- 23 hours ago
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
00:06a
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
00:43right 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
01:06nice robust tires on it that aren't going to puncture as soon as you take it outside and this one
01:12actually
01:12has disc brakes as well it's also got a two by eight speed group set on it now i think
01:20that's a really
01:20good choice for anyone just getting into cycling it's got plenty of gears to get you up some steep
01:26hills and plenty of gears for powering along on the flats as well this is definitely a bike that's
01:32going to have no problems getting you from a to b and it's got loads of rack mounts you can
01:37fit a set of
01:37mud guards to it it's got no proprietary parts on it so easy to swap out if you did ever
01:42want to
01:43upgrade it now obviously this is a bike towards the lower end of the range and what that means is
01:48it's going to be a bit weightier than the ones that we're going to see in a minute so with
01:53that in
01:53mind 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 tribun rc520 now this
02:09is a bike that has won all sorts of awards for its value for money but what sort of features
02:15can you
02:15expect from a bike under a thousand pounds well i think the main difference between this bike and the
02:22bike we just saw is that you'll notice that this has shimano branded group set components now shimano
02:30is a huge brand sram is a huge brand um there's nothing wrong with the with the ones on the
02:35other
02:36on 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
02:46come back here
02:46look 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
03:04to be a
03:05good thing because it closes up those gaps so if you for example wanted to go on a group ride
03:10i 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
03:26be
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
03:36bit 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
03:55we've still got external cables aluminium frame carbon fiber 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
04:20just 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
04:32the 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
04:52right moving on up and we've got this our first van riesel the ncr cf tiagra now i know what
05:00you
05:00might be thinking tiagra is lower than shimano 105 and yes it is this is only a 2x10 speed group
05:06set in fact
05:07but actually i don't think that matters too much i think 2x10 is more than enough gears and there's
05:13plenty of other features on this bike that more than make up for that so what are those features
05:17well i'll try and rattle through them as fast as possible first up we've got a full carbon fiber
05:22frame and that is going to shed a lot of weight off of the total build so again got a
05:27carbon fiber fork
05:28you'll also notice that these are hydraulic disc brakes so they are actuated by hydraulic fluid rather
05:36than cables and that means a lot less maintenance and a lot more stopping power as well another
05:42thing is you'll notice that this one looks a bit cleaner because it's got integrated cabling so the
05:47the 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
05:59i shouldn't worry about that too much so at this 1000 to 1500 pound price point you begin to see
06:06that you get a lot more branded components so for example this has got shimano series components
06:13throughout so everything says shimano on it even the brake calipers it's also got mavic wheels again
06:17they're a they're a quality brand at this price point you can expect a full bike bill to be under
06:2310 kilos as
06:24well and actually thanks to the carbon fiber frame this one is just over nine i think the key
06:30distinction between this bike and the previous two that we've just seen is this is really for people
06:35who are looking to for that extra bit of performance so whether you want to dip your toe into racing
06:41your
06:42mates on a local group ride then this carbon fiber 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
06:57same frame as the one that we just saw it's still got a carbon fiber frame it's still got internal
07:03rooted cables although you might notice that there's a few missing now that's because this is
07:09the first price point that we're introduced to electronic shifting so what that means is that
07:16well there's little batteries in the shifters up there and they wirelessly control the front mech
07:21and the rear mech now don't get me wrong i absolutely love electronic shifting but it is a luxury
07:27rather than a necessity and that's why i think at this price point i would either save a bit of
07:34cash
07:35and go for the price point below or i would try and get all my coins together and stretch a
07:41bit further
07:42for a bike like the 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
07:55you'll find
07:55team decathlon h2r riding around in the world tour and pro races now what makes this bike stand out to
08:02me well quite a few features actually first of all it's still got an electronic group set still got full
08:08carbon fiber frame and fork it's also got this frame that's tailored well it's kind of sculpted by
08:14the wind it's been it's had some wind tunnel time is what it's had and that means that you are
08:19going
08:19to have a bit of an advantage especially on flat roads it's also really quite lightweight so you're
08:24not going to be held back on the hills and at this price point we've got a set of carbon
08:28wheels
08:29for the first time now they're going to be lighter they're going to be stiffer and they're going to be
08:33more 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
08:46is there'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 but if
09:00you search around you can find bikes that come with really nice tires and they're worth a bob or two
09:06too also at this price point for the first time we've got a power meter now again that is a
09:13luxury
09:13item but if you're serious about your training and going fast then this might just help take your cycling
09:19to the next level um we've also got some really nice clean lines like this is all but it's still
09:25semi
09:25integrated but they're quite neatly tucked under the under the stem and then they run down through
09:31the frame so just looks clean what i think we've found here then is the sweet spot of price versus
09:37performance for under 4 000 pounds i think you can have a bike that put the right rider on it
09:44and i
09:45think it could win the tour de france i think that beyond this point you really get diminishing returns
09:50when it comes to performance right then things are getting spicy now for in between 4 000 and 6 000
10:00pounds you can get something along the lines of this so this is the van riesel rcrf and at this
10:07price
10:07point you can get some really sort of specialist tools including some really funky aero bikes like
10:13this one so this is the same frame layout as the one that you'll find the pros racing around on
10:20you
10:20also get again electronic shifting all of that malarkey you get some really deep wheels deep carbon
10:27wheels sort of begin to become a thing at this price point and yeah just specialist tech so again
10:33power meters fully internal routing whoever you take your bike to to work on it or if you do your
10:39own
10:40workshop maintenance might not thank you for fully integrated bikes but they do look really clean and
10:46you might save a few fractions of a watt if you're traveling really fast this one even comes with a
10:53really fancy aero tire how about that but there is one more price bracket to go
11:02right here is the most expensive bike in the shop this one will set you back about 10 000 pounds
11:08and
11:09it's representing our six thousand pounds plus category and for this price point what you can
11:14expect is the best of the best money no object is it a sensible buy no probably not but i
11:23think this is
11:24one of the 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
11:36layup frame just like the last one it's got full durace shimano durace componentry it's got a double
11:42sided power meter it's even got a carbon railed saddle these uh swiss side wheels have ceramic bearings
11:48in this really is it's a dream build is what it is would i recommend buying it though no not
11:59if it was my
11:59own 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
12:16in
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
12:27content then please give it a like hype for the video and subscribe to the channel for lots more
12:32bike stuff we'll see you next time
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