If you're keen to get into road cycling, for the fun of zooming round the lanes, for fitness or as a quick and cheap way to get to work, it is possible to buy a road bike for under £500. In fact, we've found a few bargains starting from just under £200, proving you really don't need to spend a fortune to get a good road bike these days.

It’s quite likely that if you’re reading this you’re looking at buying your first road bike. You’ll probably have a lot of questions. A good place to start is always a well stocked bike shop where you can view the bikes in your budget and get a good idea of what is offered.

Road bikes priced under £500 often feature light and stiff aluminium or steel frames with good quality gears and brakes. Japanese firm Shimano is the predominant component choice at this end of the market, and the good news is that a lot of the technology seen higher up the ladder eventually trickles down to the entry level.

Merlin PR7 - riding 1

Weight is the main area where entry-level bikes suffer. However, with compact or triple chainsets, and the wider range of gears they offer, getting up steep hills is made easier. As a general rule, the more you spend the lighter the bike will be. Closer to £500 and you can expect a carbon fibre fork which saves weight and offers improved performance over the steel and aluminium forks on cheaper bikes.

BTwin Triban - fork

£200-£300

You can get bikes cheaper than this, but they are — frankly — not very good. If your budget is so tight this is beyond your range then should seriously consider looking for a second hand bargain (head over to eBay or our own classifieds for a look), but if it has to be new you might find something if you shop around for discount bargains during the winter.

Spend just a bit more and you get a whole lot more bike. Lighter, better equipped, and we're willing to bet nicer to ride too. This is a price point where the big specialist retailers are really able to flex their buying muscle for your benefit, and combine it with design knowledge to deliver the maximum bang for your buck.

It's no coincidence that both Decathlon and Halfords in-house brands figure strongly here. This is also a price point at which you can pick up a really good discount bargain at the right time of the year, something we've reflected in our pick of bikes here.

B'Twin Triban 100 — £249

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A new model for 2017 from French-based sports superstore chain Decathlon, the B'Twin Triban 100 has an aluminium frame and seven-speed gears with 32mm tyres so it can tackle the odd dirt track or towpath without any fuss. It'll take mudguards and a rack so will make a serviceable commuter that can take you pootling round the lanes at the weekend.

Brand-X road bike — £289

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If this isn't the now-discontinued Wiggle road bike with different decals I'll eat my cycling cap. The spec is the same, though the price has gone up from £250. It was great value at that price; for £290 it's still decent.

It's available in five sizes, so you should be able to get one that fits well unless you're very tall or short.

Carrera Zelos — £220

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There are plenty of bikes costing under £500 at Halfords, and pick of the bunch is this Carrera Zelos. It features an aluminium frame built up with a 14-speed Shimano groupset and Tektro dual pivot brakes. There's a women's version too.

The price of the Zelos varies quite a bit from its £275 RRP. We've seen it as low as £220 (its current price); anything under £250 is a good deal.

£300 to £500

Step up to this price bracket and the choice suddenly increases, with some of the bigger manufacturers now coming into contention, especially the more you approach the £500 mark. Most of the bikes at this price, though not all, will feature an aluminium frame, which makes for a lighter bike. Get closer to £500 and you can expect to see the fork upgraded to carbon fibre, saving weight and improving the ride.

B'Twin Triban 500 — £349

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B'Twin's Triban bikes are deservedly popular as first road bikes and as commuting bikes that you won't feel too bad about exposing to road crud and winter salt and grime. The Triban 500 has a triple chainset for a wide gear range, a carbon-legged fork and plenty of clearance for mudguards.

Roux Etape 150 — £350

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With an aluminium frame, chromoly fork, wide-range gears and cantilever brakes, the Roux Etape 150 is an excellent-value touring bike, that is, a bike for long-distance, multi-day travel. It'll also do nicely for the ride to work.

With mudguards and a rack, it's ready to roll — all you need to add is panniers.

Pinnacle Laterite 1 Women's — £420

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For this price you might expect a women's bike to be the men's frame with a shorter stem and a woman's saddle. That's not the case here. There's a female-specific frame at the heart of this version of the Laterite 1, with a shorter reach for any given size, and a size range that goes down further too. There's a men's version too.

Boardman Road Sport — £400

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It's fair to say the Boardman Road Sport is a bike that impressed us a great deal when we reviewed it. Enough in fact that it was our Budget Bike of the Year 2013-14 and came third in the overall Bike of the Year Awards. You get a 7005 double-butted aluminium frame with Shimano Claris gears and FSA Tempo compact chainset.

The Road Sport comes in a slightly more relaxed, sportive-friendly geometry than a full-on race bike; the top tube is a little shorter and the head tube is a little longer — not massively but enough to add extra comfort without sacrificing too much efficiency. You get mounts for mudguards too so it's very versatile. This is a seriously impressive bike for the money — not just a good bike for £500 but a good bike full stop.

VooDoo Nakisi — £495

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As far as we know, this is the cheapest disc-braked gravel/adventure bike on the market, and Halfords has just lopped fifty quid off the price, bringing it into our price range here. You get an alloy frame, hung with Shimano Sora components and, in the kind of thoughtful speccing that's rare on an inexpensive bike, a 48/32 chainset with 11-34 cassette for gears lower than you usually find on general-purpose road bikes.

Vitus Bikes Razor — £500

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With Shimano Claris components on a 6016 aluminium frame, the latest version of the entry-level bike in Chain Reaction's Vitus range looks like excellent value for money. There's a carbon-legged fork too, and plenty of space in the frame for mudguards, plus the necessary eyelets in the frame. You can fit a rack too, making the Razor a sharp commuter.

Pinnacle Laterite 2 — £500

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A new model from Evans Cycles house brand Pinnacle, the Laterite 2 has a frame made from double-butted 6061 aluminium and a fork with carbon fibre legs. Shimano brings its Sora 9-speed gears to the party and there's plenty of room under the Tektro brakes for mudguards even with tyres fatter than the 25mm Schwalbe Luganos fitted.​

With the ADV 8.8, Boardman has continued its theme of offering great performing bikes at a sensible price. Well made, well specced and fun to ride, this latest adventure machine covers plenty of bases, from blasting the local gravel byways to year-round commuting. It's a lot of bike for not a lot of money.

• Pros: Lighter and cheaper than many rivals, excellent tyres as standard
• Cons: Braking power could be better, quite a gap between larger sprockets

ADV stands for adventure, and this is exactly what Boardman has aimed the 8.8 at, a little bit of everything.

> Find your nearest dealer here

As Boardman points out, we don't have thousands of miles of unsurfaced gravel roads so the company hasn't gone down that route specifically, instead taking the fast-rolling features of a road bike with slightly more forgiving geometry for multi-terrain use.

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Compared with its SLR Endurance Disc model, for instance, the ADV has a much more relaxed head angle at 70.5 degrees compared to 73 degrees, and a slightly bigger bottom bracket drop of 70mm to lower the centre of gravity and aid stability.

The ride

The slacker front end means the ADV 8.8 never feels twitchy on loose surfaces, with similar steering and handling off-road to the SLR Endurance on tarmac, which is confidence-inspiring, especially if you dart between the two terrains mid-ride.

On the road the ADV loses some of its steering sharpness but it never really feels ponderous through the bends. If you commute in all weathers this slower steering benefits in dodgy weather conditions like heavy rain or greasy, salt-covered winter roads.

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With a tapered head tube up front and full carbon fork, stiffness is impressive which also helps in the bends.

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The gravel tracks I have near me are mainly wide and flowing, covering hundreds of miles as they criss-cross Salisbury Plain, and the Boardman really was fun to ride in this type of surroundings. It was being tested at the same time as the Canyon Grail, which is a much faster, more aggressive gravel machine, but I never thought of the Boardman as the softer option; a more relaxed ride maybe, but never dull.

Fast, rocky descents took a little more concentration to get the perfect line, and away from the Plain where the gravel tracks and twisty hardpack trails are a little more technical a more methodical and calculated approach was required, but ride the ADV 8.8 in isolation and you'll find it a fun and solid performer.

As standard, the Boardman comes with Schwalbe's G-One Allround tyres and they are very good, both on and off-road.

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If you are going to spend a lot of time on the tarmac, though, as a commuter for instance, then a switch to some slicks will make for a better ride. I tried the 8.8 with both a set of 28mm road tyres I had knocking about and the 30mm-wide inverse treaded Ritchey Alpine JBs, and that really made for a fun cruising machine for the likes of commuting or day trips.

The bike rolls well, so you can cover some decent distance, and its all-in weight of 10.57kg never really feels like a hinderance under acceleration or when climbing. Boardman has specced a 48/32t chainset option plus an 11-32t cassette so you have plenty of low gears to get you up the steep stuff anyway.

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Like a lot of other bikes at this price point, the ADV 8.8 is fitted with a set of mechanical TRP Spyre-C brake callipers and while they are one of the better ones, braking performance can be... how can I put it?... challenging.

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You really need to pull them on hard if you need to stop from speed and there can be a few heart-stopping moments if you aren't planning ahead. There isn't a huge amount of feel or modulation and in the dry you aren't really benefiting over a good set of dual pivot rim brakes, though you are obviously reaping the benefits in the wet.

You're also experiencing less wheel wear if you ride and commute year-round: it's much cheaper to replace a rotor than a wheel rim.

Frame and fork

Boardman has created the frame from 7005 aluminium alloy and it looks and feels to be well made, with a smooth finish to the welds and a tough paintjob.

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The graphics look pretty cool, too, to my mind making the 8.8 look a more expensive bike than it actually is.

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As I mentioned above, the head tube is tapered, which is standard fare these days but still good to see at the lower end of the market. It goes from 1 1/8in at the top to 1 1/2in at the bottom for maximum stiffness under braking and steering. It also allows for a larger crown diameter on the full carbon fork fitted to complete the package.

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All the tubing is on the larger side when it comes to diameters, although very few of them are actually round. It offers a firm ride, but like a lot of alloy bikes these days, it isn't harsh.

The top tube tapers down as it gets near to the seatpost for added comfort, and the larger diameter seat tube (it takes a 31.6mm seatpost) paired with the down tube and chunky chainstays work in the opposite direction, to create a stiff bottom end for power transfer.

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Those who aren't fans of creaks will be glad to see that Boardman has gone down the threaded bottom bracket route.

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One thing we have seen trickling down through the price range is the adoption of thru-axles front and rear, but Boardman has stuck with traditional quick releases here for both the rear dropouts and the fork.

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Thru-axles, if you don't know, are tubes that pass through the frame and fork one side and are screwed into a threaded part on the opposing side, locking them into the bike. It adds a level of security over QR skewers, as in the wheels can't drop out even if the thru-axle was to loosen, plus there are some benefits at the fork as it helps resist twisting forces under braking on account of the rotor only being attached to one side of the wheel.

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Quick releases aren't redundant, though, and they worked fine throughout the test period, especially as the brakes here don't have the amount of power that a hydraulic setup has.

The frame and fork are set up for flat mount callipers for a smoother look than post mount options.

I mentioned earlier about using the ADV 8.8 for commuting, and to make this more pleasurable it comes with a full complement of mounting eyes for mudguards and a rear pannier rack. You also get two sets of bottle cage mounts.

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It's getting quite rare to see a frame that still has external cable routing but the 8.8 does use various guides to keep everything looking neat and tidy as it passes underneath the down tube.

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Wheels and tyres

Speccing Schwalbe's awesome G-Ones as standard is a bit of a masterstroke by Boardman, as they are great all-rounders perfect for the 'bit of everything' style of the ADV. They are fast on the road and grippy too, and take most things in their stride away from it; they're especially suited to hardpacked gravel and firm, dry forest trails.

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The trade-off is that they can be a little fragile, which I have found through testing them on various other bikes, but I had no issues here.

Boardman provides its own wheelset, made up of ADV tubeless ready rims mated to Formula hubs. It's not a massively exciting package but it works well and the wheels feel very solid, taking plenty of abuse on the trails. Both the front and rear use 32 spokes set up in a two-cross pattern for strength.

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The bearings feel smooth and the pick-up from the freehub pawls is quick enough so I'd be happy to leave these fitted to the ADV without worrying about an upgrade – not something I often say when it comes to bikes below a grand.

Finishing kit

Shimano provides the majority of the drivetrain by way of its 9-speed Sora groupset. It's great kit and good to see here as the shifting is positive and the gear/brake STI levers are a joy to use.

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As they mimic the design of the 105 5800 shifters and those of the next level up Tiagra model, there is very little to separate them other than the fact that those two get an extra sprocket or two.

> Your complete guide to Shimano groupsets

The cassette we have here ranges from 11 to 32 teeth (11-12-14-16-18-21-24-28-32), which as you can see has pretty close jumps at the bottom of the sprockets but they get larger towards the bigger ones. A jump of four teeth is quite noticeable but as they are predominantly for the bailout gears, I could live with it.

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FSA has supplied the chainset, primarily because Shimano doesn't offer a 48/32t chainset option in Sora. The FSA shifts across chainrings fine, and even though it looks a little dated with its cartridge bottom bracket setup, there is no need to rush out and upgrade.

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TRP Spyre-C mechanical brakes are starting to become the norm on bikes of this price, but as I said above they aren't the most powerful, even when paired with the 160mm diameter rotors. I ride a lot of disc-equipped bikes and most of them have hydraulics so I probably notice the difference between them and the Spyres more so than someone coming from cable-operated rim brakes, but just don't be expecting anything amazing in terms of a performance upgrade.

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Unlike a lot of mechanical disc options, the Spyre-Cs do move both pads onto the rotor so you get equal pressure applied. A lot of others on the market have just the one side that moves, pushing the rotor across to the stationary pad, so the Spyres do have a benefit there.

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The rest of the finishing kit comes from Boardman's own box of bits.

The aluminium alloy stem does the job, and like most adventure bikes you get a shorter length fitted than you would to the equivalent road machine: just 80mm here on the ADV 8.8.

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I'm a big fan of a flared handlebar on bikes designed for off-road use, as it gives a bit more stability when you are flying along in the drops. At the hoods it measures 440mm across but that increases by quite a bit by the time you get to the bottom.

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The bar is again an alloy offering but it is stiff enough for hauling up hills or when you load it up when cornering hard or braking.

On all its bikes, Boardman seems to favour a 31.6mm seatpost over a narrower 27.2mm option. It is a minimal difference but going for the smaller option promotes a little more flex for comfort, especially if you swap out the standard alloy one for a carbon fibre post.

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One thing that I wasn't totally enamoured with was the Boardman Road by Velo saddle; I just didn't really get on with the shape or its firmness. It's a personal thing, though, and swapping to a trusted favourite isn't a major hassle.

Value

We've had quite a few of this style of bike in lately and at first glance the ADV 8.8 is one of the cheapest at £750, and it comes in a women's version too. If you want hydraulic braking there is an 8.9 model with 10-speed Tiagra hydraulic shifters, mechs and an upgraded FSA chainset for £1,000.

The closest in price to the 8.8 is Raleigh's Mustang Sport, a similar beast with an alloy frame and carbon fork, but it only gets 8-speed Claris and it weighs 11.38kg compared to the Boardman's 10.57kg.

> Buyer's Guide: 19 of the best gravel and adventure bikes

A bike that I really enjoyed riding was the Kona Rove DL, which comes with a very similar setup for its £899 but it does get a Sora chainset. It has an aluminium fork instead of carbon and weighs a heady 12.17kg, although as I said in my review, it never felt heavy when being ridden.

Then there is the Bianchi Via Nirone All Road– not quite as off-road inspired as the Boardman, and it costs £1,000 for very similar kit and weight.

