Buying Your First Road Bike

At Westbrook Cycles, we are lucky enough to be based in the beautiful market town of Stokesley, surrounded by brilliant roads which criss cross beautiful countryside, including the North Yorkshire Moors National Park. This makes our area a haven for road cycling, a hobby and form of exercise that holds something for everybody. 

Whether it’s a gentle ride along smooth tarmac roads or an arduous hill climb amongst some of the wildest B roads around, road cycling can be as leisurely or as tough as you want it to be. It’s this freedom which sees many customers coming to us to get into road biking for the first time. 

Some of these customers come to us knowing exactly what road bike they want, whilst others are quite rightly intimidated by the massive amount of choice and options available across the marketplace. Regardless of the type of road bike you choose, a few things are guaranteed:

  • All have thin tyres
  • All have multiple gears
  • All have lightweight frames
  • All have drop handlebars

That is however, where the similarities stop. The biggest difference between road bikes is usually frame material choice - so below, we run through a few different bikes suitable for first time road cyclists - at different price points and budgets. 

  • Steel Framed Road Bikes
  • Aluminium Framed Road Bikes
  • Carbon Fibre Road Bikes

Steel Framed Road Bike

Many first time road bikers choose to purchase a tough, steel framed road bike as their first entry into the sport. High Quality Steel Road Bikes with top quality components start around the £500 mark and make a sensible first choice. 

The Scott Speedster 50 is an ever popular choice.

Aluminium Road Bike

Aluminium Road Bikes are a step up from steel road bikes, and as such - a premium is paid for the use of lighter metals. As well as featuring Aluminium frames, the components of Aluminium bikes tend to be upgraded too, and you can expect to pay £1000 upwards for such a bike. 

The Cannondale Synapse Road Bike is a great example of a road bike which uses a Aluminium frame to save weight.

Carbon Fibre Road Bike

For those wanting to enjoy the ultimate in road bikes, a carbon fibre frame road bike is the only choice. These bikes typically costs a few thousand pounds, and are incredibly light, and packed with high quality components which makes each journey unbelievably smooth. 

The Scott Foil range, starting at around £5k with prices up to £10k is the perfect range for those wanting the ultimate bit of kit to train on.


You can view our full range of road bikes here, and if you have any questions about making your first road bike purchase - get in touch and we will be happy to help out.Â