INFLATION BEATERS

Four budget-friendly road bikes battle it out for supremacy

YOU MAY JUST HAVE NOTICED THAT

we are living through inflationary times, and this is as true in the cycling world as it is just about everywhere else. But there are still bargains to be had out there, and interestingly, price rises have been less severe at the budget end of the market. Our four road bikes are spilt between two with drop bars and a couple with flat bars, but our foursome tops out at a less-thanfearsome £690.

 The bike comes with a Shimano Tournay groupset

01 High street bargain 

The bikes on test start with the drop-bar Zelos from one of Halfords' many in-house brands, Carrera, whose TDF has long been a classic entry route into road cycling. For a modest £375 you will get an aluminium frame and fork, a seven-speed set-up largely from Shimano and even mechanical disc brakes. At over 11kg, it is carrying a little weight, however, but how much will this be felt on our local climbs?

There's a bit of a tangle of brake and gear cables

02 A touch of carbon 

Spend just a little bit more and we come to the only one of our quartet with rim brakes - the Triban RC120 from the French sports supermarket chain Decathlon. Its aluminium frame has endurance geometry and is paired with a carbon fork, which is unusual and good to see on a bike costing just £400. The eight-speed gearing is based around shifters and derailleurs from the Taiwanese company Microshift, but it does promise a very wide range of gears, with the low bottom gear making steeper or longer hills that much more achievable if you're new to the two-wheeled world.

You won't find hydraulic disc brakes here sadly

03 Handy hydraulics