Conclusion

On paper, it's hard to discount the ADV 8.8. It's relatively light against the opposition, and quite a bit cheaper. In the real world that doesn't change either: it's a fun bike to ride, has loads of versatility and really is a bargain.

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Verdict

Boardman's adventure bike has an impressive ride on and off the road, at a very competitive price

• With elongated tube shapes and other wind-cheating features, aero road bikes provide a small but handy speed boost.

• Sleek shapes make for a distinctive look.

• Recent aero road bikes have alleviated the harsh ride that plagued some early models, thanks to improved use of materials.

• Frame aerodynamics is still a marginal gain; if you're wearing flappy clothes an aero bike is a waste of money.

In just a few years aero road bikes have gone from The Next Big Thing to a mainstream bike option. The latest models have been tweaked to be faster than ever, according to the manufacturers, and to alleviate the harsh ride that characterised some early aero bikes.

Aero road bikes essentially draw aerodynamic features from time trial bikes into a road frame, and balance the demands of weight and stiffness into a package that, on paper, looks to be the ideal all-round choice.

At any decent speed, most of your effort goes into overcoming air resistance, so reducing a bike's drag means you'll go faster, or ride at any given speed with a lower power output. Who doesn't like the sound of that?

Most of your air resistance comes from your body rather than your bike. Wearing non-flappy clothing will help, as will losing weight. But the 20% or so of air resistance from your bike is enough for engineers and designers to focus on making road frames and products more slippery through the air. In the pro peloton aero road bikes have been quickly adopted, where the margins of victory are very slim and there has been a focus on gaining ever smaller performance gains over the years.

Weight, or the lack of it, used to be the main driving force of frame development. Along with stiffness, it was a cornerstones of bike design. These days most bikes are light, many well below the UCI’s 6.8kg weight limit (which doesn’t affect non-racers anyway), and come with more stiffness than is sometimes comfortable.

All that has made aerodynamics more important. Specialized has built its own wind tunnel, for example, and most manufacturers are testing in other facilities. Nevertheless, aero road bikes haven't converged on a perfect, slippery shape. Different engineers prioritise different ways of improving aerodynamics but there are shared design trends: skinny, aerofoil-shaped tubes, integrated brakes, and internal cable routing.

Let's take a look at the latest aero offerings.

Orbea Orca Aero — £2,599-£6,799

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A new line for 2018 from Basque country bike builders Orbea, the Orca Aero boasts lots of wind-cheating tweaks that Orbea says add up to a 27 watt advantage. Our tester David Arthur found the Orbea Orca Aero M20Team to be "a fast and great handling aerodynamic road bike with a surprising talent for smoothing out all but the roughest roads. But it is speed, not comfort, that is at the top of the list of requirements for an aero road bike, and that's an area where the Orca Aero feels very competent. It's right up there with the Trek Madone, Cervelo S3 and Canyon Aeroad, as super-quick aero race bikes.

"The handling is a highlight, and helps to set it apart from some aero bikes that can be exceedingly quick but a little lacking when it comes to the way they ride and translate your inputs into actions. The Orca Aero is fun and engaging, putting a smile on your face when you're descending or chasing a friend along an undulating ridge road."

You can customise the colour scheme and spec of your Orca Aero too, so if you want to upgrade the wheels, or have yours in pink and orange, fill your boots.

Read our review of the e Orbea Orca Aero M20Team
Find an Orbea dealer

Bianchi Aria Disc — £3,350

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The new Bianchi Aria Disc is an aero road bike that offers efficiency, sharp handling and a responsive character, now with the additional all-weather assurance of disc brakes – in this case from Campagnolo.

The Aria Disc responds keenly to increased effort. Our 59cm sample wasn't especially light at 8.5kg (18.7lb), but it felt direct when you put in the power, a meaty bottom bracket helping to keep everything solidly in place. The Aria Disc feels as manoeuvrable as the rim brake version, which isn't a surprise given that the geometry is virtually identical. Some bikes designed for aerodynamics offer plenty of straight-line speed but they're a little compromised when you want to flick around. The Aria Disc handles sharply, which gives you options when it comes to darting about a group or avoiding something in the road.

Read our review of the Bianchi Aria Disc
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3T Strada — £3,600 (frame, fork, headset & seatpost)

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The new 3T Strada has blown us away. It's a truly stunning bike with breathtaking speed, impressive smoothness and fine handling balance. If this is the future, as some people have speculated, we're sold. Take our money, 3T. This is one of the most exciting road bikes available right now.

The Strada certainly won't be for everyone. And that's fine, there are plenty of fantastic performance road bikes currently available if the 1x11 gearing, disc brakes and tight clearances frighten you. None are as radical as the new 3T, though. What the Strada does with its unique design is offer another choice. It achieves the same aim – of being stupendously fast – but takes a different path to get there.

Read our review of the 3T Strada
Find a 3T stockist

Colnago Concept — £3,325 (frameset)

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Colnago has joined the aerodynamic arms race with the Concept, a full blooded aero race bike that is a serious step forward from the Italian company's first aero road bike, the V1-r.

The Concept has all the capability to dice with the fastest in a race situation. Its stiff frame, deep-section wheels and lightweight give it an insatiable appetite for speed. It's quick in all circumstances: climbs, descents, flat and undulating roads – the bike shines everywhere. This is an exciting bike to ride fast, and like all good aero road bikes it encourages you to ride flat-out.

That firm ride, and frame and fork stiffness ensure the Concept accurately follows your inputs, whether through the handlebar or pedals. It reacts positively whether you're blasting an uphill sprint finish or bombing through a curving descent.

The Concept isn't just for racing. It provides adequate composure and comfort, allowing you to tackle long distance rides at a few notches below race pace and not be dealt a hammer-blow to the lower back the moment the tyres encounter anything but a super-smooth surface. The front end of an aero race bike can often be overwhelmingly harsh, but the special headset and fork steerer tube that Colnago has developed mean the Concept is smoother up front than would normally be expected on an aero road bike.

Read our review of the Colnago Concept
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Merida Reacto — £1,250-£9,500

Merida has updated its Reacto to be, it says, lighter, more comfortable and more aerodynamically efficient than before. It has done this by slimming down the tube shapes and introducing a lower seatstay connection with the seat tube, among other things.

Merida – a Taiwanese brand although much of its engineering is undertaken in Germany – says that the new Reacto is more aerodynamically efficient than the previous version by about eight watts at 45km/h. That equates to around 5%.

Comfort has been increased through redesigning the seatstays and giving the S-Flex seatpost a slimmer cross section and a bigger ‘window’ – a notch that’s cutaway to allow more downward movement.

For 2018, Merida is offering disc brake versions of the Reacto for the first time.

Read more on the updated Merida Reacto here.
Find a Merida dealer

Boardman Elite Air — from £1,700-£6,000

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Boardman's Elite Air 9.2 (£2,150) is just the ticket if you're looking for a fast bike with a good spec. It's a great package and the performance is impressive.

Some aero bikes can be a handful, but thankfully the Air 9.2 is a neutral ride most of the time. Considering the amount of side profile, it's really not that much of a handful in the wind. Okay, our reviewer had a couple of interesting moments getting hit by a 30mph sidewind on one ride, but it's generally pretty predictable.

It's fast, it's firm but not uncomfortable, and it responds well under power. There are a few minor niggles – the brakes aren't the best, and some of the components are worth an upgrade to get the best out of the frame – but if you're looking for a fast bike for racing, triathlon or even time trialling then it's very much one to consider.

Read our review of the Boardman Elite Air 9.2
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Storck Aerfast Platinum — from £6,149

Storck Aerfast Platinum

Buying the Storck Aerfast Platinum is a massive outlay, but boy, oh boy do you get one hell of a return on your investment. It's a sub-6.5kg race weapon, with aerodynamics that work in the real world, and it offers comfort levels to challenge most endurance bikes.

Taking plenty of things it has learnt from its astonishingly good Aernario, Storck has pushed the design even further down the aerodynamics route, and what it has created in the Aerfast is a bike that's not only unbelievably fast, but light and stiff too.

If you're in the market for an aero bike, speed is going to be topping your list of priorities, and that's where the Aerfast truly excels. At lower speeds the Storck feels like any other bike to ride, any other superlight bike that is, but as you ride faster it feels like a permanent tailwind is nudging you along, a friendly hand on your back as you watch the numbers climb on the Garmin – with little more effort required than there was 5mph ago. It's a wonderful feeling, and one of which you never tire.

Read our review of the Storck Aerfast Platinum
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Cervelo S3 Disc Ultegra Di2 2018 — £5,999

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Cervélo has redesigned the S3 Disc to smooth out any penalties that might occur from adding disc brakes. The result is a frame that it claims is 9% stiffer, a touch more aerodynamically efficient, and lighter by 40g compared with the regular rim brake model.

There's a lot to like about the Cervélo S3 Disc. If you want pure speed with the reassurance of hydraulic disc brakes, it's a very good option: it's extremely fast and the handling is lively and direct – just what you want from a race bike – but its composure on rough roads falls some way short of its key rivals. If you're willing to overlook its lack of comfort, it's an explosive bike.

Read our review of the Cervelo S3 Disc Ultegra Di2
Find a Cervelo dealer

Ridley Noah SL — £3,700-£6,400

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Aero and discs? It's getting more common as bike makers figure out how to mount disc callipers without adversely affecting aerodynamics.

Ridley calls its collection of speed-enhancing aerodynamic features FAST. It includes the slotted F-Split fork with a gap running down the centre and F-Surface Plus, a tube shape that combines an aerofoil profile with a groove that helps keep the air flowing smoothly over the surface to reduce drag.

As for the discs, Ridley believes they're simply a better way of stopping.

Read about Greg Henderson's Ridley Noah SL
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Pinarello Dogma F10 — £4,499 (frame & fork)

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Developed in collaboration with Team Sky, the Dogma F10 is the bike upon which Chris Froome won the 2017 Tour de France. The F10 uses FlatBack tube profiles – a Kamm tail sort of shape with a rounded leading edge and chopped off tail, and Pinarello has shaped the down tube so that you can mount a water bottle without ruining the aerodynamic performance. Up front the fork is derived from the company’s Bolide time trial bike with aerodynamically shaped legs and a crown that's integrated into a recessed down tube.

Find a Pinarello dealer

Canyon Aeroad CF SLX — £3,199-£7,299

2018 Canyon Aeroad CF SLX 9.0 LTD

The second-generation Aeroad CF SLX has been inspired by the work that Canyon did on its futuristic Speedmax time trial bike, with razor sharp aero tube profiles and an optional one-piece handlebar and stem. Much of the company’s focus was on reducing the Aeroad's frontal surface area, so along with the new cockpit there’s a narrower hour-glass shaped head tube to help reduce drag. Other changes include a variant of the Trident tube shape used on the Speedmax, and a seat tube that hugs the leading edge of the rear wheel.

The Aeroad CF SLX is available in both rim brake and disc brake models.

Read our review of the Canyon Aeroad CF SLX 7.0 Di2
Read our review of the Canyon Aeroad CF SLX Disc 8.0 Di2
Check out our complete guide to Canyon's road bikes

Specialized S-Works Venge Disc Vias eTap — £8,499

2018 Specialized S-Works Venge Vias Disc eTap

If you're going to fly, you need to be able to rein in that speed. Disc brakes give finer modulation of speed with less effort at the lever so as you're whooping into Alpine hairpins you can brake later and waste less valuable speed.

As well as its aero frame, the Venge Vias has an aero handlebar and stem. The almost complete lack of external cables further reduces drag.

Read our review of the Specialized Venge Vias Expert Disc
Read about Mark Cavendish's Venge at the Tour de France
Find a Specialized dealer

Scott Foil — £2,499-£10,999

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The Foil arguably kicked off the whole aero road bike trend, bringing aerodynamic design that was once the preserve of time trial bikes to regular road bikes. For 2018, Scott has added disc brakes, arguing along with other manufacturers that you can go faster if you can slow down better. That's on top of the last series of updates to the Foil that saw the down tube lowered and wrapped around the fork crown, and a smaller rear triangle and internal seat clamp in the top tube.

Don't make the mistake of thinking this is an uncomfortable aero bike. Mathew Hayman rode over a few little bumps on his way to winning Paris-Roubaix in 2016.

Read our coverage of the 2016 Scott Foil launch
Find a Scott dealer

Trek Madone 9 Series — £3,500-£9,500

2018 Trek Madone 9.0.jpg

Once an all-round lightweight race bike, the Madone has had a complete aerodynamic makeover. It features a version of the Isospeed decoupler borrowed from the Domane to provide some comfort and it’s wrapped up in a frame with Kamm tail shaped tubes. Like Specialized, Trek has also developed its own brake callipers that are designed to integrate with the fork and seatstays. The head tube features flaps that open and close to accommodate the movement of the brake when the fork is turned.

For 2018, prices are down out of the upper stratosphere with a new model, the Madone 9.0 (above) that's priced at £3,500.

Read our coverage of the 2016 Trek Madone launch
Find a Trek dealer

Giant Propel Advanced SL 0 Disc — £8,999

2018 Giant Propel Advanced SL 0 Disc.jpg

Giant has added disc brakes to the Propel Advanced lineup for 2018, claiming that the flagship model, the Propel Advanced SL Disc, has the highest stiffness-to-weight ratio of any bike in its class and a lower drag coefficient at a wider range of yaw angles than the rim brake version.

“One of the key breakthroughs is a new truncated ellipse airfoil shape – a design that lowers drag at a wider range of wind angles than traditional teardrop frame tubing,” says Giant. “Engineers also found that, with proper integration, a disc-brake design can actually improve aero performance compared to rim-brake configurations.”

As well as a stunning paint job, the top of the range Propel Advanced SL 0 Disc has a full Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 groupset and Giant's own SLR 0 Aero Disc wheels with a 42mm deep front rim and 65mm rear.

The Propel disc range starts at £2,999 with the Propel Advanced Disc.

Read our review of the Giant Propel Advanced Disc
Read our review of the Giant Propel Advanced 1
Read our coverage of the original Giant Propel launch
Find a Giant dealer

Lapierre Aircode SL – £2,899-£6,999

lapierre aircode sl 4.jpg

French brand Lapierre has given its Aircode a major update for 2018. The frame profiles have been refined, and are now shaped using a combination of NACA and Kamm tail profiles. The down tube, for example, transitions from one to the other to keep drag low while increasing lateral stiffness at the bottom bracket. Other changes include a revised geometry, shorter chainstays and fork rake that has been reduced to bring it closer to the Xelius SL. There's also a new aero seatpost, direct mount brakes and 'TrapDoor technology' whereby the Di2 battery is housed in the down tube for better weight distribution.

Lapierre has integrated the fork crown into the down tube to bring the front wheel closer to the frame. It’s also using a direct mount brake calliper which allows the fork crown height to be lower than with a standard brake.

Read our review of the Lapierre Aircode SL 900 Ultimate​
Read our coverage of the launch of the Lapierre Aircode SL
Find a Lapierre dealer

Bianchi Oltre XR3 – £2,800-£4,650

Bianchi Oltre XR3 - riding 1.jpg

Bianchi took the Oltre XR2 as its starting point for the XR3's design and then altered many of the tubes and features, resulting in a very different bike. The head tube is new, for example, the aero design fairly similar to that of the XR4, and the seat tube is new too, although it is still cut away around the leading edge of the rear wheel.

The Oltre XR3 features Bianchi's Countervail technology, Countervail being "a patented viscoelastic carbon material with a unique fibre architecture that cancels up to 80% of vibrations while increasing the stiffness and strength of carbon frames and forks", according to Bianchi.

The Oltre XR3 is nimble and sharp handling, and it offers a ride that's smooth by aero road bike standards.

