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feature
Video: Six of the Best 2021 Aluminium Bikes
Aluminium is, unfairly in our view, often labelled as a lesser frame material to the fancier-sounding carbon fibre. But that isn’t strictly true and in many cases, a good quality aluminium frame will provide a far nicer riding experience than a cheap carbon frame.
You can generally get a lot more for your money when buying an aluminium bike and better components or wheels is generally worth picking over the allure of the fancier-sounding carbon fiber.
> The ultimate guide to frame materials: what's best for bikes?
Carbon fiber's recent popularity has been driven, in part, by the perception that aluminium frames are overly harsh. But this is only half true. Years ago, when aluminium was becoming popular as a frame-building material, it is true that to achieve the stiffness that is required for a race bike, aluminium frames did end up being a bit uncomfortable to ride.
Now, however, manufacturers are pushing aluminium with construction methods like hydroforming, giving us tube shapes that are tuned to deliver great stiffness without the harsh ride.
We still love a good aluminium bike and there are plenty of options out there. Here though, we take a look at six of the very best that we have ridden and reviewed recently on road.cc. Do you agree with our choices? As ever, we're keen to hear your opinion on both our selection and aluminium bikes in general. So leave a comment down below.
> Should you choose a steel, aluminium, titanium or carbon road bike?
Condor Italia RC Disc - £4,675
You can read our full review of the Italia RC Disc here
Trek Emonda ALR 5 Disc - £1,775
Fancy the Emonda? Check out the review here
> 15 aluminium disc-brake road bikes — check out today's best value bikes
Triban RC520 Women’s Disc - £749.99
Get the full report on the RC520 Women's Disc here
Cannondale CAAD13 Disc 105 - £1,899.99
Read our review of this popular road bike
Canyon Endurace AL 7.0 Disc - £1,599
You can read our review of the Endurace here
> 13 of the best 2020 road bikes under £1,000
Specialized Allez Sprint Comp - £2,200
Son of a Marathon runner, Nephew of a National 24hr Champion, the racing genetics have completely passed him by. After joining the road.cc staff in 2016 as a reviewer, Liam quickly started writing feature articles and news pieces. After a little time living in Canada, where he spent most of his time eating poutine, Liam returned with the launch of DealClincher, taking over the Editor role at the start of 2018. At the weekend, Liam can be found racing on the road both in the UK and abroad, though he prefers the muddy fields of cyclocross. To date, his biggest race win is to the front of the cafe queue.
Keep it locked!
The journalists of Scottish Sun seem to be at the same snide c@nty level as their English counterparts...
Alas yes. I see the lawyers were out protesting - normally that'd not be a cause for worry. However this is public service work they're...
Thanks. Being a long cage the first thing I did was check the straightness of the hanger.
Correct. In practice decriminalised, devolved to local authorities who may or may not do much, even if they could spare the resources. Alas it...
When all these Audi and BMW drivers fail to notice large buildings ahead, I agree.
Almost 300 notes? I'd expect 10 Boa dials for that.
It's only in Scotchland, they all look the same to the english
Yeah yeah, and "the position ... is not in the same position"... I think it's all in the author's trade mark style.
I was thinking about tolerances of the sprockets, but I think the chain is the defining factor, and that forces the 1:1 ratio (aka wearing and...