Best road bikes under £750 — take to the tarmac on a budget

Looking for a road bike for around £750? Welcome to our guide to the best road bikes you can buy in that price bracket.

• The price range where bike quality really takes off, with often no more than a change of tyres needed to make them perform almost as well as bikes costing hundreds more

• For our purposes, "around £700" means £150 either side. Feel free to argue in the comments if you think that's too broad

• Frames are almost all aluminium, occasionally steel. Look for 'double-butted' tubes which have thinner walls in the middle to save weight and improve the ride

• Shimano's Claris, Sora and Tiagra components are the dominant gear systems, providing 16, 18, and 20 gear ratios respectively.

• This category encompasses a wide range of bike niches from an almost-pure race bike like the Specialized Allez to gravel bikes like the VooDoo Nakisi and everything in between

• Take the time to have the shop set up the bike properly for you; it makes a big difference to how enjoyable riding is

10 of the best road bikes around £750 for 2021

• Cannondale CAAD Optimo 4 2022 — £800.00
• Boardman SLR 8.8 Disc 2021 — £800.00
• Trek Domane AL 2 2022 — £775.00
• Specialized Allez E5 2021 — £799.00
• Vitus Razor VR Disc 2021 — £759.99
• Genesis Day One 10 2021 — £849.00
• Triban RC 500 — £649.99
• VooDoo Nakisi — £625.00
• Liv Avail 2 2021 — £749.00
• Giant Contend 2 2021 — £749.00

Previously we’ve looked at the best bikes costing under £500, now it is time to have a close look at the bikes you can buy for between around £700, and see what spending a couple of hundred pounds more really gets you. You can generally expect lighter frames, carbon fibre forks and higher quality components.

At this price range you an expect lighter aluminium frames with double and triple butted tubes - saving weight and offering improved ride performance - and carbon fibre forks (but with aluminium steerer tubes) again to save a bit of weight. Many of these frames feature a geometry that places the handlebars a little higher than a race bike along with a shorter top tube which can make them more comfortable, especially if you’re new to road cycling.

Shimano is the predominant groupset brand with Claris and Sora common on bikes costing between £500 and £750. Most bikes will feature compact chainsets - that's two chainrings with 50 and 34 teeth respectively - that should make spinning up even the steepest hills a little easier. Some bikes even have triple chainsets - three chainrings between the pedals - that will make climbing anything much easier. Shimano's excellent Tiagra groupset starts to get a look in the closer you nudge to £850 and you might just find the occasional bike with Shimano's 11-speed 105 groupset.

Expect own-brand wheels, tyres, handlebars, stem and saddles on most of these bikes as manufacturers aim to keep the bikes within budget. Most own-brand components are of an excellent quality these days as most brands have really raised the standard over the past 10 years. That means you’re getting really well finished bikes ready to ride and race from the shop.

If this is your first road bike and you want some more useful advice for buying your first road bike, then make sure you have a read of the road.cc Buying Basics: Buying your first road bike guide. It’ll arm you with all the important advice you need to know before making a decision.

Cannondale CAAD Optimo 4 2022 — £800.00

Cannondale's entry-level road bike has a refined aluminium frame and full carbon fork with Shimano Claris gears. It's not quite as high-tech as the company's more expensive Synapse, but there's plenty of upgrade potential here, and there are mudguard mounts to keep you going through winter.

Boardman SLR 8.8 Disc 2021 — £800.00

Boardman's SLR 8.8 is a long-standing favourite of riders who want a sporty but friendly road bike for commuting and hitting the lanes at weekends. This latest version gets mechanical disc brakes in place of rim brakes.

Boardman sticks to the triple-butted, hidden weld 6061 aluminium frame and C7 Carbon fork with tapered steerer which features space for 28mm tyres and has mounting points for mudguards and a pannier rack.

It’s not all the same spec as last year and Boardman are keen to point out that the groupset has been upgraded to Shimano’s Tiagra 10-speed groupset with a 50/34 FSA Vero chainset paired with an 11-32T cassette at the back.