Read our Bianchi Oltre XR3 review
Read our Bianchi Oltre XR3 Disc review
Find a Bianchi dealer

The Boardman ASR, or "all season road", is a really good value package that offers a relaxed ride with the classic looks and feel of steel, the modern convenience of hydraulic discs brakes, and clearance for wide tyres. Some of the components might not be to your liking, but otherwise the ASR 8.9 serves its purpose well as an all-weather commuter.

• Pros: Smooth and comfortable frame, excellent value, mudguards included
• Cons: Bulbous 105 hydraulic levers are divisive

The ASR launched in late 2017, and my test bike is the top-specced version with Reynolds 725 steel tubing, a full Shimano 105 groupset with hydraulic disc brakes, and Boardman's own bar and wheels. The cheaper 8.8 (£849) has 9-speed Sora components, a '4130 CroMo Steel' frame and mechanical disc brakes, so for the extra £400 you're getting lighter and arguably better tubing, extra gears and hydraulic discs.

> Buy this online here

The 8.9 arrives ready for winter, with mudguards fitted to the frame, 28mm Vittoria tyres, plus reflective frame details ticking all the boxes for commuting through the rough British weather. Remove the mudguards and the bike easily has clearance for wider tyres, so it also fits the bill for summer towpath pootling and brief gravel forays.

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I can see the ASR appealing to an audience who appreciate style just as much as value and function. It's Reynolds 725 steel which has been proven the world over to provide a highly comfortable ride, the joins are smooth, and it generally doesn't have the look or feel of a mass-produced bike.

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Add in the threaded bottom bracket and you have a very aesthetically pleasing frameset, with the addition of a chunky carbon fork taking care of damping vibrations up front.

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Boardman has gone for a relaxed geometry inspired by its hybrid and mountain bikes, with a 72-degree head angle, 16cm head tube and an unusually long 56.5cm top tube on my size medium test bike. The head tube is also a centimetre or so longer than many endurance road bikes, and I was initially sceptical about how this bike would ride. Boardman says the slacker angles are intentional to keep the handling stable, and it's balanced out that long top tube with a shorter 90mm stem to keep the steering lively.

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While it's pretty slim at the rear, with thin seatstays and chainstays, the ride feels robust and there isn't any noticeable flex in this area. Riding over rough stuff on my cycle path commute was generally a breeze, and the only real 'problem' I had with it was manoeuvrability. While the stem is shortened in an attempt to make the steering springier, I did find the ASR a bit sluggish when trying to corner quickly, which I'll put down to the relaxed angles of the frame and longer top tube making the bike quite slow to respond.

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It does make for really stable handling, though, and it's not really designed to be aggressively chucked around; it's more about finesse than fast and furious. Eating up long, steady miles in comfort is what the ASR does best, and as someone who's prone to head out for a run or carry on riding if the weather's okay when I get home, it was ideal for a period of building base fitness in early spring.

> Choosing a steel, aluminium, titanium or carbon road bike

The comfort and easy gearing make up for the extra weight over a carbon frame, and when you're up to cruising speed you wouldn't know you're riding a bike that weighs over 10kg. For a steel framed bike with disc brakes it's not bad anyway: the £2k Bombrack Audax Stu tested recently was 10.7kg, and the ASR holds its own against similar priced aluminium framed bikes too, such as the 10.54kg Focus Paralane.

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The wheelset is Boardman's own tubeless-ready alloy Road 5s, dressed with Vittoria Rubino Pro G+ clincher tyres. You can't buy these wheels separately and they seem to only appear on Boardman's ASR bikes, but from my thousand or so miles of riding them they've provided a sturdy option and are still running true.

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I suffered no punctures on the Rubino Pro G+ tyres, so from my test riding I can recommend them, but the option to run tubeless is always going to be a positive for some extra peace of mind.

Full-length mudguards offer enough weather protection, and fit fine over the 28mm tyres supplied with no rubbing apparent.

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Elsewhere, Boardman has provided a 42mm alloy bar, bar grip, stem and seatpost, and the headset is an FSA no.42 (watch out for the slightly confusing system, which requires a small hex key to loosen/tighten inside and a larger one to tighten the top cap; well, it confused me anyway).

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With the exception of a KMC chain, the groupset is full Shimano 105 5800 with hydraulic disc brakes. The gearing is suitably low with 50/34 chainrings and a wide-ranging 11-32 cassette – more than enough for spinning up the steep stuff for most of us.

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While I've no problem with the 105 mechanism or durability, the ergonomics and looks of the disc brakes are a bit of a letdown; it seems a shame to pair the handsome 725 frame with those bulbous levers, and I always seem to catch my fingers on the undersides. The new 105 R7000 groupset with its far smaller and neater levers can't come soon enough. Boardman's bikes usually have two-year model cycles, but the company does make running changes, so hopefully you won't have to wait until 2019 to get your hands on an ASR with the new 105 levers.

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I didn't get on with Prologo's Nago Evo saddle, which is too long and narrow for me. While I appreciate every rear end is unique, and others will find it comfortable (Stu tested the Nago Evo CPC back in 2013 and liked it) this is the first time I've had to change saddles on a test bike after the first ride, so I'd be buying in-store and swapping it straight out if I were to purchase this bike.

Boardman ASR 8.9 - saddle.jpg

In terms of value, there isn't much out there that ticks as many boxes as the ASR at this price point to compare it with, and as sold it's quite a package. Condor's Fratello Disc frameset with Columbus tubing came in at £1,400 with mudguards and SRAM Apex, as reviewed by Dave Arthur back in 2015, and for a Genesis Equilibrium with 725 tubing and 105 groupset but no mudguards, you're looking at a shade under two grand.

> Buyer's Guide: 22 of the best bikes for commuting

If we consider alloy frames too, there are all-weather packages that will do the job for cheaper: Ribble's Audax 7005 with full mudguards and a 105 rim brake groupset has an RRP of £949, and it's even less at the moment.

Conclusion

For a brand that makes thousands of aluminium bikes for Halfords, the ASR is a bold move and something a bit different to the norm with its smooth steel tubing. It looks and feels a bit special, and for those who prioritise comfort and classic looks over a couple of kilos' weight saving for long commutes and training rides, it's a really decent option.

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Personally, I would wait for a version with the new 105 so I don't have to suffer with those beastly levers, but otherwise the ASR 8.9 is ready to roll whatever the weather and offers really good value for money.

Verdict

Good value, comfortable and sturdy steel commuter that's nice and smooth and set up for year-round riding

The Boardman SLR 8.9 Carbon is a quick and dynamic road bike with practical features that make it suitable for year-round riding, and it offers very good value for money.

• Pros: Great frame, solid spec, very good price
• Cons: Brakes aren't the best

Blimey, what a corker! The Boardman SLR 8.9 Carbon replaces the Road Team Carbon which is road.cc Road Bike of the Year 2017-18, and it's a lot of bike for £1,000.

> Find your nearest dealer here

> Buy this online here

Every so often in this job you review a bike that makes you think, 'I'd happily ride this one day in, day out.' That's not entirely surprising when you're on a 10 grand superbike, but it's less common at the £1,000 mark. The Boardman SLR 8.9 is one of those bikes.

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Of course, £1,000 represents a significant investment for most of us, but it's not stratospheric these days, and means the Boardman SLR 8.9 Carbon is accessible via most tax-free Cycle to Work schemes.

The highlight is the new frameset, which is good news because that's the heart of any bike. The frame was developed with the use of CFD (computational fluid dynamics), the idea being to provide improved aerodynamic efficiency. You wouldn't call this a full-on aero road bike but you do get features designed to reduce drag. The down tube, seat tube and fork legs have truncated aerofoil profiles, meaning that the trailing edge is cut off square – a design technique that's widely used in the bike industry (and elsewhere).

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The ride

We can't offer any assessment of aerodynamics, but I can tell you that the Boardman SLR 8.9 Carbon feels lively in use. You'll find lighter bikes out there at this price point – the £999 Giant Contend SL1 that we reviewed weighed 8.74kg, for instance, and the Specialized Allez Elite, also £999, was 8.77kg – but don't get too hung up on that.

The SLR 8.9 Carbon offers a high level of stiffness for its price point. Okay, you'll probably notice a bit of frame flex if you absolutely hammer it in a quad-twanging sprint for a town sign, and a little from Boardman's own alloy tubeless-ready wheels, but that's about the extent of it. In general, the SLR 8.9 Carbon gives a good account of itself, standing firm when you launch into your best KOM efforts.

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You get a tapered head tube that's home to a 1 1/8in upper bearing and a 1 1/2in lower bearing. This gives the front end a pretty solid feel that makes carving through the bends a whole lot of fun. You can smash it through the corners without the need to back off if things get vague.

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The handling is quick but a way short of twitchy. You can manoeuvre yourself easily enough without any sense of skittishness. This is a bike that's simple to control – well, pretty much. I wouldn't say that the Tektro R315 long arm brakes, which have been specced to allow the use of mudguards and 28mm tyres, have quite the punch of Shimano equivalents. Don't get me wrong, they work fine, they just feel like they're lacking a little power when push comes to shove.

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One thing that surprised me about the SLR 8.9 Carbon is the level of comfort on offer here. I've ridden it loads over the past few weeks, including up the Col de la Madone in southeast France two or three times and the Col de Turini, and I've never given comfort a whole lot of thought. That's definitely a good thing because the only time I usually think about that ride quality is when it's missing.

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Boardman has dropped the seatstays on this model so that they meet the seat tube low down, while the seatpost is a slim 27.2mm in diameter and its clamping point is low – it's a wedge-type design in the top tube/seat tube junction.

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All of this helps to make for a reasonable amount of movement at the saddle; not so much that you bounce around when laying down the power, but enough to take the edge off holes and bumps in the road and to filter out a lot of vibration.

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The saddle itself is made for Boardman by Velo, although the shape is reminiscent of that of a Fizik. Let's just say that the design looks as though it has been heavily influenced by the Antares. Saddles are always a matter of personal taste but I imagine that most people are going to get along with the generous amount of gel-feel padding on offer.

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The only thing that I'd really have preferred in terms of comfort would have been a larger diameter handlebar. Boardman's own alloy bar is a 31.8mm diameter at the clamp but slims down a lot from there. A chunkier bar would make for lower pressure on your hands... but that's a personal preference and I'm being picky.

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If you want to fit mudguards, the SLR 8.9 Carbon comes with eyelets. The ones on the inside of the rear dropouts are hardly noticeable when not in use and those on the outside of the fork legs aren't a whole lot more conspicuous. Subtle, then, but invaluable for year-round riding in the UK.

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Geometry

I've been riding the SLR 8.9 Carbon in a 58cm. This one comes with a 570mm effective top tube (the measurement if the top tube was horizontal rather than sloping), a 580mm effective seat tube (again, assuming the top tube was horizontal) and a 160mm head tube. The head angle is 73 degrees and the seat angle is 73.5 degrees. The stack height (the vertical distance from the centre of the bottom bracket to the top of the head tube) is 582mm and the reach (the horizontal distance between those points) is 392mm.

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Divide the stack by the reach and you get 1.48 which is exactly the same as you get with Boardman's high level SLR Endurance 9.9. The geometry is identical. It's not nearly as relaxed as something like a Specialized Roubaix, though, where the 58cm model has a stack/reach figure of 1.67. Boardman's SLR Race, on the other hand, has a lower stack and a longer reach, putting you into a more aggressive riding position.

The top and the bottom of all this number talk is that this is a performance-minded geometry but it's more relaxed than that of a full-on race bike. It splits the difference between a traditional race bike and an endurance bike. You feel like you're riding in an efficient position and the chances are that you're not going to get an ache in your back or a crick in your neck 10 miles down the road from trying to hold it.

Groupset and gearing

The SLR 8.9 Carbon is built up with a Shimano Tiagra groupset, aside from those Tektro R315 long arm brakes that I mentioned. Tiagra might lack the prestige of Shimano's higher level groupsets (it sits fourth in the hierarchy behind Dura-Ace, Ultegra and 105) but it just works. Okay, it's a 10-speed rather than an 11-speed system but you don't particularly notice that difference in use; at least, I don't. You just adjust to these things.

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You get a compact chainset (50/34-tooth) and a 12-28t cassette here which will probably suit most. I guess that some people might prefer an 11-32t cassette or even 11-34 to make things easier on the toughest hills. Handily, Boardman has specced the GS version of the Tiagra rear derailleur here so going for larger sprockets would be a relatively straightforward swap.

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Wheels and tyres

I wouldn't say that Boardman's SLR alloy wheels are anything to get particularly excited about but they've done a decent job over the past few weeks. After a good few hundred miles the front one is still perfectly true – bang on – while the rear one is near as damn it too. That's a good sign. It means that the wheels probably won't need much attention for a long time.

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The rims are tubeless ready, although the 700 x 25 Vittoria Rubino tyres aren't, so you'll need to swap them over if you want to go down that route. These tyres aren't especially lightweight or supple but they do offer durability and avoid flats pretty well thanks to a puncture protection layer.

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Good value?

Interestingly, Boardman offers the SLR 8.9 Alloy at exactly the same price: £1,000. The main differences are that you get an alloy frame (you worked that out for yourself, right?) – it's triple butted 6061 aluminium alloy – and a Shimano 105 11-speed groupset, which is a level higher than the SLR 8.9 Carbon's Tiagra. You also get a Fizik Antares saddle rather than Boardman's own.

The tube profiles aren't exactly the same as those of the SLR 8.9 Carbon that I've been riding but the frames are recognisably from the same family. Smooth welding gives a carbon look. I'd guess that most people are going to be tempted by the lure of carbon, but who knows? We've not reviewed the SLR 8.9 Alloy so we can't comment on the relative performance.

> Buyer's Guide: 14 of the best 2018 road bikes for under £1,000

The Giant Contend SL 1 that we did review here on road.cc is similar to the SLR 8.9 Alloy in that you get an alloy frame and a mainly Shimano 105 groupset, although you get a cheaper chainset and Tektro R540 brakes.

The Specialized Allez Elite is also £999, it's also built around an aluminium frame, and it's also built up with a largely Shimano 105 groupset (with a Praxis groupset and Tektro brakes).

You need to decide whether you'd prefer the higher level groupset of any of these three bikes or a carbon frame. That's down to you, clearly. What I would say is that I'd consider the Boardman SLR 8.9 Carbon to be more upgradeable. It could certainly handle higher level components if you're likely to add them as and when the various parts wear out.

Conclusion

The Boardman SLR 8.9 Carbon is a really good road bike, particularly because the frameset is an absolute winner. Add in a reliable Shimano Tiagra groupset, no-nonsense finishing kit and the ability to fit mudguards easily and this is a bike that'll give you a ton of enjoyment all year round.

Verdict

Really impressive road bike that's built around a corker of a frameset, and the price is very good too

The Boardman URB 8.8 is an impressively quick and fast-handling hybrid-style bike that will allow fit riders to give roadies a run for their money away from the lights. It's also great value. But new riders may find the ride quality just a little too harsh.

• Pros: Fantastic frame design, solid 1x11 gearset, classy finishing kit
• Cons: Bumps and road buzz gets through, Tektro brakes only average, saddle is a bit firm

One look at the Boardman URB 8.8 and you're not really thinking towpath ambles and parkland potters. This might fall into the ever-expanding category of bikes known as 'hybrids' but it's still a machine that appears built for speed. Hop aboard, and that's not an impression that disappears.

> Buy this online here

This is a bike designed to race through the urban jungle. The small rear triangle and relatively short chainstays – at least, short by hybrid standards – allow for ultra-efficient efforts away from standstill and the ability to hit a high-speed cruise with ease. Climbing is suitably rewarding too: more inclined to promote dancing out of the saddle than simply spinning or grinding gears.

