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Road Bikes Buying Guide
Road bikes are mean, lean, speed machines perfect for touring or racing on smooth, flat, long roads. They cut through wind on super-light frames, with dropped handlebars and narrow, smooth tires. Or on heavier frames, with wide handlebars and thick tires. The choices are endless but the sleekness is the same.
Keep in mind that road bikes are not the way to go if you are looking for a budget-friendly bike. These babies, new, will run you at least $400 and that's just at a beginner's level (some used or older bikes can be found for a little cheaper). For the serious racer, you're talking up to $5000... and beyond. The road bikes that are available for under $400 at many department stores are highly unreliable and recommended only for very casual riders -- otherwise, with repairs, they'll end up costing you just as much as a Giant OCR or Schwinn Fastback, which are better bikes. If all you want is a good, comfortable bike for fun rides, look into a hybrid or comfort
Types of Road Bikes
What kind of riding will you most do?
- Road racing -- Racing (Light, stiff, hairpin handling, high performance climbing)
- Long distance riding -- Touring (Comfortable, strong, tons of gears, built to carry equipment)
- Some long distance riding, some speed -- Sport (Between the racing and touring models: both comfort and performance)
- Marathon speed racing -- Triathlon (Aerodynamic, ride practically parallel to the ground)
- Off-road racing -- Cyclo-cross (Thicker tires, wide-angled frame, durable)
- Closed-circuit speed racing -- Track (Single speed, light, stiff, aggressive angles on frame)
For comfortable city riding, look into a hybrid
Primary Features
Choose a type of bike and keep your needs in mind when going through the factors below.
- Price
- Under $1000 (entry level).
- $1000-$2500 (fun).
- $2500-$5500 (hardcore).
- $5000+ (off to the pro races).
Frame (your bike's skeleton; more below)
- Aluminum (or Alloy)
- Pro: Light, stiff, large tubes, more durable than carbon, cheaper than carbon.
- Con: Not as light as carbon, harsh ride, limited life.
- Steel (or Chromoly)
- Pro: Stiffest of all, strongest of all, inexpensive, can be repaired if broken.
- Con: Heaviest of all, harshest of all, rusts.
- Titanium
- Pro: Strong, light, forgiving, stiffer than aluminum, more durable than aluminum.
- Con: Very expensive.
- Combo (Aluminum mainframe with carbon seatstays, for example.)
- Same pros and cons relate, in proportion.
- Components
- Major brand (Shimano, Campagnolo, etc.)
- Pro: Reliable, proven, light.
- Con: Expensive.
- Non-major brand
- Pro: Cheaper.
- Con: Slower, heavier, lower performance (braking, shifting, bearing), less durable.
Secondary Features
Toe-clip -- stirrup or straps a rider slips his or her foot into.- Pro: Flexible, easy to use.
- Con: Inefficient, possibility of slipping.
- Clipless -- a binding system where the cleats on a rider's bike shoes lock into the pedal.
- Pro: Efficient, no slipping, used by the pros.
- Con: Requires special shoes and getting used to.
- Flat -- no binding or strapping system.
- Pro: Familiar, easy dismount.
- Con: Inefficient and plenty of slipping.
- Cranksets -- Determines how many sprockets make up the front gears, and thus, how many speeds you'll have.
- Two-chainring (double)
- Pro: Traditional choice for racing, lighter, standard on many high-end models.
- Con: Little help on very steep climbs and long trips.
- Three-chainring (triple)
- Pro: Great for steep hills, touring.
- Con: Adds some weight, shifts a bit slower, requires upgrade on high-end bikes (cheaper at purchase).
- Cassettes -- Determines the number and type of rear gears and, thus, the range of speeds; the first number says how many teeth the smallest cassette has, the second number is how many the largest cassette has.
- 11-21 -- flat course racing.
- 12-23 -- competitive road racing (popular pro choice).
- 12-25 -- for some hills.
- 12-27 -- for significantly easier climbing.
- 12-34 -- very easy gears, only available on triple chainring.
- Thin (20c or 23c) -- For all types of racing; stiff ride; a 23c is the popular size.
- Thick (25c or 28c) -- For touring and off-road; a comfortable ride.
More on Frames and Ride Quality
As discussed, a frame's material determines many of the bike's most important qualities, including weight, degree of stiffness and strength.
Stiffness
A bike's stiffness is related to its flex, which is how much energy it absorbs. The more energy a bike absorbs, the more comfortable your ride -- since it takes the hits for you. But a bike that takes energy into its frame is also wasting that energy, instead of passing it off to the wheels and producing more power and speed.
Stiffness is determined by the bike's material and by the diameter of its tubing. Fat frames tend to be harsh (mountain bikes, which have thick-tubed frames, off-set the stiffness with increased suspension). Other factors include the geometry of the frame (wider angles are stiffer), the quality of the saddle and the seatpost, and the type of wheels (narrower, high-pressure tires are stiffer).
How much harshness you should withstand depends on how fast you want to go. Racers prefer stiff bikes. Sport and touring riders like some flex.
Weight
With road bikes, a light weight increases performance. All the construction values of a frame go into determining how heavy it's going to be, from the thickness of the tube and the walls to the types of components that complement it (high quality components are always lighter).
Strength
The wall-thickness of the tubes says a lot about a frame's resilience. A thick-walled steel frame is virtually unbreakable, with a "butted" aluminum frame right up there on the scale of indestructibility. But, of course, a thick-walled steel frame is also deadly heavy. It's an eternal battle between strength and weight. Choose your sides based on how long you plan to own the bike, and, again, on what type of riding you expect to do.
About Fit
No matter how good your bike, it will do you no good if it doesn't fit your body. Some bike shops will calculate your ideal bike size for you, at a fee of about $50. But you can also just figure it out yourself.
- Bike size, a single number, refers to the length of the bike's seat tube, in inches.
- Your true fit is not entirely dependent on the bike size.
How to find a good fit:
- Standing up, there should be an inch or two of clearance between the top bar and your crotch.
- Sitting down, you should feel comfortable reaching the handlebars.
Major Brands for Road Racers
- Airborne
- Bianchi Veloce
- Campagnolo
- Cannondale R900
- Giant
- Marin San Marino
- Schwinn
- Scott
- Shimano
- Specialized -- Allez
, Dolce, Langster, Roubaix, Tarmac, Transition, Tricross
Top Picks Gallery
Less Than $1000
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$1000-$2500
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$2500-$5500
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Related Guides
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External Links
- BicyclesWest.com -- A simple and thorough guide to choosing a road bike.
- Epinions.com -- Geared for mountain biking, but the same positives and negatives of aluminum, carbon, and company still apply.
- SheldonBrown.com -- Argues against the very same frame material stereotypes used in this guide.
- BikeMagic.com -- An overview of cyclo-cross.