Best entry-level road bikes under £500

The Revolution looks cracking, though as a single-speed doesn't sit wonderfully with the others in the group test. The Dawes Giro seems pretty good VFM though the toe-clips and white'n'decals aesthetics won't be to everyone's taste.

The Boardman looks the biz.

Go on... see if Tesco will lend you a Vitesse Sprint Race to review! That stylish hydroformed seat-tube has got me all of a flutter! I love the way they've done that so that they can fit the rear wheel right up against it!

Here's what they say on their website:
"This Vittesse sprint race road bike comes in a flash red colour and has a lightweight 22.5" alloy frame with contoured tubing, ideal for lifting on and off public transport or travelling. The lightweight frame is aerodynamic and great for racing on roads. This road bike features advanced Shimano TZ-30 21-speed gears with rotational shifters at the front and rear, perfect for riding at different speeds over uphill and downhill terrains. The dual pivot brakes give you sharp braking and the padded saddle lets you ride in comfort. With 700C high-profile alloy wheel rims and silver-lined tyres, this sprint race road bike is ultra speedy."

Go on road.cc, take it on the train (it's "ideal") to a race (it's "aerodynamic and great"), what with it's "advanced" 21 speed gears! Take that padded saddle out for 100 miles "over uphill and downhill terrains" and let me know how it feels. I'd offer to test it for you but, so sad, the one size frame is too big for my inside leg (fits 33-38")!

Please get the Tesco Value road bike in to test. I'd love to know just how awful it actually is.

I just spent a lot of time researching bikes in this price range and ended up buying the Triban 3 as a first road bike for my youngest son ( he's sixteen, so that makes me old). It gets a lot of positive feedback from people who actually have one, excellent review in Cycling Active magazine (reprinted on Cycling Sotland site), has an unbeatable VFM spec and it isn't a Boardman or Carrera so there shouldn't be any sneering (about that, at least) from the bike snobs.

Serviced a few of those Tesco bikes, the bars are 3pc to get the gripshift on.

I have the Carrera, which has been a good bike to me. Not too sure about the tyres though, I seem to suffer a ridiculous level of punctures, for no apparent reason.

The Tesco Vittesse Sprint Race claims to have a wheel size of 10"...

One of the staff at Sainsburys has a Vitesse Sprint Racer which they leave unlocked in the rack outside.

Try replacing the rim tape - has orked for me a couple of times when getting lots of flats for no good reason.

Silver lined tyres? what does that do?

I would also love to see a test on the Tesco Express - see what I did there!

I have a soft spot for the TDF having had one passed round the family after being picked up at a bargain price. My dad bought it but then wished he got an Allez so did and gave the TDF to my son, who rode it twice before saying he'd rather stick to mtbing and now it has been wifi'ed (set up for the wife actually)

It is not the lightest bike but most of the weight is in the wheels. The rest of the bike works very well. Nice touches like the cartidge brake pads, etc. The stem weighs a fair chunk too but I have replaced that and added some carbon spacers to bling it up a bit.

You'll probably find that it's a line of reflective material. Which to the non-cycling doofus that received it in the warehouse and added it to their website, probably looked silver.

Testing the Carrera TDF against a Vitesse and the Triban 3 is the sort of thing the bike show on TV should have been doing. Educating beginners that X product is terrible and Y is far better.

I (re) started cycling on a cheapish new bike. I quite quickly traded up to a 'nice' bike also new. Now I want a 'very nice' bike. That's how the world turns and I've done the same with guitars and cameras. I've just looked on the CTC 'For Sale' forum and £500 would get you a very nice second-hand bike. Is that wort pointing out to readers of this topic?

If you want an even cheaper Tesco bike there is this:

http://www.tesco.com/direct/vertigo-piccadilly-21-road-bike-unisex/211-7...

Or cash to splash to build up those clubcard points:

http://www.tesco.com/direct/lombardo-racing-2000-alloy-road-bike/207-566...

I think many newbies are put off second hand as they don't know what to look out for, etc.
Also then the worry if it's been nicked.

