DIRECT LINES
Can buying your bike direct, either online or own brands from sporting superstores, see you reap value rewards? We test six endurance bikes to find out...
You want a bike that’s light, smooth and well equipped enough to tackle sportives or other epic rides you’ve set you sights on, but you want to pay as little as possible. You’re not alone, which means there are loads of brands competing for your money.
Nothing cuts cash out of the loop better than removing the final ‘friendly local bike shop’ step of the process. That’s why we’ve concentrated on ‘direct-sell’ bikes. Top value velocipedes that are either going to arrive on your doorstep in a cardboard box or you’ll be buying from the biggest chain bike/sports supermarkets.
The biggest potential problem when buying a direct delivery bike is that you normally can’t try it out before you buy it, which is where we come in.
We’ve taken six of the bikes that you’re likely to be looking at and ridden them head to head around the Yorkshire Dales (home of some of the most infamously brutal sportive courses, such as the Tour de Yorkshire) to find out which are happy to go the distance.
Even in a tight £1300-£1500 range we’ve got a variety of bikes. Carbon fibre and alloy frames, Shimano groupsets from Tiagra to the latest Ultegra and even a SRAM-equipped bike, hydraulic and cable disc anchors and a rim-braked bike too.
So after our hours and miles of test riding, we give you the most accurate and authoritative opinions in the business from the busiest and most experienced test team around. So read on, cough up a cost-conscious amount of cash on the bike that we say is best for you and then make the most of it getting in some silly distances over the summer.