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The aluminium fork means the front end is responsive. Handling is lively and direct but never falls into the realms of flighty, it simply goes where you want it to without ever having to be asked twice. In fact, the URB 8.8 is so good that it's tempting to start thinking what it would ride like with a drop handlebar fitted... Okay, I know that would totally miss the point of riding a hybrid, but it is testament to the fact that this is a fairly sexy, fast hybrid.

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So far, so good. And if your hometown is a fairy dairy land where rough surfaces and ferocious potholes are banned, this is the bike for you. But let's assume you live in the real world. In which case, the URB 8.8 can at times feel a little harsh. Despite the Vittoria Zaffiro Pro tyres at least nodding towards a spot of bump insulation with their 32mm width, there isn't really anywhere to hide from road imperfections.

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Frame

I used the words 'sexy' and 'hybrid' in combination above, and it's really not an oxymoron anymore. Until a couple of years ago, the BMC Alpenchallenge was hands-down the most exciting-looking urban cycle. Now other hybrid manufacturers have joined in with aggressively under-sized rear triangles, not least Boardman. I would even go so far as to say that this URB frame has usurped the BMC and taken top spot in my top-10 sexiest hybrids.

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Old-school frame aficionados who like round tubes – and why not? round is strongest after all – won't be impressed by the variety of hydroformed aluminium frame shapes. But it would take a heart of steel to not admit this is an incredibly pretty bike and, as we've discovered, it's not found wanting when it comes to strength. In any case, round tubes largely make up the seat tube and stays.

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Gearset and brakeset

Certainly, the URB 8.8's beauty is more than skin deep – literally – with internal cable routing for both rear brake and derailleur adding to the classy build.

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Similarly, in a game of 'Snog, Marry, Avoid', there's enough potential in the build to ensure the URB 8.8 isn't the subject of just a brief dalliance. With a 1x11 SRAM NX1 gearset and SRAM Apex chainset, hydraulic disc brakes, tubeless-ready wheelset and a retail price of a penny off £700, the URB has enough long-lasting excitement to warrant putting a ring on it, or at least a holding deposit.

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Indeed, despite the 1x11 format being thoroughly of the moment, the choice of 44T chainset with 11-42T rear block suggests this is a machine ready for the long haul and suitable for a lifetime of cycling duties.

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The biggest sprocket at the back will cope with fairly serious climbs, or you can make use of the rear rack mounts and carry a bit of weight without fear (it's roughly the same as 34x32 on a typical compact double with 11-32 cassette).

> The road.cc A-Z of cycling jargon

Meanwhile, the smallest sprocket provides more than enough potential to break a 20mph urban speed limit (I got the URB 8.8 up to 30mph downhill and still wasn't quite spinning out.)

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Speed is obviously what this bike is built for, so the inclusion of hydraulic disc brakes isn't surprising. I have always found Tektro rim brakes to be a case of nearly-but-not-quite compared to equivalent offerings from SRAM or Shimano, and it's a similar situation with Tektro hydraulic discs. They scrub speed off reasonably well but never feel like there's quite enough power or modulation to bring the bike to a halt really quickly and effectively.

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Wheels and finishing kit

I've mentioned that the 32mm Vittoria Zaffiro Pro tyres can't quite take the edge off many road imperfections but they do offer good grip on dry roads without compromising outright speed. The fairly responsive and sturdy Boardman wheels can also be run with tubeless rubber, so traction and puncture resistance should be easy to maximise.

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Aesthetically speaking, the modern-retro Boardman Canvas grips and saddle are very nice touches. The thin grips have the added advantage of making front end control feel even more direct – I really like them.

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With the saddle it's a slightly different situation. This is the kind of seat some people would happily pay a premium for if the 'B' emblem stood for Brooks, and you'll probably need a few thousand miles aboard a leather saddle to feel at home on this. It's not very forgiving and I wouldn't blame new riders if they wanted to swap in something a little more padded.

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Conclusion

In all, with a recommended retail price of just £699.99, this is a thoroughly impressive package that would blow the mind of a hybrid buyer twenty, ten, or possibly even just five years ago.

> Buyer's Guide: 9 of the best hybrid bikes

If it's true that most bike buyers make their purchasing decisions with their eyes, the URB 8.8 will be flying out of shops almost as quickly as it travels on the road. If, however, new bike buyers use a more fundamental part of their anatomy to make purchasing decisions, they might take just a little more persuading.

Verdict

Super-stiff, super-quick flat-bar road bike masquerading as an urban warrior that just falls down on comfort

• With elongated tube shapes and other wind-cheating features, aero road bikes provide a small but handy speed boost.

• Sleek shapes make for a distinctive look.

• Recent aero road bikes have alleviated the harsh ride that plagued some early models, thanks to improved use of materials.

• Frame aerodynamics is still a marginal gain; if you're wearing flappy clothes an aero bike is a waste of money.

In just a few years aero road bikes have gone from The Next Big Thing to a mainstream bike option. The latest models have been tweaked to be faster than ever, according to the manufacturers, and to alleviate the harsh ride that characterised some early aero bikes.

Aero road bikes essentially draw aerodynamic features from time trial bikes into a road frame, and balance the demands of weight and stiffness into a package that, on paper, looks to be the ideal all-round choice.

At any decent speed, most of your effort goes into overcoming air resistance, so reducing a bike's drag means you'll go faster, or ride at any given speed with a lower power output. Who doesn't like the sound of that?

Most of your air resistance comes from your body rather than your bike. Wearing non-flappy clothing will help, as will losing weight. But the 20% or so of air resistance from your bike is enough for engineers and designers to focus on making road frames and products more slippery through the air. In the pro peloton aero road bikes have been quickly adopted, where the margins of victory are very slim and there has been a focus on gaining ever smaller performance gains over the years.

Weight, or the lack of it, used to be the main driving force of frame development. Along with stiffness, it was a cornerstones of bike design. These days most bikes are light, many well below the UCI’s 6.8kg weight limit (which doesn’t affect non-racers anyway), and come with more stiffness than is sometimes comfortable.

All that has made aerodynamics more important. Specialized has built its own wind tunnel, for example, and most manufacturers are testing in other facilities. Nevertheless, aero road bikes haven't converged on a perfect, slippery shape. Different engineers prioritise different ways of improving aerodynamics but there are shared design trends: skinny, aerofoil-shaped tubes, integrated brakes, and internal cable routing.

Let's take a look at the latest aero offerings.

Orbea Orca Aero 2019 — £2,699-£7,199

2019 Orbea ORCA AERO M20iTEAM D

The Orca Aero boasts lots of wind-cheating tweaks that Orbea says add up to a 27 watt advantage. Our tester David Arthur found the Orbea Orca Aero M20Team to be "a fast and great handling aerodynamic road bike with a surprising talent for smoothing out all but the roughest roads. But it is speed, not comfort, that is at the top of the list of requirements for an aero road bike, and that's an area where the Orca Aero feels very competent. It's right up there with the Trek Madone, Cervelo S3 and Canyon Aeroad, as super-quick aero race bikes.

"The handling is a highlight, and helps to set it apart from some aero bikes that can be exceedingly quick but a little lacking when it comes to the way they ride and translate your inputs into actions. The Orca Aero is fun and engaging, putting a smile on your face when you're descending or chasing a friend along an undulating ridge road."

You can customise the colour scheme and spec of your Orca Aero too, so if you want to upgrade the wheels, or have yours in pink and orange, fill your boots.

Read our review of the e Orbea Orca Aero M20Team
Find an Orbea dealer

Bianchi Aria Disc — £3,350

Bianchi Aria Potenza Disc.jpg

The new Bianchi Aria Disc is an aero road bike that offers efficiency, sharp handling and a responsive character, now with the additional all-weather assurance of disc brakes – in this case from Campagnolo.

The Aria Disc responds keenly to increased effort. Our 59cm sample wasn't especially light at 8.5kg (18.7lb), but it felt direct when you put in the power, a meaty bottom bracket helping to keep everything solidly in place. The Aria Disc feels as manoeuvrable as the rim brake version, which isn't a surprise given that the geometry is virtually identical. Some bikes designed for aerodynamics offer plenty of straight-line speed but they're a little compromised when you want to flick around. The Aria Disc handles sharply, which gives you options when it comes to darting about a group or avoiding something in the road.

Read our review of the Bianchi Aria Disc
Find a Bianchi dealer

3T Strada — £3,600 (frame, fork, headset & seatpost)

3T Strada.jpg

The new 3T Strada has blown us away. It's a truly stunning bike with breathtaking speed, impressive smoothness and fine handling balance. If this is the future, as some people have speculated, we're sold. Take our money, 3T. This is one of the most exciting road bikes available right now.

The Strada certainly won't be for everyone. And that's fine, there are plenty of fantastic performance road bikes currently available if the 1x11 gearing, disc brakes and tight clearances frighten you. None are as radical as the new 3T, though. What the Strada does with its unique design is offer another choice. It achieves the same aim – of being stupendously fast – but takes a different path to get there.

Read our review of the 3T Strada
Find a 3T stockist

Colnago Concept — £2,099 (frameset)

COLNAGO-CONCEPT (1).jpg

Colnago has joined the aerodynamic arms race with the Concept, a full blooded aero race bike that is a serious step forward from the Italian company's first aero road bike, the V1-r.

The Concept has all the capability to dice with the fastest in a race situation. Its stiff frame, deep-section wheels and lightweight give it an insatiable appetite for speed. It's quick in all circumstances: climbs, descents, flat and undulating roads – the bike shines everywhere. This is an exciting bike to ride fast, and like all good aero road bikes it encourages you to ride flat-out.

That firm ride, and frame and fork stiffness ensure the Concept accurately follows your inputs, whether through the handlebar or pedals. It reacts positively whether you're blasting an uphill sprint finish or bombing through a curving descent.

The Concept isn't just for racing. It provides adequate composure and comfort, allowing you to tackle long distance rides at a few notches below race pace and not be dealt a hammer-blow to the lower back the moment the tyres encounter anything but a super-smooth surface. The front end of an aero race bike can often be overwhelmingly harsh, but the special headset and fork steerer tube that Colnago has developed mean the Concept is smoother up front than would normally be expected on an aero road bike.

Read our review of the Colnago Concept
Find a Colnago dealer

Merida Reacto — £1,000-£3,400

Merida has updated its Reacto to be, it says, lighter, more comfortable and more aerodynamically efficient than before. It has done this by slimming down the tube shapes and introducing a lower seatstay connection with the seat tube, among other things.

Merida – a Taiwanese brand although much of its engineering is undertaken in Germany – says that the new Reacto is more aerodynamically efficient than the previous version by about eight watts at 45km/h. That equates to around 5%.

Comfort has been increased through redesigning the seatstays and giving the S-Flex seatpost a slimmer cross section and a bigger ‘window’ – a notch that’s cutaway to allow more downward movement.

For 2018, Merida is offering disc brake versions of the Reacto for the first time.

Read more on the updated Merida Reacto here.
Find a Merida dealer

Boardman Elite Air — from £1,750-£6,000

Boardman Elite Air 9.2 - full bike.jpg

Boardman's Elite Air 9.2 (£2,150) is just the ticket if you're looking for a fast bike with a good spec. It's a great package and the performance is impressive.

Some aero bikes can be a handful, but thankfully the Air 9.2 is a neutral ride most of the time. Considering the amount of side profile, it's really not that much of a handful in the wind. Okay, our reviewer had a couple of interesting moments getting hit by a 30mph sidewind on one ride, but it's generally pretty predictable.

It's fast, it's firm but not uncomfortable, and it responds well under power. There are a few minor niggles – the brakes aren't the best, and some of the components are worth an upgrade to get the best out of the frame – but if you're looking for a fast bike for racing, triathlon or even time trialling then it's very much one to consider.

Read our review of the Boardman Elite Air 9.2
Find a Boardman dealer

Storck Aerfast Platinum — from £6,149

Storck Aerfast Platinum

Buying the Storck Aerfast Platinum is a massive outlay, but boy, oh boy do you get one hell of a return on your investment. It's a sub-6.5kg race weapon, with aerodynamics that work in the real world, and it offers comfort levels to challenge most endurance bikes.

Taking plenty of things it has learnt from its astonishingly good Aernario, Storck has pushed the design even further down the aerodynamics route, and what it has created in the Aerfast is a bike that's not only unbelievably fast, but light and stiff too.

If you're in the market for an aero bike, speed is going to be topping your list of priorities, and that's where the Aerfast truly excels. At lower speeds the Storck feels like any other bike to ride, any other superlight bike that is, but as you ride faster it feels like a permanent tailwind is nudging you along, a friendly hand on your back as you watch the numbers climb on the Garmin – with little more effort required than there was 5mph ago. It's a wonderful feeling, and one of which you never tire.

Read our review of the Storck Aerfast Platinum
Find a Storck dealer

Cervelo S3 Disc Ultegra Di2 2018 — £4,699

Cervelo S3 Disc - riding 3.jpg

Cervélo has redesigned the S3 Disc to smooth out any penalties that might occur from adding disc brakes. The result is a frame that it claims is 9% stiffer, a touch more aerodynamically efficient, and lighter by 40g compared with the regular rim brake model.

There's a lot to like about the Cervélo S3 Disc. If you want pure speed with the reassurance of hydraulic disc brakes, it's a very good option: it's extremely fast and the handling is lively and direct – just what you want from a race bike – but its composure on rough roads falls some way short of its key rivals. If you're willing to overlook its lack of comfort, it's an explosive bike.

Read our review of the Cervelo S3 Disc Ultegra Di2
Find a Cervelo dealer

Ridley Noah SL — £3,700-£6,400

2018 Ridley Noah SL Ultegra Di2.jpg

Aero and discs? It's getting more common as bike makers figure out how to mount disc callipers without adversely affecting aerodynamics.

Ridley calls its collection of speed-enhancing aerodynamic features FAST. It includes the slotted F-Split fork with a gap running down the centre and F-Surface Plus, a tube shape that combines an aerofoil profile with a groove that helps keep the air flowing smoothly over the surface to reduce drag.

As for the discs, Ridley believes they're simply a better way of stopping.

Read about Greg Henderson's Ridley Noah SL
Find a Ridley dealer

Pinarello Dogma F10 — £4,499 (frame & fork)

Pinarello Dogma F10 2017.jpeg

Developed in collaboration with Team Sky, the Dogma F10 is the bike upon which Chris Froome won the 2017 Tour de France. The F10 uses FlatBack tube profiles – a Kamm tail sort of shape with a rounded leading edge and chopped off tail, and Pinarello has shaped the down tube so that you can mount a water bottle without ruining the aerodynamic performance. Up front the fork is derived from the company’s Bolide time trial bike with aerodynamically shaped legs and a crown that's integrated into a recessed down tube.

Find a Pinarello dealer

Canyon Aeroad CF SLX — £2,649-£7,299

2018 Canyon Aeroad CF SLX 9.0 LTD

The second-generation Aeroad CF SLX has been inspired by the work that Canyon did on its futuristic Speedmax time trial bike, with razor sharp aero tube profiles and an optional one-piece handlebar and stem. Much of the company’s focus was on reducing the Aeroad's frontal surface area, so along with the new cockpit there’s a narrower hour-glass shaped head tube to help reduce drag. Other changes include a variant of the Trident tube shape used on the Speedmax, and a seat tube that hugs the leading edge of the rear wheel.

The Aeroad CF SLX is available in both rim brake and disc brake models.

