This post will focus on the top 10 bicycles for 2019. Factors taken into consideration are light and swift drop bar, pavement oriented, , smoother roads and higher speeds with a premium put on low weight, high stiffness, vertical compliance, and material. This top 10 list is in no way comprehensive, compared to the hundreds of bikes available on the market. There are road racing bikes, high endurance bikes, dirt bikes, mountain bikes as well as many others. This list is just general, and not from any specific category.
1) Giant Contend 3
This bike offers amazing performance, and rides really well. It is really smooth, and turns sharply.
2) Cannondale CAAD12 Dura Ace
This bike is made of aluminum which makes it easy to ride even when windy.
3) Kona
Rove bike line combines ruggedness, versatility and value. The $849 model that opens the line offers all those benefits at a sub-1000-dollar price. Highlights include powerful Hayes mechanical disc brakes, tough Schwalbe tires, and an attractive finish with nice graphic details.
4) Xenith Comp
The Xenith Comp is a full featured carbon road bike for just a bit over two thousand dollars. The frame has all the most updated touches like the flat-mount standard for disc brakes, thru-axles, internal routing. The parts are solid with Shimano’s 105 drivetrain and hydraulic disc brakes, tubeless ready wheels, and 3T bar and stem. A damped ride and neutral handling round out this excellent value.
5) Allied Alfa
The Allied Alfa Disc offers a USA made carbon frame,, and customizable build and paint for less than you may expect. It’s a stock-sized bike, but offered with a short or tall head tube to help you get the right fit. It’s a subtle looking bike with rounded tubes and minimal graphics, and the ride is extremely balanced and neutral.
6) Argonauts Road Bike
Argonaut’s Ben Farver started building with steel, but he switched to carbon to take advantage of the material’s unmatched ability to control and tune a frame’s performance. But Farver still has a soft spot for steel, and builds his bikes to mimic the best qualities of a steel bike’s ride. The result is one of the best-tuned, best feeling, road bike’s we’ve ever evaluated. It is very expensive, but you have have the funds, it’s a purchase you’ll never regret.
7) Cervélo S5 Dura Ace Di2
Cervélo—the brand that helped popularize the category—has refreshed the S5, its premier race bike. Now a disc-brake-only bike, the front end is the highlight, and one that provides a claimed 5.5 watt savings. The external steerer helps sharpen the handling, and a V-shaped stem not only improves aerodynamics, but also makes easier cable routing, and improved shifting with mechanical drivetrains. The S5’s bar and stem are available in multiple lengths, and the system offers up to 32.5mm of height adjustment, and three bar-tilt options. And if all that fails, an adapter allows a (slower) standard bar and stem to be fitted. The frame was also upgraded: it’s 100 grams lighter (claimed weight 975 grams), stiffer, fits wider tires, and has improved vertical compliance. Geometry was altered slightly to improve handling, particularly at higher speeds.
8) Liv EnviLiv Advanced Pro 0 Disc
The Liv EnviLiv takes the ideas Giant (Liv’s owner) debuted in the Propel aero-road racing bike and packages them a women’s specific bike. This bike is a rocket, and not just because it’s extremely responsive, but also because the disc brakes and its fantastic handling provide riders confidence to carry extra speed around corners and down hills. It’s a tough bike to beat for the money too, with tons of technology, Shimano’s phenomenal Ultegra Di2 group, a power meter, and a tubeless ready carbon wheelset.
9) Roubaix Comp Ultegra Di2
This bike is a stiff, responsive, and sharp-steering bike, and it’s also extremely smooth and well mannered (but not TOO well mannered). If you’re looking for an endurance bike with the soul of a race bike, few blend both so seamlessly as the Roubaix.
9) Specialized S-Works Venge
While some other brands’ aero road bikes seem to get more radical looking and more integrated with every generation, the Venge has gone a different direction. In the evolution from it’s second to third generation, the new Venge has become more staid looking, and some of the more challenging aspects of the bike’s design have been eliminated. For example, you can change stem length on the new Venge without pulling the derailleur wires (swapping a stem on a second-gen Venge was a day’s work )The new Venge is also compatible with any standard bar and stem (the old one wasn’t). Remarkably, this aero road racing bike has clearance for up to 32mm tires.
10) CAAD12 Dura-Ace
Despite Canondales reputation as harsh and buzzy, today’s aluminum road bikes can ride smoothly and take up bigger hits, which is bolstered by crisp acceleration. And you get all this for less than similarly equipped carbon-framed bikes. Cannondale’s CAAD12 series is one of the best aluminum race bikes you can find, and one of the only aluminum framed bikes from a big brand equipped with Shimano’s peerless Dura Ace group.