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Paul Norman

Best bike brands: Bicycle companies we trust

Best bike brands hero.

Choosing the best bike brands is a tough ask. 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 direct 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’ve also looked at the brands’ warranty and guarantee policy, 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

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 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 include 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 though.

Cannondale 

One of the big three American performance cycle brands, Cannondale was 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 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, counting 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. 

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 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, alongside the V4Rs ridden by the UAE Team Emirates pro team and the stylishly retro steel Arabesque.

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.

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. It’s active across the entire range of ride styles, including electric and kids’ bikes, as well as selling a wide range of road bikes and gravel bikes.

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, with a string of top tier race wins beginning in the 1980s and continuing 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 rarified 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 two WorldTour 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.

In 2024, it sponsors two WorldTour pro teams, providing a range of high performance bikes. 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 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. Specialized, Trek, Cannondale, Cervélo and Giant offer a lifetime warranty on their frames. 

Best bike brands: the longlist

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