@dagill2 It definitely could be expensive but doesn’t have to be too bad. I used to work at a big UK cycling store so I’m pretty used to these sort of questions and I tend to go a bit all or nothing with things I like so I went crazy doing research when I first got into cycling so hopefully I can be quite helpful. This is long so buckle in.
Cheap road bikes (ie drop bars) start around £300ish brand new and would be absolutely fine to start. Similarly you could get a decent hybrid with flat bars, with or without some suspension depending where you ride, or a front suspension only mountain bike for a similar price. There’s always lots of good deals second hand too and although the prices are a bit inflated at the moment, it’s still worth looking at.
On top of that if you’re going to be riding for probably longer than half an hour you’ll want some padded cycling shorts which are probably about £20-£30 for half decent ones and ideally you’ll also get spare inner tubes, a pump, tyre levers and a multi-tool to take out with you in case of any mechanical issues so add probably another £40 for those. Add another £20-£40 for a helmet too. If you want them: maybe another £10-£20 for mudguards, locks go between £5 and £100 depending how good you need it to be, lights can cost basically as much as you want to spend but if you want to ride in the dark will probably cost about £50 for a half decent set front and back. Finally there’s maintenance which obviously depends on lots of things. You can do most things yourself from watching YouTube but might need to buy some bits upfront.
Both the bikes and accessories can be bought with a cycle to work scheme which most employers do and you’ve probably heard of. The places you can buy from and how much you can spend depend on employers but you get some nice discounts and can pay monthly. For cheaper, brand new bikes I’d probably recommend looking at either Halfords, Evans or Decathalon as a start. If you want to spend a bit more (>£500) it opens up a lot of options. A £1000 can get you a great bike and then over that you can get all sorts but you’re getting into diminishing returns as you spend more.
Generally what you’ll notice is bikes at this price are a lot heavier than more expensive bikes because they’re made of cheaper materials. They will probably have less gears and the brakes might not be quite as good. The number of gears isn’t a deal breaker but it can be helpful especially at the extremes of the range going up or down hill when you find you don’t have a gear suitable. However, if you’re somewhere mostly flat you might only use a couple. Until recently cheaper bikes usually had rim brakes but now discs are very popular. They provide a big stopping advantage in the wet and are generally better in the dry but are slightly heavier and require a stronger frame so you might still see some high-end road bikes with rim brakes. I’d recommend them in most cases though. Suspension adds weight over a bike without it but obviously cushions the ride so pick it depending on where you’ll be riding. If it’s full suspension for under £1k though it’s likely to be trash so I’d avoid that.
Roughly, the spectrum of bikes from most on road to least basically goes: road bikes (skinny tyres, no suspension, drop bars), hybrids with no suspension and gravel/adventure bikes like mine, hybrids with front suspension (typically about 60mm travel), mountain bikes with front suspension (typically about 100mm travel, more off road specific geometry) then finally full suspension mountain bikes. Again, pick depending on where you’ll ride and what you’re interested in.
I can and would happily talk about this all day so let me know if you have any questions and I’ll be happy to help.
how do you survive ?