Buyer's Guide — Bikes from £1,500 to £2,000

You’ve an abundance of riches in the £1,500 to £2,000 price band, with bikes that 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.

Raleigh Mustang Comp — £1,350

Raleigh's aluminium-framed Mustangs, carbon Rokers and steel Mavericks comprise the Big Heron jumping into gravel bikes with both boots. Raleigh's folks say they started revamping their endurance road range, then realised that for a lot of British riding a bike with a long wheelbase and fat tyres was better able to cope with back roads trashed by the combination of bad winters and hacked road maintenance budgets. The Mustang Comp has SRAM hydraulic brakes and 11 Speed 1X Rival

Find a Raleigh dealer

Sensa Giulia G2 Ultegra — £1,530

Sensa has updated its Guilia road bike. We tested the last version in 2013 and the latest incarnation, the Giulia G2, is an improvement. It's a bit lighter and a bit more comfortable without sacrificing any of its race-ready stiffness, and the design has been tweaked with some aero touches. It's a good racing all-rounder.

The new frame is a fair bit lighter – 960g as opposed to 1100g – with the fork gaining 25g. Overall that's a 115g saving. We like percentages round here. That's about 8%.

Is it 8% more comfortable? That's a lot more difficult to objectively measure. As a whole, the bike feels smoother over rough tarmac, but how much of that is down to the frame and how much to the fact that you can now fit (and it comes equipped with) 25mm tyres as opposed to 23mm is hard to say. By way of a test we pumped the tyres up 140psi when we'd normally run them at 95. That made the bike a touch more skittery over broken tarmac but actually it wasn't bad, especially considering there are some deep sections in the frame and the 31.6mm seatpost won't be bending as much as a slimmer one would.

Read our review of the Sensa Giulia G2 Ultegra

Cannondale CAAD12 105 5 Disc — £1,600

Proving that composites don't quite reign supreme, Cannondale's meticulously engineered CAAD12 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.

Find a Cannondale dealer

Boardman Road Pro Carbon SLR — £1,610.10

If you want to put that race licence to good use, smash those Strava KOMs or just want a fast, comfortable, easy-to-ride road bike, then the Boardman Road Pro Carbon SLR needs to be on your shortlist. With a full-carbon frameset, SRAM Force groupset, Mavic Ksyrium wheels and weighing in at just 7kg (15.5lb), the SLR is a real contender even before you take the price into account – and that challenges even the direct-to-consumer specialists.

The Road Pro is a stunning bike to look at. That mirror effect silver paintjob makes it stand out, especially in the sunshine; you're going to get noticed for sure.

That beauty isn't just skin deep, though. In a cycling world where bikes are starting to cross as many disciplines as possible, the Boardman knows exactly what it is: a proper race bike that just begs to be ridden hard. It likes being on the tarmac, getting chucked downhill on the ragged edge of the tyre's grip, or being sprinted hard up that 20 per cent climb without the slightest hint of flex from the frame.

Read our review of the Boardman Road Pro Carbon SLR

Giant Defy Advanced 2 — £1,699.00

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 completely revamped for 2015 with a whole new frame design providing enhanced comfort and, for the carbon frames, disc brakes only. The 2017 bikes are all carbon fibre, as the Contend range replaces the previous aluminium Defys.

Read our review of the Giant Defy Advanced SL Find a Giant dealer

Specialized Tarmac Elite — £1,800

Specialized's £2,000 Tarmac Comp is a smart looking and well packaged bike that offers the sort of fast and engaging ride that will suit budding racers, along with sportive cyclists who favour a less upright position than is provided by the company's Roubaix model.

Read our review of the Specialized Tarmac Comp Find a Specialized dealer

Trek Émonda SL5 — £1,800

Part of Trek's line of Émonda lightweight race bikes, the SL5 demonstrates one of two approaches to speccing up a bike in this range. Trek takes the second-lightest of its Émonda frames and equips it with Shimano's midrange 105 group for a bike that doesn't cost the earth but has plenty of upgrade potential.

Find a Trek dealer

Specialized Ruby Elite Disc — £1,900

There are some superb women's bikes in this category, of which Specialized's Ruby Elite Disc is a great example. It has the same shock-damping steerer and seatpost as Specialized's Roubaix (the men's equivalent) and the same spec as the Roubaix at the same price.

Find a Specialized dealer

Merida Ride 5000 — £1,900.00

The Merida Ride 5000 is a quick road bike that offers plenty of comfort, splitting the difference between a standard race bike and an endurance bike. Jump aboard the Ride 5000 and within yards you can feel a bit more give than you get from most road bikes. There's just a touch more movement at the saddle to cancel out all the little bumps and hollows in the road surface, and the big hits when you ride over a drain cover or pothole aren't quite as big any more.

Read our review of the Merida Ride 5000
Find a Merida dealer

Rose Xeon CDX-2000 Disc — £2,032.15

Rose claims an impressive 7.8kg for the CDX-2000 and given that its stablemate the Xeon CDX-4400 comes in at 7.5kg (16.6lb), we believe is. The ride is quick, easy to live with and delivers a lot of fun miles. Yes, it's slightly over the budget, but keep an eye on the pound/Euro exchange rate and you might bable to pick it up cheaper. It's a cracker of a machine ready to be ridden flat out or cruising the lanes.

Read our review of the Rose Xeon CDX-4400

Carousel short title:

Buyer's Guide — Bikes from £1,500 to £2,000

Home Page Teaser:

Is this the sweet spot for performance and value?

Tags Term:

Cannondale