Welcome to our guide to the best road bikes for around £2,000. Bikes in this price bracket, are light, well-equipped and great value for money.
You also have a big range of choices. Carbon fibre frame, or the latest ultra-sophisticated aluminium? Caliper brakes or discs? Racing geometry, more upright for comfort or something in between? How about taking the the byways and bridleways on a gravel bike? Whatever type of riding you have in mind, there’s a bike in this price range that’ll suit you perfectly.
Choose your weapon: there are great road bikes under £2,000 for racing, sportive and endurance riding, mixing up some gravel riding or just whizzing round the lanes
Carbon fibre is the most popular frame material for its light weight and strength, but don't dismiss road bikes around £2,000 that are made from the latest high-tech aluminium or steel alloys
Most road bikes around £2,000 now have hydraulic disc brakes but there are still some rim-brake bikes available for traditionalists
Shimano's 105 groupset dominates the equipment selection on road bikes around £2,000, but there are a few with the Ultegra groupset that's next up in the heirarchy
13 of the best road bikes around £2,000
- Genesis Equilibrium 2021 — £1,749.99
- Cotic Escapade — from £1,829
- Giant Revolt Advanced 3 2021 — £2,199
- GT Grade Carbon Elite 2021 — £2,000.00
- Ribble CGR AL Shimano Ultegra — £1,999.00
- Specialized Allez Sprint Comp Disc 2021 — £2,200.00
- Cube Attain GTC SL Disc 2021 — £2,349.00
- Van Rysel RR 920 CF Ultegra — £2,229.99
- Cannondale CAAD13 Disc 105 2021 — £2,250
- Giant Defy Advanced 3 2021 — £2,098.99
- Trek Émonda ALR 5 Disc 2021 — £2,000.00
- Canyon Endurace AL Disc 7.0 2021 — £1,749.00
- Merida Silex 700 2021 — £2,000.00
Genesis Equilibrium 2021 — £1,749.99
The Equilibrium has been part of Genesis' line up for many years now, and this latest version – with its Reynolds 725 frame and fork – is an absolute corker, thanks to a smooth ride and plenty of tyre clearance.
Tester Stu writes: "The ride quality is beautiful. I like my tyres pumped up hard; if the frameset is any good, it'll deal with the vibrations. And this one does. Taking to the back lanes sees it float across broken road surfaces. It just seems to dampen everything out and feels so composed."
Read our review of the Genesis Equilibrium 2021
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Cotic Escapade — from £1,829
One of the early adopters of the whole gravel/adventure/do-it-all bikes, the Cotic Escapade has had a few upgrades since its inception a good five or six years ago. Larger tyre clearances, a new carbon fork and a tapered head tube have now upped the performance and dropped the weight, making the new model an absolute joy to ride whether on or off road.
The original Cotic was disconcertingly ahead of its time, but with the explosion of the whole gravel/adventure market, components have caught up and things like quality 1x groupsets, brilliant hydraulic disc brakes and 650B wheels mean the Escapade can really strut its stuff, especially if you like to chop and change your choice of terrain.
Read our review of the Cotic Escapade
Giant Revolt Advanced 3 2021 — £2,199
Giant bills the handsome Revolt Advanced 3 as a gravel bike, but it's very much on the go-faster end of the gravel spectrum, so it's suited to Tarmac shenanigans too with handling that's positive enough that you can push it into the bends and still have fun when the road heads downhill.
Dirt roads are where the Revolt Advanced really excels though, rewarding flat-out effort with buckets of fun as the tyre scrabble for grip on loose surfaces. You can throw it through twisty gravel sections right on its limits and enjoy the thrill of feeling it could all go tits-up in an instant — but it doesn't.
There aren't many 2020 Revolt Advanced 3s left in the shops, but the 2021 model is imminent and gets Shimano's GRX-400 braking and shifting in place of the 2020 bike's Tiagra.
Read our review of the Giant Revolt Advanced 2
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GT Grade Carbon Elite 2021 — £2,000.00
Highly capable, with a performance that shines on any surface as it smooths out bumps with the skinniest of skinny rear stays – and a very competitive price – the GT Grade Carbon is a top choice in an increasingly crowded gravel bike market.
The Grade is brilliant at being fast and comfortable on rough roads, and right at home on forest trails and gravel roads. The new frame, with its 'floating stays' design, is impressively smooth at the saddle. Rough tracks, jagged roots and rippled fields are soaked up exceptionally well thanks to the seat post flexing backwards. It's freer to do this on the new frame since the seat tube can bow forwards, unhindered by the seat stays.
GT makes no claim for how much flex there is, and it’s obviously not tuneable, plus variables like rider weight and aggression influence just how much you get. However the stays actually flex visibly, either when you press hard down on the saddle with your elbow, or look down when you’re riding. At the worldwide launch event in Girona, riding next to another Grade revealed that it's even noticeable from afar.
Geometry defines a gravel bike, with stability a key focus. The Grade gets a lower bottom bracket across the size range, along with 15mm longer chainstays, and feels extremely surefooted on any terrain at any speed.
Read our review of the GT Grade Carbon Expert
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Ribble CGR AL Shimano Ultegra — £1,999.00
Ribble's CGR AL is a hugely versatile and superb value bike for everything from gravel bashing to cyclocross and road commuting. The aluminium frame isn't overly compliant and the kit needs a few tweaks if you intend to mostly stick to dirt, but that's easy enough to custom spec it to your heart's content when you order. (That's the £1,400 105-equipped version in the pic by the way; the Ultegra version is available in the same screaming orange.)
