The entry-level road racing bike can be a thing of beauty. It has the geometry and design marks of a pro-level racing bike, has similar components and gear ratios as the pro bike, and, most importantly, gets the rider out on the road and into the peloton. Nearly as good performance, a bit less flash, and dramatically lower cash outlay. And the racing bike is, despite its name, a machine designed to be ridden both fast and slow, to be both maneuverable and stable, and efficient at translating power into speed in a wide variety of conditions.
It’s the kind of bike a junior bike racer who has to buy her own gear can afford, as well as the adult who wants to start racing but has a tight budget; it’s something that would be raceable without holding someone back starting in category five races all the way through category two races, and maybe beyond. Such a bike is also right for the enthusiast who wants a fast bike for fitness and group riding, but doesn’t want to make the financial commitment that a full-on pro-level bike means.
This bike is disappearing. It’s not only bad for bike racing, but for the sport and industry. There are no bad actors; just a confluence of economics, interests, technological innovations, and cultural and market forces.
What does an entry-level race bike cost?
We should start with definitions. Let’s start with what the bike is. A pro-level road bike is just that, something that a professional bike racer rides. Look at the Tour de France, at the WorldTour, those bikes. They can run anywhere from $7,000 to $17,000 or more these days.
An entry-level road bike is a bit harder to define, but it is something that is still a racing bike, and can be raced out of the box, but is designed to meet a price point that people without unlimited budgets can afford. One product manager called it a “WorldTour replica bike.” These days, such a bike probably has an aluminum frame, a carbon-fiber fork, and 11- or 12-speed cassette paired to two chainrings, with gearing that allows for both climbing steep hills and pedaling down hills. Most will have hydraulic disc brakes. It should have at least somewhat aero wheels and tires that are relatively light but long-wearing.
The cost is harder to get a fix on. As a point of reference, I’ll start with my own entry-level race bike. A 1986 Specialized Allez SE. I believe it cost about $650 at the time. It was a lugged steel frame with 36-spoke clincher rims, and a seven-speed freewheel. The components were a mix—SunTour Superbe Pro rear derailleur, SunTour Cyclone front, SunTour Sprint shifters, Dia-Compe Royal Gran Compe brakes, and Specialized-branded cranks (probably made by Sugino), pedals (probably made by MKS), seat post (probably made by SR), bars (probably made by Nitto), stem (probably made by Nitto), hubs (probably made by Suzue), rims, and tires. It might have been a pound or two heavier than a pro bike (like 22-24lbs compared to 20-22lbs), but the pro bike of its time was also made of round steel tubes, and the biggest difference was that rather than 36-spoke clincher rims, the pro bike might have had 32-spoke tubular rims. Aerodynamically, there was little difference other than the aero brake levers on the Specialized, which the pro-level bike may or may not have had. Specialized even sold a pro version of the bike, the Allez. In 1986, as a point of comparison, a custom-made Richard Sachs frameset (almost all pro-level framesets were custom-made at the time) with Campagnolo C-Record componentry, the then-new top-of-the-line components seen on most of the custom-made bikes at the Tour de France, cost $2,200.
There was also an expectation that the entry-level Specialized would be worthy enough that it could be upgraded with better wheels, better components and be an even better bike several years down the road.
Think about inflation.
Adjusted for inflation, that entry-level Specialized would be $1,827, that custom Sachs would be $6,184 in September, 2023. The cheapest bike on the 2022 Tour de France was a bit over the Sachs price; the KTM Revelator Alto Exonic is that bike and it’s not available in the US, but it was an outlier. Top-of-the-line framesets from the big four these days run from $4,000-6,000; in 1986, a super-light Eddy Merckx 753 frameset set one back about $800 then, or $2244 today. I strongly recommend using the Bureau of Labor Statistics Inflation Calculator to see how the prices you remember from yore are stacking up to today. Let’s take $2,000 as a ceiling for the price comparison to the earlier era of entry-level bikes to keep things simple.
It’s also important to know what someone of limited means can afford. On the bracing side, it was reported in 2022 that just 44% of Americans can afford an emergency expense of $1,000. But looking at how people keep buying stuff, it would seem that more people can at least plan for larger expenses. A more relevant way might be to look at the minimum wage and consider whether a kid or adult who had to buy his own bike at retail would be able to afford to buy a $1,500-$2,000 bike. The federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour, which applies to 20 states. Basically, it would take about eight weeks of full-time work, an entire summer, for someone working at the federal minimum wage to earn $2,000. On the other hand, Washington State has the highest minimum wage, at $15.74 an hour. It would take someone there a bit less than four weeks of full-time work to earn $2,000. That seems doable, though if we’re talking about a kid in college who needs to cover some of her living expenses and tuition, it gets less easy. And harder still for adults stuck in low-wage work.
The expanding gap between entry and pro.
What seems to be tricky in that financial figurings is that the pro-level bikes being much more expensive than they used to be might seem to mean it has a greater advantage vis-à-vis an entry-level bike. That may or may not be true. Framesets, which is where much of the bike cost resides, a carbon-fiber frame can be much lighter than aluminum, magnesium, or steel, but the pro overall bike weight can’t be less than 6.8kg (14.99lbs) as per UCI regulations. Much of the price growth can probably be attributed to the greater cost of fabricating those carbon-fiber frames and wheels, particularly to deal with the forces of disc brakes and wind, and the pro-level frames are often much more expensive for a minimal weight savings, than the frame one step down.
