Best bike brands: Bicycle companies we trust

There are so many bike brands that shortlisting the best bike brands is hard. A quick brain dump here at Cyclingnews identified close to 100 different bike brands.

There are some very large players, with global networks of bike shops. Others are niche, specialising in one type of bike. Some are so desirable and produce their bikes in such limited volumes that you’ll wait months or even years for a bike.

A local bike shop may not have in stock the bike that you’re interested in, while some of the best bike brands only sell directly over the internet. That makes it tough to narrow down your selection. 

Fortunately, we get to ride many of the best road bikes and best gravel bikes available here at Cyclingnews, so we’re well-positioned to help. Although we may not have ridden exactly the bike that you’ve shortlisted, and probably not in precisely the spec that you want, there are some brands the majority of whose products tend to score well in our reviews. 

We aim to back up our ride reviews with quantitative data too and have, for example, wind tunnel tested 11 superbikes to compare their aerodynamic performance.

We’ve also noted below the brands’ warranty and guarantee policies, to make sure that they stand behind their products.

So, with that said, here’s our pick of the best bike brands. Further down, there’s a more comprehensive list of brands that we rate highly. 

Best bike brands: Our pick of the crop

You can trust Cyclingnews Our experts spend countless hours testing cycling tech and will always share honest, unbiased advice to help you choose. Find out more about how we test.

Bianchi

Founded in 1885, Bianchi is officially the oldest bike brand in the world. It’s famous for its celeste green paintwork, which has been a feature since the early 1900s. Its bikes have been ridden to victory for just as long, with the earliest major win on a Bianchi as far back as 1899. 

That doesn’t mean it’s old-fashioned though. Its range of road bikes includes some of the lightest and most aerodynamic available, and the most desirable. There’s a lot of depth to Bianchi’s range, from top-flight racing bikes to more affordable models. You can buy almost all of them in the brand’s signature celeste too.

Cannondale

Cannondale, along with Specialized and Trek, of the big three American performance cycle brands. Founded in New England in 1971, it was one of the first bike brands to move from steel to alloy frames in the 1980s, followed by carbon fibre in the 1990s. It’s known for innovative products, including its single-leg Lefty suspension fork.

It will sell you a bike across the whole range of disciplines, including hybrids, electric bikes and kids’ bikes, not just performance bikes for adults. It’s a long-time sponsor of professional racing teams as well, with its bikes ridden by the EF Education team and it counted three-time world champion Peter Sagan as one of its protégés early in his career.

Canyon

Canyon started life in 1985 and was one of the pioneers of direct-to-consumer bike sales. It’s developed into a powerhouse brand, with a presence in all bike segments from road to MTB, commuter and electric bikes, sponsoring a range of pro riders and teams across all the disciplines, including Mathieu van der Poel's Alpecin-Deceuninck. 

Canyon is known for offering high-quality specs at reasonable prices and its bikes often come with clever tech, such as its road bikes’ variable width handlebars. Many Canyon bikes are available at multiple spec levels in both alloy and carbon, with its top grade CFR (for Canyon Factory Racing) frames decked out with the highest spec components.

Cervélo

In the 2000s, Cervélo was the first brand to apply aerodynamics to road bikes, now an essential feature of almost all performance road bikes. Starting off as a university project, its Soloist (a name it’s reapplied to a more recent model) was the first aero bike raced at the highest level. 

Cervélo continues to push the envelope in aerodynamics with its road and triathlon bikes, as well as offering a premium range of gravel bikes and MTBs. 

Colnago

Colnago started life in 1954 in the Cambiago suburb of Milan, where it's still based. It has a storied history both in racing and innovation, with the 1995 C40 being one of the first carbon bikes to win in big races, including five wins at Paris-Roubaix. Drool over more classic Colnagos in our Colnago gallery from our visit to the factory.

Nowadays, Colnago still offers the handbuilt-in-Italy C68 range, with road, allroad and gravel options, alongside the V4Rs and Y1Rs aero bike ridden by the UAE Team Emirates-XRG pro team and the stylishly retro steel Master.

Factor

Factor may be a newish name, but its Taiwan factory had been making bikes for other brands for years before Factor was launched. It's built up an impressive range of high-end bikes and you can choose your spec and even the colour scheme from 60,000 combinations.