I agree with one of the above comments that a test between good vfm and just cheap bikes is called for!

A friend bought a B'twin Triban 3. It's an excellent bike for the money and has deservedly won an admirable reputation, from word of mouth recommendations and a few magazines who have reviewed it.

It's pretty obvious this piece was a quick piece of 'desk research'.

Yes I know that its 50 quid above the top price but I like the felt Z100. If you wait a bit they might discount it!!!!

The best untested road bikes under 500 quid then. I hate boardman but amongst these horrors it looks like a winner, so need to ride any of these, job done. No need for any embarrassing test rides afterall.

What a spiteful snobby response-granted,this article is a bit lazy,ie we could all do the same after 10 minutes on Google,but really...Im looking for a road bike for my 16 yr old son,between us weve got three grands worth of road,jump,mountain,BMX,hybrid bikes but to be scornful of the Tesco bike is really condescending-its obviously only an entry level machine with a limited shelf life,designed to give people a taster of road biking.you shouldnt be so sarcastic and risk putting people off and confirming prejudices about cliquey sneery cyclists-we all want kids off their Xbox surely?

I think at 31 lb the taste it will leave is one of the off putting variety.

Big difference between vfm and cheap imho.

+1 for you guys testing the tesco speedsters. Infact, if you can get the two linked in the comments aswell. I see some "wonderful" racing going on between three guys testing them

I decided to try cycling earlier this year, a visit to my lbs left me feeling totally confused as I didn't know what they were talking about but knew that I'd be stupid to pay north of £600 for the machine they suggested as I didn't know whether I'd take to cycling.

So I went to Halfords and bought a TdF for £260, 2,000 miles later I'm hooked,a little more knowledgeable and likely to buy something more expensive in spring.

We all have to start somewhere and cycling kit appears vastly overpriced to a beginner.

The Tesco bike is £185 ffs, I doubt any purchaser fools themselves they are getting the same machine the likes of Wiggo ride.

i have the previous version of the the decathlon. It was the sport 1 with al forks.
I have swapped saddles and wheels and sprayed it all black. It cost £250 and the groupset still works perfect. Nearly 9,000 miles on it and cannot justify any new bike purchase.
I definitely lust for other bikes, but can I really justify the purchase?
I have just splashed out on a set of Pro Lite Bracciano wheels so hopefully that will make me go faster

Despite my three sons and i having a great stable of scott cr's, addicts, specialized tarmacs, allez boardmans pros and others in our bezzie road bike stable, we all use tdf's as our winter road bikes with the clutter of mudguards and lights. We have found the tdf to be bomb proof in the shitty and potholed lanes and roads of the uk......

Did a club run once ( a slow one of course) one of the other first timers like myself turned up on vitesse, he did ok... so ignore the bike snobs and the branding just ride. Regarding a first purchase however, £500 could get a decent second hand bike. Also check your LBS/press for new old stock, especially as its winter!.

dont like to sound snobby at all, but its really worth look at the top end of this price range or a little above it. as the old saying "buy cheap, buy twice". spending such a small amount on a bike would 99% of the time just result in more costs down the line when the parts wear out in double time and your needs soon outgrow the bike your on! best advice i have is to actually test ride the bikes you are looking at. if you cant tell the difference yourself between something like these bikes and the ones slightly more, then you have you answer as to if its worth spending a little more or not! just over this price point (£600 upwards) would usually use the same frame from £600-£1000, showing the quality you are buying! plus if you buy at your local bike shop you have somewhere friendly to take it to if something goes wrong...good luck with that at a tesco!

14 kgs? Really?

I think the point of this review is that there are some reasonable buys out there if you are on a budget and I would put it to RoadCC that they should be properly testing this stuff just as much as the glam gear.
Not so much fun perhaps for the testers but it would sort the wheat from the chaff for the uninformed buyer.
And I would not be buying a Colnago for my 15 year old son just to see if he liked it - heaven forgive me but I would go to Halfords, Decathlon or Evans

The Triban and TdF are decent entry level bikes and are (deservedly) getting praise here. The Vitesse is a Bike Shaped Object, a waste of £185 and deserves the flak it is getting.

