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ChainringClub

Tarmac

Road

Being seen, knowing your numbers, and sitting comfortably for four hours. Everything else on a road bike is negotiable.

A road cyclist riding on wet tarmac in low sun.

What you’re actually deciding

Road cycling gear divides cleanly into three problems: being seen, knowing your numbers, and sitting comfortably for four hours. Everything else on a road bike is preference, and most of it is preference the industry has successfully sold you as necessity.

Being seen is the one that matters most and gets the least honest coverage. The lumen count on a light’s box is close to useless as a measure of whether a driver will notice you — beam pattern, flash mode and mounting position all matter more, and a 200-lumen light aimed properly beats an 800-lumen one pointed at the sky. The most effective safety product on this hub isn’t a light at all: it’s the radar taillight that tells you a car is approaching before you hear it.

The bit where we save you money

Bike computers run from about the price of a decent lunch to the price of a decent wheel, and the honest truth is that most riders buy several tiers more than they use. If you want to know your speed, distance and time, a wireless computer with no GPS at all does that perfectly. If you want maps and structured training, you need the expensive one. The middle is where money goes to die.

And if you’re not sure? Your phone already does most of it, and we’ll say so out loud in bike computer vs phoneeven though there’s no commission in that answer.

The one thing we can’t help with

Saddles. A saddle is the one component where the only relevant data is the shape of your pelvis, and no reviewer — not us, not anyone with a lab — can tell you what fits. Any site confidently ranking saddles is ranking their own anatomy. We explain the mechanism (sit-bone width, cutouts, why pressure isn’t padding) and then get out of the way: how to choose a bike saddle.

Heads up: we earn a commission if you buy through the links on this page, at no extra cost to you. It never decides what makes the list — here’s how that works.

What to buy

Our picks, with the live price on the card. No need to click through unless you want the reasoning — and you should want the reasoning.

A bicycle locked to a city bike rack against a wet concrete wall.Best bike lock

The Best Bike Locks

Two locks compared on what they publish rather than what they claim. Three security scales pulled apart, the DOJ's theft research, and the registration paperwork that decides whether a theft guarantee is worth anything.

Our top pick

Kryptonite Evolution Mini-7 U-Lock

Kryptonite Evolution Mini-7 U-Lock

$98.40 · View on Amazon

$109.95 −11%

The number that matters

Lumens are a bad proxy for being seen.A lumen figure measures total light output in every direction. What keeps you alive is how that light is shaped, where it’s aimed, and whether it’s flashing during daylight. A well-aimed 200-lumen light with a proper beam cutoff outperforms a badly-aimed 800-lumen blob, and it doesn’t blind the oncoming driver who then can’t see you.

Manufacturers publish lumens because it’s a single big number that goes on a box. Here’s what to read instead.

Straight answers

The comparisons people actually search for, settled as far as they can honestly be settled.

Understand it properly

The mechanisms behind the choices, so the next decision is yours rather than ours.

Common questions

How many lumens do I need for a bike light?

Fewer than the marketing implies, and it’s the wrong question. For being seen in traffic, a couple of hundred lumens flashing is plenty. For lighting an unlit road at speed you need real output, but beam shape matters more than the headline figure — lumens explained.

Do I need a bike computer, or is my phone fine?

For most riders, honestly, a phone is fine. A dedicated computer wins on battery life, screen visibility in sun, and not destroying your phone in the rain. That’s the real list — compared properly here.

What tire pressure should I run?

Lower than the number molded on your tire’s sidewall, which is a maximum and not a recommendation. The right pressure depends on your weight, tire width and surface — inputs only you have. The mechanism is here.

Are disc brakes actually better than rim brakes?

In the wet, unambiguously. Otherwise it’s a trade against weight, cost and simplicity — and the market has already decided, so a new road bike is a disc bike whatever you conclude. The comparison.

Which saddle should I buy?

We can’t tell you, and neither can anyone else — it depends on the width of your sit bones and the shape of your pelvis. What we can do is explain what to measure and what the features actually do: how to choose a bike saddle.

We haven’t tested any of the products in this hub, and we don’t pretend otherwise. Read how we research — it explains what we do instead, and why we think it’s more useful than a score.