Read our review of the Canyon Aeroad CF SLX 7.0 Di2
Read our review of the Canyon Aeroad CF SLX Disc 8.0 Di2
Check out our complete guide to Canyon's road bikes

Specialized S-Works Venge Disc Vias Di2 — £9,000

Specialized S-WORKS VENGE VIAS DISC DI2

If you're going to fly, you need to be able to rein in that speed. Disc brakes give finer modulation of speed with less effort at the lever so as you're whooping into Alpine hairpins you can brake later and waste less valuable speed.

As well as its aero frame, the Venge Vias has an aero handlebar and stem. The almost complete lack of external cables further reduces drag.

Read our review of the Specialized Venge Vias Expert Disc
Read about Mark Cavendish's Venge at the Tour de France
Find a Specialized dealer

Scott Foil — £2,124.14-£10,999

2018 SCOTT FOIL PREMIUM DISC .jpg

The Foil arguably kicked off the whole aero road bike trend, bringing aerodynamic design that was once the preserve of time trial bikes to regular road bikes. For 2018, Scott has added disc brakes, arguing along with other manufacturers that you can go faster if you can slow down better. That's on top of the last series of updates to the Foil that saw the down tube lowered and wrapped around the fork crown, and a smaller rear triangle and internal seat clamp in the top tube.

Don't make the mistake of thinking this is an uncomfortable aero bike. Mathew Hayman rode over a few little bumps on his way to winning Paris-Roubaix in 2016.

Read our coverage of the 2016 Scott Foil launch
Find a Scott dealer

Trek Madone 2019 — £3,600-£10,000

2019 Trek Madone SLR 6 Disc

Once an all-round lightweight race bike, the Madone has had a complete aerodynamic makeover. It features a version of the Isospeed decoupler borrowed from the Domane to provide some comfort and it’s wrapped up in a frame with Kamm tail shaped tubes. Like Specialized, Trek has also developed its own brake callipers that are designed to integrate with the fork and seatstays. The head tube features flaps that open and close to accommodate the movement of the brake when the fork is turned.

For 2019 has a hugely updated Madone road bike with adjustable IsoSpeed (a shock damper at the top tube/seat tube junction), a new geometry and disc brake models. The rim brake version is lighter while the disc brake version has no aerodynamic penalty, according to Trek..

Read our coverage of the 2019 Trek Madone launch
Find a Trek dealer

Giant Propel Advanced SL 0 Disc 2019 — £8,999

2019 Giant Propel Advanced Disc SL 0

Giant has added disc brakes to the Propel Advanced lineup for 2018, claiming that the flagship model, the Propel Advanced SL Disc, has the highest stiffness-to-weight ratio of any bike in its class and a lower drag coefficient at a wider range of yaw angles than the rim brake version.

“One of the key breakthroughs is a new truncated ellipse airfoil shape – a design that lowers drag at a wider range of wind angles than traditional teardrop frame tubing,” says Giant. “Engineers also found that, with proper integration, a disc-brake design can actually improve aero performance compared to rim-brake configurations.”

As well as a stunning paint job, the top of the range Propel Advanced SL 0 Disc has a full Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 groupset and Giant's own SLR 0 Aero Disc wheels with a 42mm deep front rim and 65mm rear.

The Propel disc range starts at £2,999 with the Propel Advanced 1 Disc.

Read our review of the Giant Propel Advanced Disc
Read our review of the Giant Propel Advanced 1
Read our coverage of the original Giant Propel launch
Find a Giant dealer

Lapierre Aircode SL – £2,899-£6,999

lapierre aircode sl 4.jpg

French brand Lapierre gave its Aircode bikes a major update for 2018. The frame profiles were refined, and are now shaped using a combination of NACA and Kamm tail profiles. The down tube, for example, transitions from one to the other to keep drag low while increasing lateral stiffness at the bottom bracket. Other changes include a revised geometry, shorter chainstays and fork rake that has been reduced to bring it closer to the Xelius SL. There's also a new aero seatpost, direct mount brakes and 'TrapDoor technology' whereby the Di2 battery is housed in the down tube for better weight distribution.

Lapierre has integrated the fork crown into the down tube to bring the front wheel closer to the frame. It’s also using a direct mount brake calliper which allows the fork crown height to be lower than with a standard brake.

Read our review of the Lapierre Aircode SL 900 Ultimate​
Read our coverage of the launch of the Lapierre Aircode SL
Find a Lapierre dealer

Bianchi Oltre XR3 – £2,800-£4,650

Bianchi Oltre XR3 - riding 1.jpg

Bianchi took the Oltre XR2 as its starting point for the XR3's design and then altered many of the tubes and features, resulting in a very different bike. The head tube is new, for example, the aero design fairly similar to that of the XR4, and the seat tube is new too, although it is still cut away around the leading edge of the rear wheel.

The Oltre XR3 features Bianchi's Countervail technology, Countervail being "a patented viscoelastic carbon material with a unique fibre architecture that cancels up to 80% of vibrations while increasing the stiffness and strength of carbon frames and forks", according to Bianchi.

The Oltre XR3 is nimble and sharp handling, and it offers a ride that's smooth by aero road bike standards.

Read our Bianchi Oltre XR3 review
Read our Bianchi Oltre XR3 Disc review
Find a Bianchi dealer

All of the big brands have aero road bikes in the range these days, most in both rim brake and disc brake options. 

Aero road bikes essentially draw aerodynamic features from time trial bikes into a road frame, and balance the demands of weight and stiffness into a package that, on paper, looks to be the ideal all-round choice.

You're always working against air resistance when you ride your bike; the higher the speed the more significant it gets. Although most of that air resistance results from you — your body and what you're wearing — a significant chunk is acting against your bike, hence the development of aero road bikes that are designed to produce the minimum of drag.

Here are some of the best aero road bikes of 2019. We'll run part 2 — featuring the likes of Specialized, Colnago, BMC, Ridley and 3T — next week.

Find out which is more important, aerodynamics or a light weight

Cannondale SystemSix £3,499.99-£8,499.99 

Cannondale described the disc brake-only SystemSix as the "fastest bike in the world" when it was revealed in July 2018. It also said that the SystemSix is more than an aero bike, although there's certainly a massive focus on aero efficiency here.

Read about our first ride on the Cannondale SystemSix 
Find a Cannondale dealer 

Cervelo S5 Disc £4,899-£9,699 

The updated Cervelo S5 features a V-shaped stem integrated into a new fork that's fully external. According to Cervelo, the stem reduces drag by allowing unimpeded airflow along the top tube. The aero-shaped down tube has a cutaway leading edge to allow it to sit close to the front wheel in order to manage the airflow in that area.

Get all the details on the Cervelo S5 Disc here 
Find a Cervelo dealer 

Bianchi Aria £2,300-£4,200

Bianchi's Aria, available with either rim brakes or disc brakes, is an efficient aero road bike that handles sharply. Although hardly a budget option, it comes in a variety of builds and is a more accessible than any of the brand's Oltres.

Check out our Bianchi Aria review 
Read our review of the Bianchi Aria Disc 
Find a Bianchi dealer 

Giant Propel £1,599-£8,999

You can still buy a Propel with rim brakes but the latest update is a disc-brake only design that Giant says is more aerodynamically efficient than any of its predecessors. It's stiff and efficient and available in a wide variety of builds to suit different budgets.

See our review of the Giant Propel Advanced Disc
Read our guide to Giant's 2019 range 
Find a Giant dealer 

Orro Venturi £2,199.99-£3,299.99

The Venturi is a disc brake-only design with 12mm thru axles front and rear. The frame is optimised for 28mm-wide tyres and uses spread tow carbon from Sigmatex — flat and wide unidirectional tapes that are designed to reduce weight and increase stiffness.

Find an Orro dealer 

Vitus ZX1 Disc £1,999.99-£4,199.99 

The ZX1, available only with disc brakes, is a fast and smooth carbon bike that handles superbly. You get Kammtail shaped tube profiles, a fork crown that's recessed into the frame, an aero seatpost and internal cable routing to reduce drag. It offers good value for money in a race-ready package.

Read our review of the Vitus ZX1 CRi Aero Disc Ultegra Di2 
Buy a Vitus 

Pinarello Dogma F10 £4,499-£4,699 (frameset)

The Dogma F10 — both rim brake and disc brake models are available — might not be a full-on aero road bike like some here but it certainly has aero features such as a flatback down tube profile that's designed to smooth the airflow over the water bottle, and fins behind the fork dropouts to reduce drag around the quick release lever.

Read all about the Pinarello Dogma F10 here
Find a Pinarello dealer

Merida Reacto £1,000-£8,250

Merida's Reacto aero road bikes have slim tube shapes, a low seatstay connection and, in some cases, a one-piece cockpit. They're available in two different geometries and in both disc brake and rim brake models. Merida claims the difference in aero efficiency between rim brake and disc models is less than one watt at 45km/h (28mph).

Find out all about the Merida Reacto here 
Read our review of the Merida Reacto Disc Team-E
Find a Merida dealer 

Rose Xeon CW £2,132-£4,809 

You tend to get a lot for your money by buying direct from Rose, the rim brake version of the Xeon CW aero bike coming with Shimano's second tier Ultegra groupset for £2,132. The disc brake model is just over £300 more expensive.

Buy a Rose 

Ribble Aero 883 £1,399-£6,761 

One of the best things about buying from Ribble is that you can use its online Bike Builder system to select the parts you want based on your preferences and budget. You can go all the way up to a Sram Red eTap groupset, a Quarq DZero power meter and Zipp 404 wheels if you have the cash.

Buy a Ribble 

Scott Foil £2,499-£10,999

The Scott Foil has been known for its versatility over the past few years and these days it's available in both rim brake and disc brake guises. The most affordable rim brake option, with Shimano 105 components, is £2,499 while disc brake models start at £3,199.

Find a Scott dealer 

Boardman Air £1,750-£6,000 

The Air bikes feature truncated airfoil tube profiles that are deeper and narrower than those that you’ll find on most other aero road bikes, while the cutaway section of the seat tube is designed to work best with 25mm-wide tyres although there’s space for 28s if you prefer.

Read our review of the Boardman Elite Air 9.2 
Find a Boardman dealer 

Canyon Aeroad £2,449-£6,349

With its Trident 2.0 tube profiles (essentially a cut-off aerofoil, Kamm tail shape) and skinny head tube and fork blades, the Aeroad has been one of the benchmark aero road bikes of the past few years. You also get predictable handling and plenty of comfort thrown in.

Read our Canyon Aeroad CF SLX Disc 8.0 Di2 review
Buy a Canyon 

Trek Madone SLR £5,500-£10,550 

Trek's 2019 Madones are hugely updated with a new geometry. The SLR range comes with adjustable IsoSpeed and the option of disc brakes. The rim brake version is lighter but there's no aerodynamic penalty in opting for discs, according to Trek.

Read our story on the new Trek Madone range here
Check out our guide to Trek's 2019 road bike range 
Find a Trek dealer

Boardman has a wide range that covers most sectors of cycling, including road bikes, cyclocross and gravel bikes, and urban/hybrid options. Here are the highlights.

Previously, Boardman offered its high-end Elite lineup and its more accessible Performance bikes, the two parts being highly distinct from one another. Things were rejigged in 2018 to make the range more integrated, the 9 Series taking over from the Elite bikes and the 8 Series replacing the Performance bikes. This continues into 2019.

AIR

The AIRs are aero road bikes that are available in 9 Series (higher end) options only. They are designed with truncated airfoil tube profiles that are deeper and narrower than those that you’ll find on most other aero road bikes. The cutaway section of the seat tube is designed to work best with a 25mm-wide tyre although there’s space for a 28mm option if you prefer. Boardman's T10 aero fork takes a standard external brake.

The most affordable AIR is the £1,750 9.0 which is built up with a mid-level Shimano 105 groupset and Vision Team Comp 35 wheels. 

The AIR 9.6 (£3,800, above) is equipped with a full Shimano Ultegra Di2 (electronic shifting) groupset and 50mm-deep Knight TLA wheels.

Knight says that it has worked to optimise airflow on the trailing edge of the wheel which is a different approach from a lot of major wheel brands. These wheels are tubeless ready, designed to be easier to setup with a standard track pump than most other tubeless wheels out there, although you’d have to swap from the standard Vittoria Corsa clinchers.

The top-level air is the 9.8 (above) at £6,000. This comes with a high-tech spec that includes a SRAM Red eTap wireless groupset and Zipp's excellent 404 Firecrest wheels. 

Read our review of the 2016 Boardman Elite Air 9.2 

9 Series SLR & SLR Disc

The SLRs are designed as all-round road bikes, and they've available in the 9 Series in both rim brake and disc brake formats. You can get 8 Series SLRs (see below) in both carbon fibre and aluminium, although they are rim brake only.

The SLRs aren't aero road bikes but the frame has been developed with the use of CFD (computational fluid dynamics), the idea being to provide an improved aerodynamic performance.

The geometry is slightly more relaxed than that of the AIR bikes (above) to put a little less strain on your back and neck, but you'll still be riding in an efficient position.  

There are five different levels of 9 Series SLRs, each available in a rim brake version and a disc brake version(that's £200-£300 more expensive. The 9.0s (£1,500 and £1,800) are equipped with Shimano 105 groupsets, the 9.2s (£2,000 and £2,300, above) have the mechanical version of Shimano Ultegra while the 9.4s (£2,900 and £3,200) get Ultegra Di2 (electronic shifting).

The 9.6s (£3,600 and £3,900) have Shimano Ultegra Di2 as well, but you get an upgrade from Boardman's own wheels to 35mm deep Knight Composites TLAs.

There are no SLRs with Shimano's top-level Dura-Ace groupset. Instead, the 9.8s (£5,700 and £5,900, above) offer wireless shifting with SRAM Red eTap and are equipped with Zipp's 202 Firecrest wheels.

Read our review of the 2017 Boardman SLR Endurance Disc 9.0

8 Series SLR

The 8 Series SLRs are available in both carbon fibre and aluminium options. They are built to geometries that are similar to those of the 9 Series models (although not exactly the same), meaning that they split the difference between traditional race bikes and endurance bikes.

The Boardman SLR 8.9 Carbon (£1,000, above), which is available in both men's and women's versions, comes with a frame that was developed with the use of CFD (computational fluid dynamics) to provide aerodynamic efficiency.

The down tube, seat tube and fork legs have truncated airfoil profiles, meaning that they’re shaped to reduce drag with the trailing edge cut off square – a design technique that's widely used in the bike industry. The tube profiles are actually the same as those of the high-end SLR 9.8 (see above).

The SLR 8.9 Carbon comes with a Shimano Tiagra 10-speed groupset aside from Tektro R315 long arm brakes which have been specced to allow the use of mudguards (you get the relevant eyelets) and 28mm tyres.

When we reviewed this bike we were really impressed.

"The Boardman SLR 8.9 Carbon is a quick and dynamic road bike with practical features that make it suitable for year-round riding, and it offers very good value for money," we said.

Read our Boardman SLR 8.9 Carbon review 

The SLR 8.9 Alloy (above) is an interesting one in that it’s the same price as the SLR 8.9 Carbon at £1,000. The main differences are that you get an alloy frame (you worked that out for yourself, right?) — it’s triple butted 6061 aluminium alloy — and a Shimano 105 11-speed groupset, which is a level higher than the SLR 8.9 Carbon's Tiagra. You also get a Fizik Antares saddle rather than Boardman’s own.

The tube profiles aren’t exactly the same as those of the SLR 8.9 Carbon but the frames are recognisably from the same family. Smooth welding gives a carbon look.

The cheapest 8 Series SLR model is the 8.6 Alloy which is available in both men's and women's versions. It has a 7005 aluminium alloy frame, a full carbon fork and Shimano's 8-speed Claris groupset. That's a lot of bike for £550.

CXR

The CXR bikes are designed for cyclocross and are available in both 9 Series and 8 Series models. They've been reduced in price now so you can grab yourself a bargain.