The aero shaping also confers an advantage, and depending on the speed of the peloton and the gradient of the road, the advantage is real, though probably small. Body position is probably the most important aero consideration followed by wheels, helmet, clothing, and handlebars. So a rider with a good position, moderately fast wheels, an aero road helmet, and skinsuit can probably get somewhat close in aero drag to someone on a bike that was stolen from a team truck at the Tour.
At the same time, aerodynamics have become more important over time—the faster the peloton goes, the more it matters.
So, imagine a kid eyeballing a local junior race, or someone making working-class wages thinking about trying their hand at category five races, and seeing people racing the same bikes they see on the WorldTour in those junior and cat five races. It’s hard to know if that person is going to be put off from racing when they see that even at the beginner level, her potential competition are racing pro bikes. And if they’re not put off, what might they have in their pocket to spend on a bike to get into those races?
Used bikes don’t count here.
It’s great that there is a used bike market. All the same, it’s not relevant to this discussion. Yes, a savvy buyer can find likely find a very good deal on a bike well beyond entry level thanks to eBay, Facebook Marketplace, and resellers like The Pro’s Closet. However, for a relatively green cyclist, they likely don’t have the requisite knowledge to smartly navigate this market without help.
Where road bikes start.
Prices for drop-bar road bikes start at about $1000 in 2023. Compared to bikes of 35 years ago, these bikes are awesome. They typically have eight-speed cassettes (Shimano debuted this as part of their Dura-Ace line in 1988), lightweight aluminum frames, dual-pivot rim brakes, durable wheels, and a wide range of gears. Often, but not always, a carbon-fiber fork. At this price point, the bike may or may not have road racing geometry; more likely, the bike measurements in this price range are what is generally considered “endurance” geometry, which is a bit taller and has less reach than a road racing bike–it might be hard to get a decently aero position as a result, though the position might be more forgiving for those who are not in great shape. One could spend another $500-800 to get lighter, more aero, aluminum-rimmed clincher/tubeless wheels, but that’s probably the limit of the upgrading one would probably want to do. Don’t know if it would be worth it to spend the $1200-2100 for carbon-fiber rimmed wheels.
In comparison, entry-level race bikes, starting from probably the late 1990s to at least until very recently, would be equipped with the same number of cogs on the cassette as the pro bikes, a frame that looked like a pro bike, with a geometry that matched a pro bike, and low spoke count wheels, 18 or 20 spokes in front, 20-24 in the back, with a shallow but somewhat aero rim, that were closer to the deep-dish carbon-fiber wheels on a pro bike than the 36-spoke wheels of 40 years ago.
Fewer models to choose from.
Until the past few years, most brands with a road race bike in their lineup offered at least three models. They could be seen as the SRAM Rival/Shimano 105 version (the entry level), the Force/Ultegra version (mid-level), and the Red/Dura-Ace (pro). Previous to 2015 or thereabouts, some companies offered Campagnolo components on these bikes and the range was Centaur for entry level, Chorus for mid-range, and Record/Super Record for pro. Many of the larger bike companies starting around 2010 or so had both an aluminum frame/carbon fork range of bikes and a carbon-fiber range. Usually, all were pretty much raceable out of the box.
Entry-level road race bikes at the adjusted price.
Looking at bike offerings these days, there are possibly only a few such bikes I’ve found that seem to (barely) fit the criteria set out– an aluminum frame, a carbon-fiber fork, and 11- or 12-speed cassette paired to two chainrings, hydraulic disc brakes, at least marginally aero wheels and tires that are relatively light but long-wearing, and costs $2000 or less. (Complete chart can be found below.)
*The Motobecane Aero Road Pro, a direct-to-consumer brand, at $1799.
*The Cannondale CAAD13 105, a rim-brake bike, at $1975 (which is disappearing).
*The Fuji SL-A, $1999.
*The Felt FR30, $1999.
The CAAD13 is very much what for probably over 20 years used to be a standard entry-level road race bike. It has the same geometry as Cannondale’s pro bikes, has largely Shimano 105 components (though it seemed that Ultegra/Force components more common years ago), has somewhat aero low spoke count wheels. Cannondale used to offer such a frame with mid-level and high-level components as well, and those bikes were very much something that could be raced hard against good competition and not hold the rider back. Giant had it with the TCR, Specialized with the Allez, Trek with the Emonda AL, and many other companies used to offer a similar bike at a very close price point, but they’ve all largely disappeared. Trek’s Emonda and Cannondale’s CAAD13 105 Disc are over $2300, while Specialized’s Allez Sprint Comp is $3000. Giant’s entry level road bike seems to be the TCR Advanced Disc 2, also $3000. Giant’s is the only carbon-fiber frame of the group. Canyon doesn’t offer an aluminum-frame road bike, but has a gravel bike in this price range. Most of the mountain bike-first companies, like Kona and Marin, that are still in existence, are pretty much out of the road bike category, though they have gravel and adventure bikes.
While these bikes are indeed a bargain compared to pro-level bikes, entry-level road bikes have largely become cost-prohibitive to the kind of person the bikes are seemingly designed for.
What happened is detailed in Part 2.
Photos courtesy of Marco Quezada. http://marcoquezada.com/
Your dedication to your blog is admirable.
This post really resonated with me. Thanks for putting it into words.