Factor sponsors a number of cycling teams and athletes, most notably the men's Israel-Premier Tech and women's Human Powered Health. 

Giant

As befits its name, Giant is the largest bike brand in the world. It’s based in Taiwan and, alongside its Liv women’s bike brand and Cadex performance components, also manufactures bikes for a number of other major bike companies.

It’s active across the entire range of ride styles, with electric and kids’ bikes, as well as selling a wide range of road and gravel bikes, including the tenth generation of its TCR lightweight race bike.

Giant’s size allows it to offer leading tech at competitive prices, such as its D-Fuse carbon components, which are designed to smooth your ride, and its aero carbon wheels and it sponsors a number of pro teams.

Pinarello

Pinarello’s profile in the road cycling world is far greater than the company’s size. This is largely thanks to its success in competition, which stretches back to the 1960s. A string of top tier race wins, including a total of 16 Tours de France, began in the 1980s and continues to this day.

The brand’s distinctive curvy styling stands out too and its bikes are an aspirational purchase for many road riders. Alongside its range of road bikes, Pinarello also sells gravel and electric bikes and even a hybrid, but it’s a rarefied collection made even more so by the brand’s premium pricing.

Scott

Scott started out making aluminium ski poles, before branching out into a wider range of sports, including cycling. Although it started out in the USA, it’s now based in Switzerland, but still sells worldwide. 

It sells a wide range of bikes, clothing and accessories under its own name, as well as Syncros parts and the Contessa women’s range. Its premium road and gravel bikes are among the most advanced available, with low weight and aero features, but it also sells more affordable models. 

Specialized

One of the largest bike brands, Specialized operates across all disciplines and prices, with road bikes from the affordable Allez to the pro-level S-Works Tarmac SL8, a bike that costs ten times the price. It sells all the accessories and components you’ll need too, from helmets to shoes and wheels to saddles.

On the road, it sponsors multiple WorldTour men's and women's pro teams and offers some of the fastest bikes out there, developed in its own on-site wind tunnel at its headquarters in Morgan Hill, California. Specialized has a wide range of electric bikes too, again covering a spectrum of uses and prices from city hybrids to high spec road and mountain e-bikes.

Trek

Like Specialized, Trek is an American bike brand, in its case based in Waterloo, Wisconsin, which covers the whole range of cycling disciplines. Alongside its Trek bikes, it also sells Electra electric cruisers and Bontrager branded parts and clothing.

It’s another brand with a WorldTour pro road racing team to its name, Lidl-Trek, as well as XC and downhill MTB racers and a cyclocross team. Its road bikes include clever features such as its IsoSpeed decoupler to add saddle compliance and the radical IsoFlow aero seat tube design on its road race bikes.

Wilier

As with Bianchi, Wilier is another Italian bike brand with a long history, in its case stretching back to 1906, and with an illustrious record in competition and a string of grand tour victories to its name.

It's sponsored a range of WorldTour pro teams, with Mark Cavendish racking up his 35th Tour de France stage win on the Filante SLR in 2024. It also has an extensive range of performance gravel bikes, tri bikes, MTBs and electric bikes. It has a slightly lower profile than its Italian competitors above, but still offers innovative and desirable bikes, with its pro-level race bikes among the most attractive in the peloton. 

Warranty

For most, a bike will represent a sizeable investment and they’ll want to be sure that the brand will stand behind their purchase. All the brands above (with the exception of Colnago, which offers a three-year warranty) offer at least a five-year warranty against manufacturing defects in their frames to the original purchaser, if the bike has been registered and regularly maintained. 

Some go further and extend this to some components too. 

Cannondale, Cervélo, Factor, Giant, Specialized and Trek offer lifetime warranties on their frames. 

Best bike brands: the longlist

3T

<p>3T offers a range of bikes that are designed a little differently. Its bikes include gravel bikes with varying amounts of tyre clearance and the slick-looking Strada road bike, alongside electric versions. It also sells its own wheels and components.

Argon 18

<p>The Canadian company sells a wide range of road, gravel, time trial, track and electric bikes. It has a large roster of sponsored athletes across all its supported disciplines.