The 9 Series CXRs are built around a carbon frame and fork with flat mount disc brakes and 12mm thru axles, as opposed to standard quick releases. You get enough tyre clearance to cope with typical muddy race conditions. 

The most affordable 9 Series CXR is the £1,600 9.0 (above) which is equipped with a SRAM Apex 1 groupset; you get a single 40-tooth chainring and an 11-36-tooth cassette. If you want to switch to a double chainset at some time in the future, you can add a band-on front derailleur to the frame. It comes with tubeless-ready wheels and tyres and, like all 9 Series bikes, it has a saddle from Fizik.

The CXR 9.2 (£1,920, above) is fitted with a SRAM Force 1x groupset while the CXR 9.4 (£2,560) has Shimano Ultegra/Deore XT Di2 shifting.

Read our review of the 2017 Boardman CXR 9.4 

There's just one 8 Series CXR and that's the CXR 8.9 (£1,000, above) — a highly credible entry-level cyclocross race bike. The 7005 aluminium alloy frame is smooth welded, doing a good impression of carbon in terms of looks, while the fork is full carbon. 

This one is built up with a SRAM Apex 1x groupset, a 44-tooth chainset matched with a very wide ranging 11-42-tooth cassette. It’s fitted with 33mm-wide tyres from Clement, although there’s plenty of space for something fatter.

If you do want to take it on the road and use it for commuting, for example, the CXR 8.9 is fitted with mudguard and rack mounts.

ADV 

The ADV series of aluminium adventure bikes spans Boardman's 9 Series and 8 Series.

The single 9 Series model is the ADV 9.0 (£1,650, above) which is built around a triple butted 6061 aluminium frame with smooth welds. With a slacker head angle than the 8 Series models, it's designed to be a little more off-road capable and a little less road-focused.

The bike is flat mount standard and uses 12mm thru axles front and rear. As well as bottle cage mounts in the usual two positions, there’s a third set on the underside of the down tube.

The ADV 9.0 is built up with a SRAM Rival 1x (single chainring) groupset, including hydraulic disc brakes. The tubeless ready wheels are fitted with Clement 650b x 50mm tyres. If you switch to 700c wheels you’ll be able to fit tyres up to about 40mm wide.

The ADV 8.8 (above), available in both standard and women’s versions (both £750), is built around a 7005 aluminium alloy frame and a full-carbon fork. It comes with clearance for wide tyres (it’s fitted with 38mm-wide Schwalbe G-Ones) and eyelets for mudguards and a rack.

This bike comes with a Shimano Sora 9-speed groupset — including a sub-compact 48/32-tooth chainset for gearing that’s suitable for riding off the beaten track — and cable-operated TRP Spyre disc brakes.

When we reviewed the ADV 8.8 we said, "Well made, well specced and fun to ride, this latest adventure machine covers plenty of bases, from blasting the local gravel byways to year-round commuting. It's a lot of bike for not a lot of money."

Read our review of the Boardman ADV 8.8

ASR

Boardman offers two ASR all-season road bikes in its 8 Series. The frames are steel, the forks are full carbon, and the geometries are designed to offer stability and comfort. Both models come with mudguards and disc brakes.

We reviewed the £1,299.99 Boardman ASR 8.9 (above) and said that it is "a really good value package that offers a relaxed ride with the classic looks and feel of steel, the modern convenience of hydraulic discs brakes, and clearance for wide tyres".

This model has a Reynolds 725 frame with reflective orange decals and more reflectives on the mudguards to help you get noticed in the dark. It is fitted with Shimano's reliable 105 groupset and Vittoria's Rubino Pro G+ tyres in a 28mm width.

Read our Boardman ASR 8.9 review 

The ASR 8.8 (£849.99) has a cheaper 4130 cromo steel frame but still gets a carbon fork. The groupset is Shimano Sora this time, two levels below the ASR 8.9's 105, while the disc brakes are cable-operated TRP Spyres.

URB

Boardman’s URB – as in urban – bikes are designed to be practical and straightforward, hence aluminium frames with mudguard and rack mounts, 1x drivetrains (so there's a single chainring and no front derailleur to worry about), hydraulic disc brakes and hard-wearing grips and saddles. They look pretty cool too!

The URB 8.8 (£699.99, above) is the entry-level model in the range with a SRAM NX1 groupset, Tektro HD-R310 brakes, and 32mm-wide Vittoria Zaffiro Pro tyres.

When we reviewed this bike we said, "The Boardman URB 8.8 is an impressively quick and fast-handling hybrid-style bike that will allow fit riders to give roadies a run for their money away from the lights. It's also great value."

We did, though, wonder whether new riders might find the ride quality just a little too harsh.

Read our Urb 8.8 review 

The URB 8.9 (£849.99) uses the same aluminium frame and fork and Tektro brakes but it's built up with a Shimano Alfine 8-speed hub gear (the gearing is included within the rear hub so there are no derailleurs on this bike). 

The top-level URB 9.4 (above) is much more expensive at £1,999.99, although it does offer some high level components. This one comes with a Shimano Alfine 11-speed hub with Di2 electronic shifting, Shimano Metrea brakes and a Gates GXP belt drive system, so there's no chain to get rusty in the rain.

HYB & MXT

Boardman offers a wide range of HYB hybrid bikes that range in price from the £550 HYB 8.6 to the £1,000 HYB 8.9. Each is built around an aluminium alloy frame and is equipped with disc brakes.

The mid-range HYB 8.8 (£750, above) looks like very good value. It has a smooth welded 6061 alloy frame and a full carbon fork. It is fitted with Shimano Deore components, hydraulic disc brakes and an FSA single ring chainset.

The 35mm-wide Schwalbe Citizen tyres come with a Kevlar puncture protection belt underneath the tread.

The MXT bikes are built around aluminium frames too and are also fitted with disc brakes but, unlike the HYBs, these have suspension forks and are suitable for rougher roads.

The cheaper of the two models (both are available in standard and women's versions) is the MTX 8.6 (above) at £500. Even at this price you get hydraulic disc brakes courtesy of Tektro. 

If you can stretch to £650, the MTX 8.8 comes with a better fork and a Shimano Deore 2 x 10-speed groupset.

The complete Boardman 2019 road bike range

The Boardman SLR 8.9 Carbon is a quick and dynamic road bike with practical features that make it suitable for year-round riding, and it offers very good value for money.

• Pros: Great frame, solid spec, very good price
• Cons: Brakes aren't the best

Blimey, what a corker! The Boardman SLR 8.9 Carbon replaces the Road Team Carbon which is road.cc Road Bike of the Year 2017-18, and it's a lot of bike for £1,000.

> Find your nearest dealer here

> Buy this online here

Every so often in this job you review a bike that makes you think, 'I'd happily ride this one day in, day out.' That's not entirely surprising when you're on a 10 grand superbike, but it's less common at the £1,000 mark. The Boardman SLR 8.9 is one of those bikes.

Of course, £1,000 represents a significant investment for most of us, but it's not stratospheric these days, and means the Boardman SLR 8.9 Carbon is accessible via most tax-free Cycle to Work schemes.

The highlight is the new frameset, which is good news because that's the heart of any bike. The frame was developed with the use of CFD (computational fluid dynamics), the idea being to provide improved aerodynamic efficiency. You wouldn't call this a full-on aero road bike but you do get features designed to reduce drag. The down tube, seat tube and fork legs have truncated aerofoil profiles, meaning that the trailing edge is cut off square – a design technique that's widely used in the bike industry (and elsewhere).

The ride

We can't offer any assessment of aerodynamics, but I can tell you that the Boardman SLR 8.9 Carbon feels lively in use. You'll find lighter bikes out there at this price point – the £999 Giant Contend SL1 that we reviewed weighed 8.74kg, for instance, and the Specialized Allez Elite, also £999, was 8.77kg – but don't get too hung up on that.

The SLR 8.9 Carbon offers a high level of stiffness for its price point. Okay, you'll probably notice a bit of frame flex if you absolutely hammer it in a quad-twanging sprint for a town sign, and a little from Boardman's own alloy tubeless-ready wheels, but that's about the extent of it. In general, the SLR 8.9 Carbon gives a good account of itself, standing firm when you launch into your best KOM efforts.

You get a tapered head tube that's home to a 1 1/8in upper bearing and a 1 1/2in lower bearing. This gives the front end a pretty solid feel that makes carving through the bends a whole lot of fun. You can smash it through the corners without the need to back off if things get vague.

The handling is quick but a way short of twitchy. You can manoeuvre yourself easily enough without any sense of skittishness. This is a bike that's simple to control – well, pretty much. I wouldn't say that the Tektro R315 long arm brakes, which have been specced to allow the use of mudguards and 28mm tyres, have quite the punch of Shimano equivalents. Don't get me wrong, they work fine, they just feel like they're lacking a little power when push comes to shove.

One thing that surprised me about the SLR 8.9 Carbon is the level of comfort on offer here. I've ridden it loads over the past few weeks, including up the Col de la Madone in southeast France two or three times and the Col de Turini, and I've never given comfort a whole lot of thought. That's definitely a good thing because the only time I usually think about that ride quality is when it's missing.

Boardman has dropped the seatstays on this model so that they meet the seat tube low down, while the seatpost is a slim 27.2mm in diameter and its clamping point is low – it's a wedge-type design in the top tube/seat tube junction.

All of this helps to make for a reasonable amount of movement at the saddle; not so much that you bounce around when laying down the power, but enough to take the edge off holes and bumps in the road and to filter out a lot of vibration.

The saddle itself is made for Boardman by Velo, although the shape is reminiscent of that of a Fizik. Let's just say that the design looks as though it has been heavily influenced by the Antares. Saddles are always a matter of personal taste but I imagine that most people are going to get along with the generous amount of gel-feel padding on offer.

The only thing that I'd really have preferred in terms of comfort would have been a larger diameter handlebar. Boardman's own alloy bar is a 31.8mm diameter at the clamp but slims down a lot from there. A chunkier bar would make for lower pressure on your hands... but that's a personal preference and I'm being picky.

If you want to fit mudguards, the SLR 8.9 Carbon comes with eyelets. The ones on the inside of the rear dropouts are hardly noticeable when not in use and those on the outside of the fork legs aren't a whole lot more conspicuous. Subtle, then, but invaluable for year-round riding in the UK.

Geometry

I've been riding the SLR 8.9 Carbon in a 58cm. This one comes with a 570mm effective top tube (the measurement if the top tube was horizontal rather than sloping), a 580mm effective seat tube (again, assuming the top tube was horizontal) and a 160mm head tube. The head angle is 73 degrees and the seat angle is 73.5 degrees. The stack height (the vertical distance from the centre of the bottom bracket to the top of the head tube) is 582mm and the reach (the horizontal distance between those points) is 392mm.

Divide the stack by the reach and you get 1.48 which is exactly the same as you get with Boardman's high level SLR Endurance 9.9. The geometry is identical. It's not nearly as relaxed as something like a Specialized Roubaix, though, where the 58cm model has a stack/reach figure of 1.67. Boardman's SLR Race, on the other hand, has a lower stack and a longer reach, putting you into a more aggressive riding position.

The top and the bottom of all this number talk is that this is a performance-minded geometry but it's more relaxed than that of a full-on race bike. It splits the difference between a traditional race bike and an endurance bike. You feel like you're riding in an efficient position and the chances are that you're not going to get an ache in your back or a crick in your neck 10 miles down the road from trying to hold it.

Groupset and gearing

The SLR 8.9 Carbon is built up with a Shimano Tiagra groupset, aside from those Tektro R315 long arm brakes that I mentioned. Tiagra might lack the prestige of Shimano's higher level groupsets (it sits fourth in the hierarchy behind Dura-Ace, Ultegra and 105) but it just works. Okay, it's a 10-speed rather than an 11-speed system but you don't particularly notice that difference in use; at least, I don't. You just adjust to these things.

You get a compact chainset (50/34-tooth) and a 12-28t cassette here which will probably suit most. I guess that some people might prefer an 11-32t cassette or even 11-34 to make things easier on the toughest hills. Handily, Boardman has specced the GS version of the Tiagra rear derailleur here so going for larger sprockets would be a relatively straightforward swap.

Wheels and tyres

I wouldn't say that Boardman's SLR alloy wheels are anything to get particularly excited about but they've done a decent job over the past few weeks. After a good few hundred miles the front one is still perfectly true – bang on – while the rear one is near as damn it too. That's a good sign. It means that the wheels probably won't need much attention for a long time.

The rims are tubeless ready, although the 700 x 25 Vittoria Rubino tyres aren't, so you'll need to swap them over if you want to go down that route. These tyres aren't especially lightweight or supple but they do offer durability and avoid flats pretty well thanks to a puncture protection layer.

Good value?

Interestingly, Boardman offers the SLR 8.9 Alloy at exactly the same price: £1,000. The main differences are that you get an alloy frame (you worked that out for yourself, right?) – it's triple butted 6061 aluminium alloy – and a Shimano 105 11-speed groupset, which is a level higher than the SLR 8.9 Carbon's Tiagra. You also get a Fizik Antares saddle rather than Boardman's own.

The tube profiles aren't exactly the same as those of the SLR 8.9 Carbon that I've been riding but the frames are recognisably from the same family. Smooth welding gives a carbon look. I'd guess that most people are going to be tempted by the lure of carbon, but who knows? We've not reviewed the SLR 8.9 Alloy so we can't comment on the relative performance.

> Buyer's Guide: 14 of the best 2018 road bikes for under £1,000

The Giant Contend SL 1 that we did review here on road.cc is similar to the SLR 8.9 Alloy in that you get an alloy frame and a mainly Shimano 105 groupset, although you get a cheaper chainset and Tektro R540 brakes.

The Specialized Allez Elite is also £999, it's also built around an aluminium frame, and it's also built up with a largely Shimano 105 groupset (with a Praxis groupset and Tektro brakes).

You need to decide whether you'd prefer the higher level groupset of any of these three bikes or a carbon frame. That's down to you, clearly. What I would say is that I'd consider the Boardman SLR 8.9 Carbon to be more upgradeable. It could certainly handle higher level components if you're likely to add them as and when the various parts wear out.

Conclusion

The Boardman SLR 8.9 Carbon is a really good road bike, particularly because the frameset is an absolute winner. Add in a reliable Shimano Tiagra groupset, no-nonsense finishing kit and the ability to fit mudguards easily and this is a bike that'll give you a ton of enjoyment all year round.

Verdict

Really impressive road bike that's built around a corker of a frameset, and the price is very good too

All of the big brands have aero road bikes in the range these days, most in both rim brake and disc brake options.

Aero road bikes essentially draw aerodynamic features from time trial bikes into a road frame, and balance the demands of weight and stiffness into a package that, on paper, looks to be the ideal all-round choice.

You're always working against air resistance when you ride your bike; the higher the speed the more significant it gets. Although most of that air resistance results from you — your body and what you're wearing — a significant chunk is acting against your bike, hence the development of aero road bikes that are designed to produce the minimum of drag.

Here are some of the best aero road bikes of 2019. We'll run part 2 — featuring the likes of Specialized, Colnago, BMC, Ridley and 3T — next week.

Find out which is more important, aerodynamics or a light weight

Cannondale SystemSix — £3,499.99-£8,499.99

Cannondale described the disc brake-only SystemSix as the "fastest bike in the world" when it was revealed in July 2018. It also said that the SystemSix is more than an aero bike, although there's certainly a massive focus on aero efficiency here.