The Vitesse is a travesty; somebody buying it would probably be completely put off anyway. You'll notice I wasn't sarcastic about any of the other bikes here: that's because they have reasonable spec and offer at least a modicum of VFM. Google it and you can find it going for less than £185 but I wouldn't want it if it was £0.00. If you have a budget of £185 get 2nd hand or save up another £100 or so which would put you into VFM entry level hybrid territory. Buy a Vitesse for a kid and he'll be back on the console before the day is out (probably because the gears won't shift and things have fallen off it).
My road bike was £600 seven years ago so I don't think that puts me into snobbery.

Going back to my TdF soft spot - we got one for £240.

That's a £55 difference from the Tesco bike. You are saving at least 1 lb in weight for every tenner spent in that case! I think most riders would think a tenner for a 1 lb saving is extremely good vfm!

I was looking to buy a Boardman Roadsport on the cycle 2 work scheme but my employer is not signed up to the one Halfords is in.

I am going with a Felt Z100 for my winter bike at £549.
Unfortunately I wont have it until mid January though

Yep me too "Hounslowrob" but thats another story
Go on give the Tesco bike a road test everyone wants to know how good/bad (delete as required) it is.

I'll give it a go, can't hurt and for some reason its only the back, it goes at least once a month, and slight variations in pressure don't help. Cheers for the advice.

I ve had the good fortune to own or ride almost everything over the last 20 years, Top end Colnagos Pinarellos Cannondales Giants and Scotts, must have layed out nearly £30 k on bikes over the years.

Recently having fallen on hard times I took a punt on a Decathlon Triban 3 for commuting and training, and all I can say is if there is a better value , better specced bike for under £500 out there then I d like to see it.

I had intended to upgrade in the summer when I d saved a bit of money, but I really dont know if its justified.

The other downside to these types of bikes is when they are labelled as 'Unisex' and only come in one size! I bought an entry level bike several years ago (£300) and had to spend a bit getting my LBS to upgrade the headset to fit me because the reach was too long. Although I'm tall, I guess my arms aren't as long as for a man of my height - anyway I was getting a permanently cricked neck and it was putting me off using the bike.

The good news is that since the upgrade I did entry-level triathlon to see if I liked it (and did), rode the bike to destruction* (it's now only fit for going to the shops) and since invested in a female-specific Trek with the exact frame size to fit me. And it's far, far more comfortable. And a commuting bike as well of course...

*That's another thing. You can't get replacement parts to fit - I could not get an exact match for the bottom bracket. The original was some weird non-standard Far Eastern make probably designed solely for this bike.

Whoa!! I didn't think it was possible to get a new racing bike for that sort of money! Thumb shifters too?
Let me at it!

Ever worked retail?

I agree with you though, everyone has to start somewhere. The ones who spend too much only to abandon their steed months later let me enjoy nice toys at great prices

I'm 15 and have a Carrera TDF, it's great, taken loads of bumps and a few crashes with no problems at all, it's solid.Great bike for the price even though it's a bit heavy and a bit over-geared.

As a lad (cue Hovis music), my first brand new bike (as opposed to the myriad of second hand BSAs, Grifters and Falcons) I had was a mail order bike from a company called Universal. Cheap steel, five speed, weighed a ton, etc. It was probably comparable to the Tesco number, but once my dad had fettled around with it, it ran for years - weekend rides to local town, and with mates after school. More importantly perhaps, thirty years on, I'm still cycling around - longer distances, much better bike, but probably not much quicker.

The point I'm trying to make, is that for a lot of people, the Tesco bike is probably all they can afford. Many won't last more than a couple of years, but looked after properly, I bet many will. And hopefully, for a significant number of owners, they'll lead to long cycling career.

they call the Raleigh one an entry level bike and my Raleigh equipe was less than 200 hundred quid lol, and I think it's s perfectly acceptable bike lol, I think of I ever got on an expensive bike my performance would massively improve ha ha