Argonaut

<p>Argonaut is a niche brand that handbuilds all its bikes in Oregon. It will custom build a bike to your exact measurements, but now offers off-the-shelf frames too, lowering the significant wait time for its custom RM3 road and GM3 gravel bikes.

Basso Bikes

<p>Based in the foothills of the Dolomites, Basso has a range of performance road and gravel bikes and electric bikes. It also sells hybrids and even hand-builds steel bikes.

Battaglin

<p>Founded by Giro-Tour double winner, Giovanni Battaglin, the brand specialises in steel bikes with modern features, made in low volumes and guaranteed for a million miles.

Bergamont

<p>Based in Hamburg, Germany, Bergamont is owned by Scott Sports and focuses on hybrid and electric bikes for urban mobility.

BH Bikes

<p>The Portuguese bike brand BH sells a wide range of bikes, from road bikes to MTBs and hybrids, as well as electric bikes.

Bianchi

<p>Bianchi's high spec bikes span all the disciplines from road performance to MTBs and gravel bikes, as well as electric bike models.

BMC

<p>Swiss bike brand BMC makes some of the most advanced road bikes and gravel bikes available. It also sells mountain bikes, hybrids, track bikes and electric versions of its bikes.

Boardman

<p>British brand Boardman was founded by former pro cyclist and hour record holder Chris Boardman. It sells affordable bikes with quality specs across road, gravel, MTB and hybrid categories as well as electric and kids' bikes.

Bottecchia

<p>In 1924, Ottavio Bottecchia was the first Italian to win the Tour de France, leading the race from start to finish. The bike brand that bears his name sells a wide range of bikes and electric bikes across all riding genres.

Brompton

<p>Famed for its fast folding, ultra-compact 16in wheel bikes, Brompton still builds its bikes in the UK, but ships worldwide. Alongside its original steel bikes, it now sells bikes in titanium/carbon and electric bikes too, as well as the G Line 20" folder, all with the original fast fold mechanism.

Cannondale

<p>Cannondale makes a wide range of bikes. Its road and gravel bikes are renowned for their performance and it sells both carbon and alloy models, with its top spec bikes ridden at pro level. It also sells MTBs, hybrids, electric bikes and more.

Canyon

<p>Based in Koblenz, Germany, Canyon sells direct to consumers worldwide, allowing it to offer impressive value. Its top-tier CFR race bikes are among the most affordable pro-level bikes available.

Cervélo

<p>Cervélo specialises in aerodynamic high-performance bikes across a range of disciplines. Its high spec road bikes have been ridden to victory in a multitude of races, including multiple Tours de France.

Cinelli

<p>With a history in road racing going back as far as 1960, Cinelli now sells a wide range of road, gravel and urban bikes in carbon as well as its signature steel frames, some still hand built in Italy.

Colnago

<p>Another renowned Italian bike brand, Colnago has been making race-winning bikes ever since they were ridden by Eddy Merckx in the 1970s. That continues to the modern day, when its V4Rs is ridden by Tadej Pogačar.

Condor

<p>Condor Cycles still operates out of its shop in Gray's Inn Road in London, where it was founded in 1948. It sells a range of performance steel, alloy and carbon framesets for road and gravel as well as complete Condor bikes.

Cube

<p>Cube Cycles is a German brand that offers a wide range of bikes and electric bikes at competitive prices, as well as parts and clothing. It sponsors a WorldTour road race team as well as an MTB team and individual triathletes. It has a range of electric cargo bikes geared to urban mobility.

Dare

<p>Taiwanese brand Dare sells a focussed range of performance carbon fibre road, gravel and tri bikes. Within Europe, it sells direct, but it also sells via retailers in the Asia Pacific region.

Decathlon

<p>Sports supermarket Decathlon sells a wide range of bikes under its Triban, Van Rysel and BTwin brands, among others, all offering high specs for their price. Its offerings span the whole range of bike types from pro-level race bikes to balance bikes for kids, and include electric bikes and cycle clothing as well.

De Rosa

<p>Another Italian brand with a storied past, in its case going back to 1953, De Rosa makes performance road and other bike categories in carbon and titanium as well as the steel frames for which it became famous.