Read about our first ride on the Cannondale SystemSix
Find a Cannondale dealer

Cervelo S5 Disc — £4,899-£9,699

The updated Cervelo S5 features a V-shaped stem integrated into a new fork that's fully external. According to Cervelo, the stem reduces drag by allowing unimpeded airflow along the top tube. The aero-shaped down tube has a cutaway leading edge to allow it to sit close to the front wheel in order to manage the airflow in that area.

Get all the details on the Cervelo S5 Disc here
Find a Cervelo dealer

Bianchi Aria — £2,300-£4,200

Bianchi's Aria, available with either rim brakes or disc brakes, is an efficient aero road bike that handles sharply. Although hardly a budget option, it comes in a variety of builds and is a more accessible choice than any of the brand's Oltres.

Check out our Bianchi Aria review
Read our review of the Bianchi Aria Disc
Find a Bianchi dealer

Giant Propel — £1,599-£8,999

You can still buy a Propel with rim brakes but the latest update is a disc-brake only design that Giant says is more aerodynamically efficient than any of its predecessors. It's stiff and efficient and available in a wide variety of builds to suit different budgets.

See our review of the Giant Propel Advanced Disc
Read our guide to Giant's 2019 range
Find a Giant dealer

Orro Venturi — £2,599.99-£3,299.99

The Venturi is a disc brake-only design with 12mm thru axles front and rear. The frame is optimised for 28mm-wide tyres and uses spread tow carbon from Sigmatex — flat and wide unidirectional tapes that are designed to reduce weight and increase stiffness.

Find an Orro dealer

Vitus ZX1 Disc — £1,999.99-£4,199.99

The ZX1, available only with disc brakes, is a fast and smooth carbon bike that handles superbly. You get Kammtail shaped tube profiles, a fork crown that's recessed into the frame, an aero seatpost and internal cable routing to reduce drag. It offers good value for money in a race-ready package.

Read our review of the Vitus ZX1 CRi Aero Disc Ultegra Di2
Buy a Vitus

Pinarello Dogma F10 — £4,499-£4,699 (frameset)

The Dogma F10 — both rim brake and disc brake models are available — might not be a full-on aero road bike like some here but it certainly has aero features such as a flatback down tube profile that's designed to smooth the airflow over the water bottle, and fins behind the fork dropouts to reduce drag around the quick release lever.

Read all about the Pinarello Dogma F10 here
Find a Pinarello dealer

Merida Reacto — £1,000-£8,250

Merida's Reacto aero road bikes have slim tube shapes, a low seatstay connection and, in some cases, a one-piece cockpit. They're available in two different geometries and in both disc brake and rim brake models. Merida claims the difference in aero efficiency between rim brake and disc models is less than one watt at 45km/h (28mph).

Find out all about the Merida Reacto here
Read our review of the Merida Reacto Disc Team-E
Find a Merida dealer

Rose Xeon CW — £2,132-£4,809

You tend to get a lot for your money by buying direct from Rose, the rim brake version of the Xeon CW aero bike coming with Shimano's second tier Ultegra groupset for £2,132. The disc brake model is just over £300 more expensive.

Buy a Rose

Ribble Aero 883 — £1,399-£6,761

One of the best things about buying from Ribble is that you can use its online Bike Builder system to select the parts you want based on your preferences and budget. You can go all the way up to a Sram Red eTap groupset, a Quarq DZero power meter and Zipp 404 wheels if you have the cash.

Buy a Ribble

Scott Foil — £2,499-£10,999

The Scott Foil has been known for its versatility over the past few years and these days it's available in both rim brake and disc brake guises. The most affordable rim brake option, with Shimano 105 components, is £2,499 while disc brake models start at £3,199.

Find a Scott dealer

Boardman Air — £1,750-£6,000

The Air bikes feature truncated airfoil tube profiles that are deeper and narrower than those that you’ll find on most other aero road bikes, while the cutaway section of the seat tube is designed to work best with 25mm-wide tyres although there’s space for 28s if you prefer.

Read our review of the Boardman Elite Air 9.2
Find a Boardman dealer

Canyon Aeroad £2,449-£6,349

With its Trident 2.0 tube profiles (essentially a cut-off aerofoil, Kamm tail shape) and skinny head tube and fork blades, the Aeroad has been one of the benchmark aero road bikes of the past few years. You also get predictable handling and plenty of comfort thrown in.

Read our Canyon Aeroad CF SLX Disc 8.0 Di2 review
Buy a Canyon

Trek Madone SLR — £5,400-£11,650

Trek's 2019 Madones are hugely updated with a new geometry. The SLR range comes with adjustable IsoSpeed and the option of disc brakes. The rim brake version is lighter but there's no aerodynamic penalty in opting for discs, according to Trek.

Read our story on the new Trek Madone range here
Check out our guide to Trek's 2019 road bike range
Find a Trek dealer

Not so long ago we pitted a Pinarello Nytro e-road bike against a 7kg lightweight racer up Cheddar Gorge. And it didn't really surprise anyone that the bike with the motor came out on top.

That wasn't enough for some of you: what about if the course was a loop, with all the descents and flat bits as well as the climbs. Would an e-bike still be the best tool for the job then? Or would a lightweight bike outshine it on a mixture of terrain. You demanded to know.

It sounded like an excuse for another day mooning around in the Mendips to us. So we took the two bikes out on an hour-long loop to see which was best. And you can listen to our unscientific findings in the video. Enjoy!

• With 700C wheels, wide-range gears, flat bars and cantilever or disc brakes, hybrids are midway between road and mountain bikes. They're the UK's most common and best-selling bike type.

• The upright riding position makes them great for traffic, and for leisurely rides in the country — slow down and sniff the flowers.

• Oddly few hybrids come with practicalities like mudguards and rack. Budget £50-100 for them and get them fitted when you buy the bike. You'll be glad you did.

• These bikes are inexpensive transport par excellence, paying for themselves in just a few months if you live in a major city.

The most popular bike style in the UK, hybrids are practical and comfortable, and their upright riding position makes them ideal for the office run or leisurely cruising the lanes.

As the name suggests, hybrids have aspects of road bikes and mountain bikes. From the road comes a lightweight frame and fast-rolling 700C wheels, while mountain bikes contribute flat bars, disc or V-brakes and wide-range gears. The tyres are usually an intermediate width and tread to provide enough cushioning and grip that rough surfaces like forest roads and tow paths are no obstacle,

There are many variations under the hybrid umbrella. At one end, flat-bar road bikes are great for zipping around the lanes and even some light touring, but with skinny tyres might not be as much fun on potholed city streets. At the other end of the range are fully-equipped European-style city bikes, with mudguards, rack and even built-in dynamo lights or a rear-wheel lock.

Hybrids make great urban transport for potholed streets or towpaths (CC BY-NC 2.0 Tom Blackwell:Flickr)

Hybrids are great transport. You can pick one up for less than a hundred quid, and by the time you get up the price range to £300-600 there are some really very nice bikes. That's where we've started with this selection. If that blows your budget take a look at our guide to the best cheap hybrid bikes.

Oddly, fully-equipped bikes are less common at higher prices. Manufacturers perhaps think buyers with more money to spend will want to choose their own mudguards, rack and so on, but we see lots of people riding nice quality hybrids without mudguards and just getting wet bums. Seems a bit daft.

It's not unusual for designers of hybrid bikes to specify alternatives to the ubiquitous rear derailleur and you'll find a couple of examples in our recommendations below. Hub gears are less unusual than on sportier bikes, and can pick up flat-bar singlespeeders very inexpensively because they's so simple.

Hybrids are great cheap transport. Bung even a £500 bike on Cycle To Work Scheme and you'll barely notice the payments disappearing from your pay packet. In fact, in many cities, you'll be better off. Compared to a London Zone 1-3 Travelcard at £148.70 per month, a £154.00 Bristol City peak travelcard or a Cambridge Megarider Plus bus ticket for £96, the repayments for a hybrid are trivial.

Let's take a look at some of your best choices in flat-bar bikes.

Saracen Urban Cross 3 — £750

Saracen pitches the Urban Cross 3 as a machine designed to tackle city streets and with its secure and comfortable ride, it does that very well. But it's got a lot more potential, and with a very competent spec including Shimano hydraulic disc brakes and Deore gears, it's a fantastic all-round leisure bike.

Read our review of the Saracen Urban Cross 3
Find a Saracen dealer

Whyte Victoria women's urban bike 2019 — £799

The latest version of Whyte's nippy round-towner incorporates a couple of mini-trends we're starting to see in hybrids for 2019: single chainrings and fat 650B tyres. With a wide-range gear selection at the wheel there's no real need for multiple chainrings, which makes for a more straightforward gear system. The wheels are smaller than the road-racing size 700C you usually find on hybrids, but with fat tyres they end up about the same size. The fat tyres make for more grip and cushioning, which has to be a good thing round town.

Hybrids intended for women tend to have a shorter top tube than their male equivalents, and have female friendly components like a woman's saddle, as here.

The Portobello is the men's version.

Read our review of the Whyte Victoria
Find a Whyte dealer

B'Twin Hoprider 500 — £399

The B'Twin Hoprider 500 comes with everything you need to pootle round town, to the office or the shops or just round the park for exercise. It's not the lightest hybrid ever, but it's very well specced for the money.

Off the peg, the Hoprider 500 comes with hub-powered lighting front and rear, mudguards, rack and kickstand. That's a great set of accessories for a hybrid (too often they're just a bare bike) and really makes this bike an excellent choice for commuting and other practical riding.

If you want something a bit more upmarket, the £549 Hoprider 900 has disc brakes, Shimano Deore gears and a built-in Axa Defender lock.

Read our review of the B'Twin Hoprider 520
Find a Decathlon store

Trek FX 1 2019 — £350

Trek's best-selling city bike has a light aluminium frame, very wide-range 21-speed gears that'll get you up any hills you're likely to find in the UK, and convenient Shimano trigger shifters.

You don't get extras like a rack or mudguards, but the frame has all the necessary fittings for them, and will even take a Dutch-style frame/wheel lock like the AXA Defender so you can't forget your lock.

Find a Trek dealer

Reid Blacktop — £410

Looking for a no-frills city bike? At £430 the Reid Blacktop isn't going to break the bank, and it isn't going to break itself either: it's a well-built and easy-to-ride city bike with durable components and an engaging ride. I like it.

The Blacktop has an aluminium alloy frame and fork. The welds are smoothed and the bike is finished in a matt/gloss black paintjob that's very understated and urban. There are a few chips in the paint now but generally it's holding up very well. The alloy fork is painted to match.

To that frame is attached some very sensible and durable city kit. The transmission is a Shimano Nexus 3-speed hub with a grip shifter and a Prowheel 44T chainset. With the 20T sprocket on the hub that gives you 43in, 60in and 81in gears (approximately). That's a nice spread for getting yourself up the hills and still being able to push on along the flats.

Read our review of the Reid Blacktop
Find a Reid dealer

B'Twin Triban 520 Flat Bar — £450

B'Twin's Triban 520 promises road bike zip with the more upright position of a flat bar so you can sit up and admire the view or keep an eye out for random taxis.

The Triban 520 strikes a balance between speed and practicality. On the speed side, well, at heart it's a road bike. Skinny tyres, narrow saddle, seat a bit higher than the bars. On the other hand, it's got a flat bar, with gears controlled by mountain bike-style triggers so you never need move your hands away from the brakes.

The frame has fittings for rack and guards so it can be practical too and the Shimano Sora components make it a bargain for this price.

Read our first look at the very similar Triban 540

Giant Escape 2 City Disc — £499

A dry bum, a place to carry stuff and a kickstand so you don't have to lean it against a lamppost or railing to park it. There's also a triple chainset for a huge gear range, so if you head for the hills at the weekend you need fear no climb, however steep. Hydraulic disc brakes bring it to a halt and there are nice wide puncture -resistant tyres to keep you rolling.

Find a Giant dealer

Raleigh Strada 5 — £575

Now, this is interesting. The Strada 5 uses 650B wheels, a size that's smaller than the usual 700C wheels used on road bikes and most hybrids, but bigger than the 26-inch wheels that used to be standard for mountain bikes. With fat tyres, like the 50mm Clement Stradas here, the wheel ends up with the same rolling size as a skinny 700C, but with lots of cushioning and grip, so it's comfy and sure-footed on potholed urban roads.

Picking up on another emerging trend, Raleigh have gone for a simple single-chainring gear system with a wide-range set of sprockets so you've got plenty of low gears for the hills. Stopping power comes from Shimano hydraulic discs.

Find a Raleigh dealer

Boardman HYB 8.9 — £1,000

Boardman is another brand that's ubiquitous on the city streets and main man Chris Boardman is similarly ubiquitous in the media advocating for cycling rights.

Boardman somehow finds time to design nice hybrids too, like this aluminium-framed, round-town speedster. It has hydraulic disc brakes for confident stopping and carbon fibre forks, which helps take the sting out of potholes, and wide-range SRAM Apex gearing with just a single chainring to keep things simple.

Find a Halfords branch

Cannondale Quick Carbon 1 2019 — £1,500

The late, sadly missed bike reviewer Steve Worland described this luxury hybrid as: "Quick like a road bike, comfy like a mountain bike, with disc brake confidence; a thoroughbred mongrel of an all-rounder". A hybrid with a carbon fibre frame will seem over the top until the first time you have to carry it up several flights of stairs, at which point it suddenly makes perfect, shoulder-friendly sense.

It makes sense on the road too. Its instantly most obvious and endearing characteristic is its casual speed, while the handling far more sprightly than most hybrid type bikes.

The latest version of the Quick 1 has wide-range Shimano 105 gears and hydraulic disc brakes, and fast-rolling 28mm Schwalbe tyres. There are fittings for racks and mudguards too, it can be practical as well as quick.

Find a Cannondale dealer

Read our review of the very similar 2014 Cannondale Quick Carbon 2

If you're keen to get into road cycling, for the fun of zooming round the lanes, for fitness or as a quick and cheap way to get to work, it is possible to buy a road bike for under £500. In fact, we've found a few bargains starting from just under £200, proving you really don't need to spend a fortune to get a good road bike these days.

It’s quite likely that if you’re reading this you’re looking at buying your first road bike. You’ll probably have a lot of questions. A good place to start is always a well stocked bike shop where you can view the bikes in your budget and get a good idea of what is offered.

Road bikes priced under £500 often feature light and stiff aluminium or steel frames with good quality gears and brakes. Japanese firm Shimano is the predominant component choice at this end of the market, and the good news is that a lot of the technology seen higher up the ladder eventually trickles down to the entry level.

Weight is the main area where entry-level bikes suffer. However, with compact or triple chainsets, and the wider range of gears they offer, getting up steep hills is made easier. As a general rule, the more you spend the lighter the bike will be. Closer to £500 and you can expect a carbon fibre fork which saves weight and offers improved performance over the steel and aluminium forks on cheaper bikes.

£200-£300

You can get bikes cheaper than this, but they are — frankly — not very good. If your budget is so tight this is beyond your range then should seriously consider looking for a second hand bargain (head over to eBay or our own classifieds for a look), but if it has to be new you might find something if you shop around for discount bargains during the winter.

Spend just a bit more and you get a whole lot more bike. Lighter, better equipped, and we're willing to bet nicer to ride too. This is a price point where the big specialist retailers are really able to flex their buying muscle for your benefit, and combine it with design knowledge to deliver the maximum bang for your buck.

It's no coincidence that both Decathlon and Halfords in-house brands figure strongly here. This is also a price point at which you can pick up a really good discount bargain at the right time of the year, something we've reflected in our pick of bikes here.

B'Twin Triban 100 — £249.99

A new model for 2017 from French-based sports superstore chain Decathlon, the B'Twin Triban 100 has an aluminium frame and seven-speed gears with 32mm tyres so it can tackle the odd dirt track or towpath without any fuss. It'll take mudguards and a rack so will make a serviceable commuter that can take you pootling round the lanes at the weekend.

