You Can Get a Great Road Bike for Under $1,200

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You can find a new ride without investing thousands. As high-end tech trickles down, many new (or newly updated) models with price tags around a grand or less come with disc brakes, carbon forks, and other features typically found on more expensive bikes. With manufacturers producing sub-$1,000 rigs focused on cycling’s hottest trends—gravel and adventure riding—it’s easy to find a cheap road bike that best suits your lifestyle.

The Best Cheap Road Bikes

• Best Overall: Trek Domane AL 2

• Best Bargain: Brooklyn Bicycle Co. Roebling

• Most Well-Rounded: Specialized Allez

• Best for Gravel: Salsa Journeyer Claris 700 Bike

• Best E-Bike: Aventon Soltera

What to Consider

Simpler Drivetrains (If You Want Them)

Although many gravel models now have 1x drivetrains (one front chainring) that simplify shifting and require less maintenance, 2x drivetrains (two front chainrings) are still the most common on the road. Bikes are also getting fewer gears in the back, with 8- and 9-speed drivetrains becoming commonplace. Additional cogs allow smaller jumps between gears for faster shifting and a wider overall range that lets you pedal more efficiently without sacrificing top-end speed.

Brakes and Tires

Affordable road bikes often come with the same wider, versatile tires found on their expensive counterparts. Models with tires 28mm or wider are standard. The extra width softens the road because you can run lower tire pressure without fear of flatting. They also grip better on dirt and gravel, opening new exploration routes. Wider tires can be heavier, so if you’re strictly looking to do faster rides on smooth roads, tires in the 25mm range will work well.

You’ll also likely find hydraulic or mechanical disc brakes on less-expensive bikes. Discs offer better stopping power than rim brakes, especially in the rain and on dirt and gravel roads. You have more control and less hand fatigue, and they require less maintenance than older rim brakes. This alone is a great reason to upgrade to a new bike.

Get the Right Position

Few affordable road bikes are designed for racing. Instead, most are created to meet the needs of riders commuting long distances, riding for fun or fitness, or exploring new places they can reach only by bike.

Comfort is just as important as speed. Get as light a bike as you can afford (because it makes pedaling easier), but also look for one with frame angles and components that will keep you happy over many miles. Consider a bike with a slightly taller head tube and a shorter top tube, which puts you in a more upright position than a pure race bike and takes the strain off your back and neck. A longer wheelbase also adds some stability as speed increases. The best bikes in this category do that without sacrificing fun or performance.

How We Evaluated

These cheap road bikes have been carefully selected and ridden hard or exhaustively researched by test editors and contributors. We research the market, survey user reviews, speak with product managers and engineers, and use our experience riding these bikes to determine the best options. As we’re testing and teasing out the subtle and not-so-subtle differences among them, we consider the quality of parts and how the overall package meets the needs of the intended rider. Above all, this list of bicycles focuses on value.

The good looks of the Domane AL 2 are the first indication that Trek didn’t mess around with its entry-level road bike. Start digging deeper, and you’ll find even more to like.

The shaped aluminum frame is nicely made and features Trek’s IsoSpeed carbon fork that takes some of the bump out of choppy surfaces. The rims are tubeless-ready so you can upgrade to smoother-rolling tires filled with puncture sealant, and they’re machined for steadier braking. Speaking of the brakes, they have a light pull and a firm bite on the rim—no vague mushiness here—and provide the best slowing and stopping performance we’ve sampled in this price bracket. The shifters snick-snick the drivetrain through the gears lightly and crisply.

There are other little surprising nuggets, like the pocket in the frame for a speed sensor and the included light and computer mount that cleanly integrate into the stem. Best of all, the bike is a joy to ride. Handling is stable, precise, and attentive to pedal strokes, so you feel like flying over the road, not pushing across it.

This versatile commuter bike is so cheap, you might want a pair of them. The Roebling has a wide gearing range via a beginner-friendly Shimano 9-speed drivetrain, plus puncture-resistant tires and plenty of mounts for your own full-length fenders and racks. Its steel frame and fork make it heavy compared to other aluminum rides on this list, but that durability also makes it tough enough for light touring, wheeling through rain, and taking some mild gravel rides. For those needing more saddle real estate, consider the Roebling's sister bike, the Lorimer.

Read Full Review

This is a gateway bike and, arguably, the best cheap roadie money can buy. For $1,200, you get quality, versatility, and comfort, all wrapped in a sharp aluminum frame and full carbon fork. The Allez sports a crisp Shimano Claris drivetrain with an 8-speed, 11-32 Sunrace cassette, and 50/34t chainring to get you over climbs and help you keep up with friends when the pace picks up.

The bike’s relaxed, endurance-style geometry means it’s comfortable for a long day in the saddle and zipping down the block to the brewery. Given the all-day rideability of this bike, we would’ve liked to see a slightly wider 28mm tire for some added compliance. Tektro rim brakes, though not as good as discs, perform well enough and keep the Allez light and cheap, giving riders the performance and weight savings they want for an affordable price.

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A solid all-around road bike, the Journeyer can double as a hardy gravel or touring bike when you get the itch for adventure. Available with 700c x 38mm or 650b x 47mm tires, the Journeyer is as solid of a commuter as a bikepacking workhorse. The aluminum frame has mounts for fenders, bags, and more, while the fork-crown mount lets you attach a permanent light set for nighttime commutes.

Also Available in 650b | Read Full Review

In a market full of commuter e-bikes, the Soltera is a relief. Instead of souping a ride with fat tires and a suspension fork, Aventon kept this singlespeed simple to maintain a lightweight. It also did away with derailleurs and disc brakes, making maintenance much more manageable. The Soltera has a peppy rear hub motor for a responsive and comfortable electric ride and a 350-watt hub-motor system with an integrated battery to give it power. It also has integrated lights for commuters. Not all riders will enjoy the long-reach caliper rim brakes, but it helps keep costs low on this affordable, speedy e-bike.

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For a little more than a thousand bucks, you get an aluminum frame and fork, 700c wheels, and 37mm-wide WTB Riddler tires with a low-profile center tread and higher cornering knobs in the Haanjo 3. That means you can tackle gravel rides and cyclocross courses but still keep up on casual road rides.

A Shimano Sora 2x9 drivetrain with an 11-32 cassette and 46/30 chainrings—a notch above the Shimano Claris 8-speed groupset often found on bikes at this price—provides an extensive range of gears on both the high and low end. The cable-actuated disc brakes are a nice bonus as well. The 46x11 combo lets you pedal downhill and pick up the pace on flats, and the 30x32 is easy enough to help you get up and over just about any hill.

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The Haanjo 2 from Diamondback handled just about anything we threw at it. With clearance for 38mm tires, the Haanjo 2 is an excellent bike for the gravel curious. Looking for a commuter bike with more road-based geometry? With its fender and rack mounts, the Haanjo 2 works there, too. It’s great to see Tektro disc brakes spec’d at this price point. Although not as powerful as hydraulic discs, these stoppers didn’t rub and performed great in all weather conditions.

As always, the Shimano Claris drivetrain was crisp and reliable. The sub-compact gear suited this bike’s personality perfectly, allowing us to spin up climbs with ease. The whole package adds up to a bike ready for anything, though it comes with a bit of a weight penalty. Mounting more road-focused 28mm tires did help to liven the bike up noticeably.

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