The CGR bit of the name stands for Cyclocross, gravel and road, which tells you pretty much everything you need to know about where this bike is pitched, namely as a do-it-all drop bar bike. The impressive thing is that it actually delivers on this promise, having taken in everything from gravel rides, road Audaxes and tow-path bashing commutes.
The aluminium frame is really nicely made with flattened welds, there are 12mm through axles at either end with flat mount disc brakes, loads of guard, cage and rack mounts and the paint job is smooth and smart - orange is available as well as this blue - and it generally gives off the vibe of being a much more expensive machine than it is. It scores extra points for having a proper, tapered steerer on the carbon forks where many rivals still have a straight item too.
Read our review of the Ribble CGR AL
Specialized Allez Sprint Comp Disc 2021 — £2,200.00
The Specialized Allez Sprint Comp is an aluminium alloy masterpiece. The ride quality is impressive and the stiffness is right up there with some of the most overbuilt carbon wonder bikes.
Specialized describes the Sprint Comp as a 'crit-racing weapon', a fast bike that is going to give you plenty of thrills and excitement when you just want to get out and smash the pedals.
The Sprint has an unbelievably stiff frame brought about, Specialized says, by its use of D'Aluisio Smartweld Sprint Technology. Basically this means the welds have been moved at some of the most stressed sections of the frame, most noticeably at the head tube and bottom bracket junction.
Acceleration and sprinting are epic against pretty much every alloy bike we've ridden, and powering out of corners whether on the race track or on your favourite section of road will see you grinning like a deranged nutter.
Like most Specialized models the Allez Sprint Comp Disc has gone up in the last few months, but we're keeping it here because it's a unique aluminium speedster that's still worth considering if you can afford the extra 10%.
Read our review of the Specialized Allez Sprint Comp Disc
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Cube Attain GTC SL Disc 2021 — £2,349.00
How does Cube manage to make a carbon fibre endurance bike with Ultegra equipment and hydraulic discs for under £2,500? Well, they've swapped out the Ultegra brakes and shifters for 105 R7000 units, which saves a bunch on the price tag without substantial detriment to performance.
The Attain GTC SL Disc is very much a mile-eating all-rounder, with clearance for mudguards so you can keep going through winter without getting drenched.
Van Rysel RR 920 CF Ultegra — £2,229.99
You don't get many bikes in this price range with Shimano Ultegra R8000 components and with its superb frame and Mavic Cosmic carbon wheels that makes this eminently raceable speedster superb value for money.
When he tested the 105-equipped version, which has the same frame, Stu Kerton said it was "further evidence, if any was needed, that B'Twin knows how to build awesome-riding race bikes which offer excellent stiffness, handling and speed while also managing to be unbelievably comfortable." Decathlon has since rebranded these bikes as Van Rysel, but the sentiment reminds solid.
Read our review of the B’Twin Ultra 900 CF
Cannondale CAAD13 Disc 105 2021 — £2,250
Proving that composites don't quite reign supreme, Cannondale's meticulously engineered CAAD13 frame wrings every last gram of performance potential out of aluminium. Cannondale combines that frame with Shimano 105 shifting, its own HollowGram Si chainset and Shimano 105 hydraulic disc brakes for a thoroughly modern fast road bike.
The CAAD13 includes a stack of refinements over the previous, much-loved CAAD12 with tweaks to the aerodynamics and dropped seatstays to improve comfort.
Read our review of the Cannondale CAAD13 Disc 105
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Giant Defy Advanced 3 2021 — £2,098.99
Giant's Defy line is one of the most popular bikes in the endurance and sportive sector, and is the company's best-selling model, combining smart geometry with a full range of competitively priced builds. It was revamped for 2019 with a frame that will take up to 32mm tyres, some tweaks to the cable routing, and the addition of Giant's new D-Fuse buzz-reducing handlebar. Those improvements carry on into the 2021 models.
The 2021 Defy bikes also get tubeless-ready wheels and 32mm tyres, and the Defy Advanced 3 has Shimano's Tiagra shifting with an 11-34 cassette for a 1:1 low gear.
Read our review of the Giant Defy Advanced SL
Read our review of the Giant Defy Advanced 3
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Trek Émonda ALR 5 Disc 2021 — £2,000.00
Part of Trek's line of Émonda lightweight race bikes, the ALR 5 demonstrates one of two approaches to speccing up a bike in this range. Trek takes the aluminium version of its Émonda frame and equips it with Shimano's midrange 105 group for a bike that doesn't cost the earth but has plenty of upgrade potential.
Trek has extensively tweaked the 2021 carbon-fibre Émonda to improve its aerodynamics, but at £2,500.00 the cheapest of the new bikes is out of our price range for this guide.
Read our review of the Trek Emonda ALR 5
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Canyon Endurace AL Disc 7.0 2021 — £1,749.00
It's always worth checking out what Canyon has to offer, and this combination of the light, quick but comfortable Endurace AL frame and Shimano 105 components is decent value, and a superb all-day mile-eater that's fun to ride. It's also now £500 cheaper than the identically-equipped carbon fibre Endurace CF SL Disc 7.0. That's an awful lot of money to shave off 330g.
Read our review of the Canyon Endurace AL Disc 6.0
Merida Silex 700 2021 — £2,000.00
Merida's dramatic take on the gravel bike genre is as close as a bike gets to being a mountain bike without becoming the bailiwick of our sister site off.road.cc. It has the long head tube and top tube that's a feature of many contemporary mountain bikes, with Shimano's new GRX groupset providing wide-range gearing. It'll go just about anywhere on its 38mm tyres, and if you wanted to get really adventurous there's room to go bigger.
Read our review of the Silex 700's carbon fibre big brother, the Merida Silex 9000
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