Dolan

<p>Dolan Bikes is based in the UK and sells a range of performance drop bar bikes, including track bikes and tandems. Its frames are made from carbon, aluminium, titanium or steel and it sells bikes directly as well as via its retail showroom in Lancashire.

Eddy Merckx

<p>Eddy Merckx Bikes bears the name of the most successful pro cyclist of all time. The Belgian brand sells road and gravel bikes including the 525, so named for the number of victories Merckx had in his racing career in the 1960s and 70s.

Enigma

<p>Enigma specialises in titanium frames, but also builds in steel in its factory in Sussex, UK. Its bikes are a mix of performance road, allroad and gravel designs, with features aimed at making full use of titanium's ride qualities and durability.

Enve

<p>Best known for its performance wheels, Enve has branched out to sell a small range of carbon road and gravel bikes as well as high-end components. Its road bikes tend towards the allroad genre, but are still raced at the highest level.

Factor Bikes

<p>Factor Bikes makes a range of high-end road, mountain, gravel and tri bikes in its own factory in Taiwan. It sponsors a number of pro racing teams and equips many of its bikes with its own Black Inc wheels and components.

Fairlight Cycles

<p>Fairlight Cycles sells a small range of well-regarded steel framesets, designed for everyday use and adventure. Based in London, there's a waiting list for its frames, which it can also build up into a full bike to meet your spec requirements.

Fara Cycling

<p>Fara is, like Dare, a Norwegian brand that sells its bikes direct. Its range comprises a road bike, an all-road bike and a gravel bike, with the opportunity to select your own components to suit your needs and pocket before buying.

Felt Bikes

<p>US brand Felt sells a range of drop bar bikes for road, gravel, cyclocross and track use and well as tri and TT bikes. It's geared towards performance bikes, with aero designs and carbon fibre framesets.

Festka

<p>Festka is a Czech brand making high-performance road and gravel bikes. It offers custom frames as well as off-the-shelf geometry and builds to order.

FiftyOne Bikes

<p>FiftyOne Bikes is an Irish bike brand that hand-builds its road bike and also offers the factory-built Sika road and Assassin gravel bikes. While the Custom road bike is built to your exact geometry, the Sika and Assassin are sold in a range of stock sizes.

Focus Bikes

<p>Founded by 1992 cyclocross world champion, Mike Kluge, Focus Bikes has a small range of road and gravel bikes. The brand's main focus is now mountain bikes and electric MTBs though.

Fondriest

<p>Named after another top pro from the 1990s, Fondriest is an Italian brand that specialises in road race bikes. It still includes a number of rim brake options in its range.

Fuji

<p>Founded in Japan as long ago as 1899, Fuji is now based in the US and sells a wide range of bike styles from race bikes to MTBs, hybrids, kids' and electric bikes.

Genesis

<p>Genesis is a UK brand which specialises in robust, durable road, allroad, gravel and hybrid bikes. Many are made in steel, although it does sell titanium and alloy framed bikes too.

Giant

<p>Giant operates across the whole spectrum of bike types and also sells electric bikes. Its Liv brand sells women's bikes and it makes a wide range of components under the Giant and Cadex brand names.

J.Laverack

<p>J.Laverack is a niche UK brand based in Rutland. Its speciality is high-end custom titanium bikes, with frames made in Asia, but built to the rider's specifications and sizing in the UK.

Kinesis

<p>Kinesis is another UK bike brand, in its case based in Sussex. It sells a range of road, adventure and gravel bikes, as well as e-bikes and an MTB frameset. Most are made in alloy, although titanium does feature. The range tends towards the rugged all-road style.

KTM

<p>Austrian brand KTM sells a wide range of bikes and e-bikes, including the Revelator road bike range, MTBs and kids' bikes. It has previously sponsored UCI WorldTour pro teams, but currently focuses on Pro Continental teams, the next tier down.

Lapierre

<p>Lapierre is a French bicycle brand selling a wide range of road, MTB, hybrid and e-bikes. It's over 75 years old and has a long history in racing, having sponsored a number of men's and women's pro teams.

