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 competition 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.

Recommended Road Bikes For Sale Online

See the Fuji SL1 Road Bike Review for our recommended, top of the line racing bike for sale online.

See the GT Series Road Bike Review for our recommended entry level (i.e. less expensive) racing bike.

See the Scott Speedster Review for a very reasonably priced road bike that can handle speed and competition as well as distance rides, fitness and overall road use.

See the Raleigh Sport for a high quality and stylish yet very inexpensive entry level Road/Sport bike.

** REI.com - Cycling has a great selection of Cannondale, Scott, Electra, Raleigh, 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 Fuji, Schwinn, Scattante, Mongoose, GT, Focus and SE Racing brand bikes. Bikes can be delivered to your home or to a Performance store for FREE shipping.

See Bikes at Wal-Mart for 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...

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 and Specialized 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.

More helpful online bike sales resources:

See Best Buy Bikes Online - for the latest sales and deals on quality brand names bikes for sale online.

Most popular bike brands in US - WIth so many bicycle manufacturers, bicycle types and popular brand names sold in the US, that it can be difficult to find a comprehensive summary of the top 20 bike most popular bike brands.

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