Read our review of the B'Twin Triban 100

Brand-X road bike — £269.99

If this isn't the now-discontinued Wiggle road bike with different decals I'll eat my cycling cap. The spec is the same, though the price has gone up from £250. It was great value at that price and it's still pretty decent at £270.

It's available in five sizes, so you should be able to get one that fits well unless you're very tall or short.

Carrera Zelos — £275

There are plenty of bikes costing under £500 at Halfords, and pick of the bunch is this Carrera Zelos. It features an aluminium frame built up with a 14-speed Shimano groupset and Tektro dual pivot brakes. There's a women's version too.

The price of the Zelos varies quite a bit from its £275 RRP. We've seen it as low as £220; anything under £250 is a good deal.

£300 to £500

Step up to this price bracket and the choice suddenly increases, with some of the bigger manufacturers now coming into contention, especially the more you approach the £500 mark. Most of the bikes at this price, though not all, will feature an aluminium frame, which makes for a lighter bike. Get closer to £500 and you can expect to see the fork upgraded to carbon fibre, saving weight and improving the ride.

Triban RC120 — £369.99

A new model from Decathlon, this is the cheapest bike in the Triban RC range, with an easy-handling aluminium frame and wide-range Microshift 8-speed gears. You also get puncture-resiatant tyres and a fork with carbon fibre legs that improves comfort.

Spend a little more on the £419.99 Triban RC120 Disc and you get the all-weather stopping reassurance of disc brakes.

Roux Etape 150 — £350

With an aluminium frame, chromoly fork, wide-range gears and cantilever brakes, the Roux Etape 150 is an excellent-value touring bike, that is, a bike for long-distance, multi-day travel. It'll also do nicely for the ride to work.

With mudguards and a rack, it's ready to roll — all you need to add is panniers.

Calibre Lost Lad — £399

There aren't many bikes in this price range with disc brakes, but they're starting to appear from brands like Go Outdoors' Calibre marque. The Lost Lad endurance bike has Shimano's Claris components and Tektro disc brakes with Schwalbe Lugano tyres.  

Pinnacle Laterite 1 Women's — £420

For this price you might expect a women's bike to be the men's frame with a shorter stem and a woman's saddle. That's not the case here. There's a female-specific frame at the heart of this version of the Laterite 1, with a shorter reach for any given size, and a size range that goes down further too. There's a men's version too.

Voodoo Limba — £450

With fatter tyres than most of the bikes here, the Limba looks like a good entry to the gravel bike genre: a bike that can take you along dirt roads and easier trails as well as being comfortably pothole-proof for the office dash. As is common at this price range, it has Tektro brakes and Shimano's Claris gears.

Merlin PR7 Sora — £499

Merlin Cycles is always worth a look for great-value bikes, and for a shade under £500, this edition of the PR7 is amazing value with a Shimano Sora nine-speed groupset. For another £1.81 (yes, under two quid) Merlin will throw in a pair of Shimano R540 clipless pedals and Diadora Phantom II shoes.

Read our review of the Merlin PR7

Pinnacle Laterite 2 — £500

A new model from Evans Cycles house brand Pinnacle, the Laterite 2 has a frame made from double-butted 6061 aluminium and a fork with carbon fibre legs. Shimano brings its Sora 9-speed gears to the party and there's plenty of room under the Tektro brakes for mudguards even with tyres fatter than the 25mm Schwalbe Luganos fitted.​

You can commute to and from work on any bike you like but here are five that will make the trip a whole lot easier and more comfortable because they're designed especially for the job.

Nearly all urban commuter bikes priced under £800 are made from aluminium alloy which can be made into frames that are strong and relatively light. Most are equipped with rigid forks although you'll occasionally see front suspension as an option.

Suspension softens the ride for a little extra comfort and control but it's by no means essential and bear in mind that it always adds weight (not that weight is by any means the most important factor when choosing a bike for commuting).

Ride position

We all want to get where we're going quickly but an urban commuter bike isn't designed for all-out speed in the same way that a race bike is so there's no need for a low and stretched body position. Instead, an urban commuter bike is more about control and comfort, so the frame is shorter and the front end is higher so you'll sit more upright in the saddle, giving you a good view of the traffic around you and the road ahead. 

Flat handlebar

Each of the bikes shown here has a flat handlebar, as opposed to a dropped bar like you'll find on a race bike. Again, this helps give you a more upright body position. Flat handlebars are usually wider than dropped bars too, making steering a little easier, and the brake levers and gear shifters are always within reach. Most people find it a little easier to control the bike in traffic with a setup like this.

Rack

You might be perfectly happy riding to and from work with everything you need for the day in a pack on your back – plenty of people do that. For heavier loads, though, you might want to consider a rack and panniers on the back of your bike. Two of the bikes here come with a rack already fitted. If you want to add a rack yourself there are ways to fit one to pretty much any bike, but a frame that's equipped with rack eyelets makes life easier, so check whether they're there before you make your choice.

Mudguards

Two of the bikes here have ready-fitted mudguards but most don't, so mudguard eyelets are another consideration.

Lots of people do without mudguards but they will keep you and the bike drier when riding on wet roads. That's especially important if you're going to be riding in your everyday clothing rather than changing once you get to work. 

Brakes

All of the bikes shown here feature disc brakes. We've not chosen them for that reason – there are plenty of good rim brake bikes out there – but this is a reflection of the way the market has been heading lately. 

One of the big advantages of disc brakes is that they're less affected than rim brakes by wet conditions. This can be useful on a bike that you have to ride at a particular time of day regardless of the weather.

Cycle To Work Scheme

All of the bikes shown here are priced well under £1,000, the most common credit limit on Cycle to Work Scheme purchases. 

The Cycle to Work Scheme, which is arranged through an employer, allows you to save at least 25 percent of the cost of a new bike by paying for it from your pre-tax income. You pay through salary sacrifice, generally over 12 months, and you save on income tax and National Insurance on the payments.

You can also include accessories in the £1,000 – a helmet, lock, lights, and so on. The most expensive bike here is £800, leaving you plenty of scope for other essentials.

We've reviewed each of the bikes shown here. There's a link to the original review at the bottom of each write-up along with a link that'll help you find a local dealer. Clicking on the bike name will take you directly to an online retailer.

Saracen Urban Cross 3 £749.99 

Saracen pitches the Urban Cross 3 as a machine designed to tackle city streets, and it does that very well with its secure and comfortable ride. But it's got a lot more potential, and with a very competent spec including Shimano hydraulic disc brakes and Deore gears, it's a fantastic all-round leisure bike.

The first sensation that hits you after jumping aboard the Urban Cross is how easy everything feels. The front end is particularly relaxed. That might be to do with the Suntour 75mm suspension fork, which goes a long way to help you survive an army of speed bumps, even at speed (you can lock it out when you don't need the travel). The suspension seatpost works well too.

Cruising is a relaxing experience and getting up to speed is no great chore. While stability trumps excitement with this Saracen, climbing is actually pretty rewarding.

The custom butted and formed 6061 aluminium alloy frame is mountain bike-inspired and nicely finished. It comes with a few useful commuting extras, such as mudguard and rear rack mounts. 

Saracen's Deore components are super-reliable, easy to operate and durable, while the jewel in the Urban Cross 3's crown is the Shimano M365 hydraulic brakeset. Outright power is always there but the real beauty is how you can apply it so smoothly. 

The Urban Cross 3 is a safe, comfortable and secure way to ride to work. Expand your horizons slightly at the weekend and you've got a plucky little hybrid that is far more capable than you might imagine.

Read our review 
Find a Saracen dealer 

Claud Butler Quest 11 £799.99 

This is a smart looking sports hybrid with a aluminium frame and carbon bladed fork. It rides very well, though it could do with lighter wheels to make it nippier. It's specced with a single chainset and the not-so-common Shimano Metrea rear mech and Ultegra shifter, which provide super-smooth and reliable shifting.

You'll be pleasantly surprised by how smoothly the Quest gets up to speed and how well it rolls along at a comfortable cruising pace. It's tough, strong and swift rather than racy fast, providing the easy ride you want from a hybrid but with more than a spark of excitement bubbling underneath.

The frame is made from 6061 aluminium multi-butted hydroformed tubing and has mounting points for both a mudguard and a rear rack, which will come in handy for commuting. There are dedicated seatstay bosses and eyelets for four-point rack fixing if you need to carry more weight, though the mudguard will have to share the dropout eyelets. You get mudguard eyelets on the fork too.

Riding in traffic, the width of the flat handlebar (68cm) might give you cause for concern, but you can trim it down if that's an issue. A 42T chainring mated to an 11-32T cassette means you don't get the ultra-low gears of some rivals, and that might be a problem if you want to tackle long, steep hills or savage short ones. There are workarounds, but all involve extra money.

The Shimano BRM-315 flat bar brakes feel powerful on long descents and, although at the cheaper end of Shimano's hydraulic disc brake options, they give no cause for concern.

The wheels are strong and dependable side rather than light and responsive while the 32mm Schwalbe Delta Cruiser K-Guard tyres are well known for their bombproof durability and offer a high level of protection from punctures.

The Quest 11 will prove to be a good base bike should you want to upgrade it as you use it, but there's no need to rush out and do that any time soon. Add lights, mudguards and a rack and you'd be sorted for commuting in all weathers – as long as your route isn't too hilly – and still have money left over from £1,000.

Read our review 
Find a Claud Butler dealer

Cube Touring Pro £649 

It's called 'Touring', yet it looks like a shopper; expect performance somewhere in between and you'll find the Cube Touring Pro is stable, surefooted and has a surprising turn of speed. Probably most important of all, it's very, very comfortable. In fact, with its rear rack, dynamo lights, kickstand, mudguards and chain case, it's a lifestyle bike that's truly easy to live with. 

Because of the nature of the Touring Pro's geometry, the front end feels tall, which provides a high riding position that is good for a commanding view of the way ahead and gives you an enhanced road presence. The slight downside is that communication between the wide handlebar and front wheel feels a little long-distance at first, and initially you may find the Touring Pro just a little unresponsive. This calms down with use and actually improves with speed.

And speed isn't out of the question. This may look like a relaxed cruiser but it boasts great balance, so out-of-the-saddle efforts are possible. 

The frame is made from double butted aluminium with an SR Suntour NEX suspension fork providing 50mm of travel. In conjunction with the 40mm-wide tyres, the fork certainly does a decent job of keeping the front end untroubled by irregular road surfaces. Rough tarmac is easily smoothed out and this bike can also handle moderate off-road routes, such as parkland paths and gravel tracks.

The Touring Pro features Shimano Altus shifters and Altus/ Acera derailleurs, teamed with a Shimano Tourney triple chainset. Everything works fairly securely, although gear changes can be a little clunky at times. The 48x36x26T triple is combined with a 12-32T 8-speed cassette, meaning you get gears that are low enough to tackle hills, even with some weight attached to the rear rack.

Assuming you use the Touring Pro to its full potential as a daily workhorse and carry a bit of weight all year round, the Tektro M285 hydraulic discs will serve you right, especially in poor weather. They're not perfect, though, and a heavily laden Touring Pro on a damp descent should still be ridden with caution – these Tektros will scrub off speed surely enough, but there's not a lot of outright power.

Overall, this is a fine leisure and commuting bike with a generous spec.

Read our review 
Find a Cube dealer 

Boardman Urb 8.8 £699.99 

The Boardman URB 8.8 is an impressively quick and fast-handling hybrid-style bike that's quick off the mark. It's also great value although new riders may find the ride quality just a little too harsh.

This is a bike designed to race through the urban jungle. The small rear triangle and relatively short chainstays allow for ultra-efficient efforts away from standstill and the ability to hit a high-speed cruise with ease. Climbing is suitably rewarding too: more inclined to promote dancing out of the saddle than simply spinning or grinding gears.

Handling is lively and direct but never falls into the realms of flighty, the bike simply goes where you want it to without ever having to be asked twice. If your hometown is blessed with smooth roads and a lack of potholes then this is the bike for you. On rougher roads the URB 8.8 can at times feel a little harsh, despite the 32mm-wide Vittoria Zaffiro Pro tyres at least nodding towards a spot of bump insulation.

With a hydroformed aluminium frame and matching alu fork, the Urb 8.8 is a cool looking bike while mudguard and rack mounts add practicality for year-round commuting. 

With a 1x11 SRAM NX1 gearset and SRAM Apex chainset, hydraulic disc brakes, tubeless-ready wheelset and a retail price of a penny off £700, the URB has plenty of long-lasting excitement. The choice of 44T chainset with 11-42T cassette suggests this is a machine ready for the long haul and suitable for a lifetime of cycling duties. The biggest sprocket at the back will cope with fairly serious climbs, or you can make use of the rear rack mounts and carry a bit of weight without fear. The Tektro hydraulic disc brakes scrub speed off reasonably well but there's not quite enough power to bring the bike to a halt really quickly.

This is a thoroughly impressive package that would blown the mind of a hybrid buyer 20, 10, or possibly even just five years ago. It's a super-stiff, super-quick flat-bar road bike masquerading as an urban warrior that just falls down a little on comfort

Read our review 
Find a Boardman dealer 

B'Twin Hoprider 900 £549.99 

The Hoprider 900 isn't a light bike, but if your commute isn't too hilly it rides really well and is excellent value, equipped with just about everything you could need for cycling to and from work.

This is less a 'bike' and more a 'total cycle commuting solution'! It comes fully loaded with features, emerging from the box complete with rear rack, hub dynamo lighting system, frame lock, front suspension fork, kickstand, hydraulic disc brakes, mudguards, 38mm Schwalbe Marathon tyres and even a chainguard to keep your tapered turn-ups oil-free.

At a total weight of nearly 19kg, this is a heavy bike and it feels it when the road starts to rise, but that mass isn't all bad news because the Hoprider 900 is also fantastically stable even at speed and it offers a supremely inspiring base from which to navigate the urban jungle. If you're at all nervous you'll appreciate the stability when checking over your shoulder or signalling. 

The Hoprider 900's aluminium frame is quite responsive and turns effort into forward motion with impressive efficiency. Indeed, despite being accessorised to the max, and having a hub dynamo, disc brakes and mudguards (all things that can easily cause irritatingly inefficient rubbing sounds) the Hoprider 900 cruises along silently.

B'Twin has specced some very decent components. The Shimano Alivio/Deore/Altus drivetrain is bombproof and works well, which is good because you'll probably make the most of its 27 available gear ratios. Meanwhile, the Shimano BM-M315 hydraulic discs have enough stopping power to handle a laden Hoprider 900, even when travelling fast.

A Suntour fork offers 63mm of suspension to take the edge off minor potholes or patchy parkland paths. It can also be locked out, if front stiffness is your thing. The voluminous Selle Royal saddle offers loads of cushioning while other road insulation comes via the excellent Schwalbe Marathon tyres with reflective sidewall strips and puncture protection: a perfect piece of speccing on a bicycle of this type.

And let's not forget those other practical extras, either. The rear rack comes with bungees and a clip. The dynamo system puts out 30 Lux of LED light at the front and a constant red LED glow at the back.

The kickstand comes in surprisingly useful, and while the frame lock might not deter committed ne'er-do-wells, at least it's an extra reason why they might choose to nick the bike parked alongside instead.

B'Twin has worked its customary speccing magic with the Hoprider 900, offering a fantastically fulsome trekking/commuter bike package with a fine riding experience at an astounding price. For those who need a bike to carry kit to work on a reasonably flat commute, you won't find anything better. If only B'Twin could also work its magic on the weighing scales, it would be perfect.

Read our review 
Find a B'Twin dealer