Do you want Road Bikes for Speed, Distance or Both and where do you find the best brands online?

Today's road bikes usually fall into the Touring category for long distance rides and for touring, the Racing category for speed and the Sport bike category for a little of both. You'll find a brief description of these common Road Bike categories here as well as information on some of the best brand names and where to find them online.

The online bike stores that we've selected offer all Road bike categories and have good quality brand names. Some brands of road bikes are sold exclusively at bike shops and are not available on the internet. Our online merchants actually sell quality brand road bikes online.

Browse our online merchants and helpful road bike information below for the road bike that meets your needs, order online and have your new bicycle delivered to your home or to a store near you.

** REI.com - Cycling has a great selection of Cannondale, Electra, Marin, and Novara brand Road Bikes that you can buy online. Some REI brand road bikes (like cannondale) must be delivered to an REI store but the brands that can be delivered directly to your home come with only minor assembly required.

See * Road Bikes at Performance for a nice selection of road bikes for sale online including Schwinn, K2, Mongoose, GT, and Dahon brand bikes. Bikes can be delivered to a Performance store or full assembly will be required.

Walmart.com also has a good selection of road and comfort bikes at very low prices. Walmart offers Schwinn, Kent, Mongoose, and Huffy brand road bikes for sale online.

Types of Road Bikes

Touring Bikes

This type of bike is designed to provide comfort for long distance rides. Touring Bikes are an excellent choice long distance road and trail rides. The drop down handlebars provide comfort, good control and multiple hand positions. Twenty one speeds should help you to handle any incline that you encounter and cantilever can handle heavy load braking.

Sport Bikes

This type of road bike falls between touring and racing bikes. Although I usually think of a "hybrid" as a cross between Road and Mountain bikes, this bike can be considered a hybrid road bike... The sport bike is not as light as a racing bike but more responsive than a touring bike. The sport bike also has drop down handlebars for comfort and control and the aerodynamic design allows for faster speeds. If you are into rides of 10 miles or more and want a little more intensity and speed, this would be a great choice.

Racing Bikes

These bikes are built for speed (obviously). They are ultra light, aerodynamic and have the thinnest tires. A short wheel base allows the bike to respond to the slightest movements and the typical 12 to 18 gears will get you to top speed quickly and keep you there.

My personal preference in this category is a touring bike, based on my style of riding (trails and distance mostly), although I currently have a mountain/road bike hybrid...

Some notes on Road Bike sales online

Many of the bicycle sites that you find on the internet will have good information, detailed descriptions and sometimes prices for the bicycles that they manufacture or sell but will not actually sell the bicycles online. Instead they will refer you to a local dealer or one of their own bike shops.

The online bike resources referenced on our site do have many bikes for sale online. For example: Schwinn, Cannondale, Huffy, K2, Mongoose, Scattante, Columbia, Kent, Electra, Nirve and Nashbar Brand are some (but not all) of the name brands that you can actually buy online. Some brands (like Cannondale, for example) can be ordered on line but must be shipped to a local shop.

Browse our recommended bike sites above if you are looking for these brands of new bicycle for sale online  (or for plenty of bicycle accessories online).

Other brand names, such as Trek, Giant, Gary Fisher, Specialized and Diamondback are high quality, popular brand names, but if you are searching the internet to find these brands of bicycles for sale online, you will most likely just find references to their approved dealers or used bikes. If you are looking for these or other higher end bikes you'll most likely have to check out a local bike shop or you could try ebay or craigs list.

Cycle Computers (bike speedometers, odometers) A good cyclecomputer is one of the most useful and interesting accessories that you can have on your bike. Speedometer, Odometer, Trip Meter, Date and Time, Riding time vs Elapsed time, averages... Many wireless models are available too!

Bicycle Accessories Having the right bicycle accessories available when you need them makes the difference between just another ride and a ride that you don't really want to end. (bicycle lights, bags, mirrors, hydration packs and water bottles, locks, car racks...)

Bicycle Clothing Mostly what you really need as far as bicycle clothing goes, of course, is what makes you comfortable (some people may require more style to be comfortable than others :-) ).

Bike Parts If you ride bikes, you are going to be needing bicycle tires, tubes, bicycle wheels, cables, chains and chain cleaner kits, brake shoes and other bicycle parts and accessories pretty regularly. Here are some great online sources.

See Online Bike Stores - for a complete listing of where to purchase the most popular brands for all bike types online.