Lauf

<p>Icelandic bike brand Lauf sells a small range of drop bar bikes. Its focus has been on gravel and gravel racing, but it's now branched out to produce a road bike, the Úthald and an MTB, the Elja XC. It's also behind the Lauf lightweight suspension fork, again geared to gravel riding.

Look

<p>Look is an innovator in bikes, being one of the earliest producers of carbon fibre frames. It makes a range of high spec road, gravel, track and tri bikes, and it also sells urban and electric bikes. It's also a big producer of pedals for road, MTB and urban use and sells its own power meters.

Marin

<p>California-based Marin Bikes was one of the original mountain bike brands. MTBs are still the brand's focus, but it's branched out into almost every bike category and e-MTBs. Its drop bar bikes are all-road/gravel oriented and equipped for the bikepacker.

Mason

<p>Mason Cycles is a UK-based brand, with a niche in custom-equipped Italian-made road, allroad and gravel bikes (and the Raw steel hardtail MTB). Its bikes are designed for four-season capability, with wider tyre clearances and made in aluminium, steel and titanium.

Merida

<p>Merida is a large Taiwan-based bike manufacturer which, alongside its own bikes, makes bike frames for other brands. It has a wide coverage of different bike and e-bike types and is a long-time sponsor of a pro road racing team.

Moots

<p>Among the most desirable bikes sold, with a reputation for meticulous attention to detail, Moots makes its road, gravel, MTB and e-bike frames from titanium in its factory in Colorado, USA. Moots' low volume, material quality and desirability are reflected in its bikes' price.

Norco

<p>Canadian brand Norco is most active in mountain bikes and e-MTBs, but it also sells gravel bikes, hybrids and kids' bikes. Its bikes are oriented towards off-road, reflecting the wide range of untracked terrain available near its base in British Colombia.

Open

<p>Co-founded by Gerard Vroomen, half of the team behind Cervélo, Open is a niche maker of road and gravel bikes. It has just three frames in its current line-up, with tyre clearance ranging from 33mm up to 61mm.

Orbea

<p>Orbea is a co-operative based in Northern Spain's Basque Country. It sells an extensive range of bikes, from performance road models through to kids' bikes. It was one of the first brands to sell an electric road bike and offers extensive customisation options for many of its models.

Orro

<p>Orro is a Sussex, UK-based bike brand, selling a range of road, gravel and flat bar bikes. It sells through retailers as well as directly from its site and offers its bikes with a wide range of different spec and price levels.

Pashley

<p>Another UK brand, Pashley specialises in traditional steel bike designs with flat bars and leather saddles, although it's added the Roadfinder steel allroad bike, which offers e-bike options. It also sells the Morgan bike, a retro racer, and its range includes tricycles and e-cargo bikes as well.

Passoni

<p>Passoni is an Italian maker of high-end made-to-measure bikes. Its specialism is titanium framesets with highly smoothed welds, although it also sells off-the-shelf bikes with customisable specs.

Pearson

<p>Founded in 1860, Pearson sells carbon road and gravel bikes. Its Forge is designed using its own bike fit data to fit a wide range of road riders, while the Shift is more race-oriented.

Pinarello

<p>Best known for its high-end Dogma F road race bike and Dogma X endurance road bike, Pinarello also sells lower-priced bikes with its distinctive wavy frame profile. Its range extends to the Grevil gravel bike and the Nytro e-bike.

Planet X

<p>Planet X sells a wide range of bikes of all genres under its own name as well as a number of other brand names, including Holdsworth and Titus. It's known for providing good value specs at affordable prices, selling direct from its Yorkshire base.

Quella

<p>UK brand Quella sells a range of affordable steel singlespeed, hub gear and electric flat bar bikes, with custom build options and its own range of components and accessories.

Raleigh

<p>Once the largest bike company in the world and a Tour de France winner, Raleigh now sells a range of classic hybrid, folding, electric and kids' bikes from its Nottingham base.

Reilly

<p>A specialist builder in titanium, Reilly has a range of road and gravel bikes and offers spec customisation options on its website. You can buy direct, through dealers, or take a test ride at the brand's Brighton, UK, HQ.