Read about the 2021 Boardman range
Find a Boardman dealer

Trek Domane AL 2 2022 — £775.00

This is the cheapest of Trek's entry-level, aluminium-framed Domane bikes. They all share the spendier bikes' all-day geometry, clearance for 28mm tyres and eyelets for rack and mudguards, but lack the shock-absorbing IsoSpeed decoupler in the rear that's a feature of more expensive carbon Domanes.

Find a Trek dealer

Specialized Allez E5 2021 — £799.00

Drawing on frame design features from the more expensive Allez models in the range, the Allez is built around an E5 Premium aluminium frame with smooth welds and carbon fibre fork with a Shimano Claris groupset. Comfort is taken care of with 25mm Specialized Espoir Sport tyres with a double BlackBelt puncture protection, which should help ward off flat tyres.

For the latest incarnation of the Allez Specialized has taken its aluminium race bike and slackened off the angles a little, raised the front end, extended the wheelbase and given it mudguard mounts, to create a bike that is set up perfectly for commuters or winter training. It achieved all of this without losing the Allez's fun and appealing ride. Good work.

Specialized recently put the price of the Allez up to £799, which even with its excellent frame is verging on taking the piss for a bike with Shimano Claris components, but some dealers still have stock at the old price.

Read our review of the Specialized Allez
Find a Specialized dealer

Vitus Razor VR Disc 2021 — £759.99

The Vitus Razor VR is always worth a look if you're after a slightly racy bike that's also excellent value, and so it is with this year's incarnation of the disc-braked version.

The double-butted 6061 aluminium frame takes through-axle hubs for stiffness and the fork is all carbon fibre. Shimano Sora derailleurs do the shifting and there are mudguard mounts if you'd prefer not to get wet when it rains. Sign up for Wiggle Gold for £10 to get the price above, which is £40 off the £799 list price.

Genesis Day One 10 2021 — £849.00

The Day One from UK brand Genesis is something a bit different from the usual run of sporty derailleur-geared bikes in this category. For a start it has a hub gear, so the transmission is simple and fuss-free. And not only does it have room for mudguards between its aluminium frame and 37mm tyres, but Genesis includes a host of mounting points for just about anything else yo might want to carry too. Those 37mm tyres also bring the ability to point and laugh at potholes and rough roads, making the Day One the definitive UK winter and commuting bike.

Triban RC 500 — £649.99

The remarkable Triban RC 500 is better than any £650 bike has any right to be. Unless you have serious go-faster ambitions, it's hard to see why you'd buy any other drop-handlebar bike in its price range.

The Triban RC 500 shares a frame with its £850 big brother, the RC 520, which we reviewed at the end of 2018 and rated very highly indeed. To shave £200 off the price Decathlon has dropped the groupset two levels to 9-speed Shimano Sora instead of 11-speed Shimano 105, used cable rather than semi-hydraulic disc brakes and fitted heavier wheels. But out on the road none of this matters very much because many of the components are the same, especially ones that determine ride feel.

Read our review of the Triban RC 500

VooDoo Nakisi — £625.00

This is one of the cheapest disc-braked gravel/adventure bikes on the market. 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.

Liv Avail 2 2021 — £749.00

The Avail 2 is the starter bike in Giant women's range, known as Liv. It uses Giant’s ALUXX aluminium with a shape and size designed to be comfortable to ride whether it’s for longer adventures, sportives or commuting to the office. It’s available in four sizes down to XS. It’s equipped with a Shimano Claris 16-speed groupset and Tektro brakes.

Find a Liv dealer

Giant Contend 2 2021 — £749.00

Giant do a large range of bikes for men and women. In the men’s range the Contend 2 is the most affordable model. It has an aluminium frame with a carbon fibre fork, a Shimano Claris 16-speed drivetrain and comfortable 28mm tyres. There are also mounts for mudguards if you want to add some rain protection for winter riding.

Find a Giant dealer​

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