:53good tires these are continental gp 5000 strs now that's not always the case at this price point
08:59but if you search around you can find bikes that come with really nice tires and they're worth a bob
09:06or two too also at this price point for the first time we've got a power meter now again that is a
09:12luxury item but if you're serious about your training and going fast then this might just help take your
09:19cycling to the next level um we've also got some really nice clean lines like this is all but it's
09:24still semi-integrated but they're quite neatly tucked under the under the stem and then they run down
09:31through the frame so just looks clean what i think we've found here then is the sweet spot of price
09:37versus performance for under 4 000 pounds i think you can have a bike that put the right rider on it and
09:44i think it could win the tour de france i think that beyond this point you really get diminishing
09:49returns when it comes to performance right then things are getting spicy now for in between four
09:59thousand and six thousand pounds you can get something along the lines of this so this is the van
10:04riesel rcrf and at this price point you can get some really sort of specialist tools including some
10:12really funky aero bikes like this one so this is the same frame layout as the one that you'll find
10:18the pros racing around on you also get again electronic shifting all of that malarkey you get
10:24some really deep wheels deep carbon wheels sort of begin to become a thing at this price point and yeah
10:31just specialist tech so again power meters fully internal routing whoever you take your bike to to work
10:38on it or if you do your own workshop maintenance might not thank you for fully integrated bikes
10:44but they do look really clean and you might save a few fractions of a watt if you're traveling really
10:50fast this one even comes with a really fancy aero tire how about that but there is one more price bracket to go
10:59right here is the most expensive bike in the shop this one will set you back about ten thousand pounds
11:08and it's representing our six thousand pounds plus category and for this price point what you can expect
11:15is the best of the best money no object is it a sensible buy no probably not but i think this is one of
11:24the really good things about cycling you can buy exactly the same bike that the pros are riding
11:30this has got everything that the pro team are right it's even the same color so it's got the same lay
11:36up frame just like the last one it's got full durace shimano durace componentry it's got a double sided
11:42power meter it's even got a carbon railed saddle these uh swiss side wheels have ceramic bearings in
11:49this really is it's a dream build is what it is would i recommend buying it though no not if it was
11:59my own money um you get such marginal gains over the the previous bikes which are so much better value
12:08like basically half the price of this or less so my own money would be going on probably a bike in
12:16between three thousand five thousand pounds let me know which of these bikes you'd most like in your
12:21garage down below and we'll pop links to all of them down in the description if you like this kind
12:27of content then please give it a like hype for the video and subscribe to the channel for lots more bike
12:32stuff we'll see you next time
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