Ribble

<p>Based in Lancashire, Ribble offers a wide range of bikes including road, gravel, hybrid, tri and electric models at competitive prices. Its build-to-order model allows it to provide many customisation options alongside stock builds and it operates four showrooms across the UK where you can view before you buy.

Ridgeback

<p>Ridgeback is based in the UK, but has dealers worldwide. It sells a range of utility urban hybrid bikes and e-bikes, alongside a couple of steel drop bar touring bikes. It also sells kids' bikes and an e-cargo bike.

Ridley

<p>Ridley is a Belgian bike brand that sells a wide range of performance bikes across the road, gravel, TT and MTB genres. It's perhaps best known for its cyclocross bikes though, which have been a fixture of pro-level CX racing for years.

Rondo

<p>Rondo's specialism is gravel bikes, although it also sells road and aero models with wide tyre clearance. Its bikes include a flip chip in the fork dropouts, which allows you to change the geometry to suit different riding styles.

Rose

<p>Rose is a German direct sales brand which sells a wide range of clothing and components, alongside its own bike range. Bike styles available include road bikes, gravel bikes, MTBs, hybrids and electric bikes.

Rourke

<p>Founded in 1972, Rourke Cycles hand-builds bikes to order and customers' exact specifications in steel in its workshop in Stoke-on-Trent in the UK. It has a long record in competition, with wins at the national and world levels.

Scott

<p>Scott Sports covers a wide range of sports, not just cycling, while its bike division sells bikes in all categories including performance road bikes, but also electric bikes, kids' bikes and more. It sells all the accessories you might need from helmets to sunglasses and shoes and a range of Syncros-branded components.

Simplon

<p>Simplon rather flies under the radar, but the Austrian brand makes some fine bikes. These include road and gravel bikes, alongside MTBs, flat bars and electric bikes. Its online configurator allows you to customise the bike's spec to suit your requirements,

Specialized

<p>Specialized is one of the largest bike brands in the world. Its performance bikes are raced at the highest level, but it also sells a wide range or more affordable models. Its range includes electric bikes and it sells a wide variety of accessories and components to finish off your riding set-up.

Stevens

<p>Based in Hamburg, Germany, Stevens sells a full range of bikes and electric bikes. It has a particular presence in cyclocross, with its bikes previously raced by both Wout van Aert and Mathieu van der Poel.

Sturdy

<p>Sturdy is another small-scale maker of made-to-measure titanium framesets, in its case across road, TT, gravel and MTB ride styles. It sells a range of custom components to suit, including cranksets, chainrings and jockey wheels, many also made in titanium.

Surly

<p>US brand Surly makes a range of steel bikes which veer towards the off-road/gravel segment, although it also makes tourers and hardtail MTBs. Its bikes tend to have big tyre clearance and a more upright ride position that's good if you're in for the long haul.

Tern

<p>Tern Bikes specialises in folding bikes, but also offers electric folders and a growing range of electric cargo bikes, all with smaller wheels. It sells a wide range of accessories, so that you can kit your bike out for carrying kids, pets or the shopping.

Trek

<p>Trek sells worldwide from its Wisconsin base with a complete range of bikes, as well as electric bikes, clothing and components. Alongside the Trek brand, it also sells Electra e-bikes and Bontrager parts and accessories.

Van Nicholas

<p>Dutch brand Van Nicholas is a titanium bike specialist. Its range stretches from road and gravel bikes to MTBs and touring bikes. Although it doesn't offer custom geometry or specs, there's a wide range of bikes to suit different riders and uses.

Vielo

<p>Vielo is a low-volume UK-based vendor of carbon road and gravel bikes. Its bikes are exclusively 1x and offer wider tyre clearance. You can buy direct or there's a small network of dealers in the UK, the US and worldwide.

Whyte

<p>Whyte is a UK brand that's focused on MTBs, but also sells hybrids and electric bikes. Its bikes are available to buy direct, but it also sells via a network of UK bike dealers.

Wilier

<p>Established in Bassano del Grappa in Italy in 1906, Wilier sells performance road, tri and gravel bikes, as well as mountain bikes and electric versions of many of its range. It has a pro presence both on the road and in MTB and also sponsors top triathletes and gravel racers.