Best Flat Bar Road Bike 2023

Selecting a Flat Bar Road Bike

While bicycles seem like fairly basic machines, they are anything but. In fact, there are numerous different styles of bicycles for a variety of different traveling applications. Today we are going to talk about flat bar road bikes. Road bikes are a hybrid style of bicycle that offers a variety of benefits to both the casual and the experienced rider. Let’s dig into the pros and cons of road bikes, how you can select the right one for you, and the best flat bar road bike on the market: the Schwinn Men’s Volare Bike.

What IS a road bike?

A road bike isn’t the same as a commuter bicycle or a mountain bicycle so what makes it difference? The differences between these bikes are far more important than their similarities. Here are a few key details to note when shopping for a road bike:

• Lack of Suspension – A mountain bike will feature suspension to help you weather the bumpy surfaces that you are going to be riding on. Road bikes don’t typically need the added comfort that suspension offers its riders, after all, you are typically going to be cycling on fairly decent surfaces.
• Higher Gear Selection – While there are fixed gear road bicycles out there, you will most commonly find road bikes that have an array of gears to switch between. Road bikes have a front crankset that possesses two cogs that allow you to rotate between 11 and 22 total gears. The point of having this wide array of gear choices is so that you can take care of steep hills with relative ease.
• Lightweight Frame – Road bikes tend not to have super hefty bodies. Lightweight frames are becoming more and more of a selling point for cyclists everywhere and that is an area where road bikes excel. We’ll talk more about this later.

What kind of riding are you planning?

Obviously, you can’t select the right bicycle unless you know what kind of riding you want to do with it. Are you looking for something to use on the weekends in a casual setting? Are you instead opting to look for a bike to get you to and from work? Are you ready for competitive cycling, races, and other forms of contests? All of these options need to be considered before you can begin shopping as you will need to cater to your needs in the shopping aisle before bringing home a bicycle. Here are the few most common styles of road bikes:

• Aero – If you want speed and you need it now then look for an aero road bike. Aero bicycles are created as sleek as possible, opting to go light on accessories in favor of enhanced win carving ability. You’ll notice that this style of bike has a large tube profile and deep, high impact wheels.
• Endurance – This style road bike is probably one of the more popular choices in the world. Endurance bikes have larger wheels, a longer headtube, and a focus on long-term comfort. Endurance bicycles typically have larger tires to help absorb more vibration while you are riding, thus keeping your experience more smooth.
• Casual – The casual road bike is going to be what we talk about with the Schwinn model, later on. Casual road bikes are light in frame, focused on application, and minimal in terms of accessory add-ons. These bikes are meant to be taken to the road and used with little fanfare in between. Casual or recreational, bikes will have wider tires, easy gear switching ratios, and flat bars. They are the perfect way to get into road bicycling.

Schwinn Men’s Volare 1200 Bike

Alright, now that we know what we need to about road bikes we can get a little bit more specific. Today we are choosing to highlight one of the premier casual, or recreational, flat bar road bikes on the marketplace. Schwinn has long been one of the biggest brands in the world of cycling and now they have a rock solid starter bike at basement bin prices. Despite the low-cost, the Schwinn Men’s Volare 1200 stands up well to more expensive competition. Let’s dive into this crafty little vehicle and see what there is to know.

First off you will notice that the Volare is an aluminum framed model that weighs in at around 39 pounds, fully constructed. Aluminum bicycles are known to be the most cost-effective way to get yourself a solid, endurance-focused bicycle and that is exactly what we have here. Aluminum framed bicycles are excellent at transferring bumps and jerks while riding which means that the Volare will be a relatively comfortable ride, despite being a no frills cycle.

Next, we can see that this tough little bike showcases Shimano EZ Fire shifters and a Shimano rear derailleur to allow you to quickly get in and out of your gear selections. You will have 21 different speeds to cycle between as you ride which means that there will never be a hill too tough, or a slope too horizontal for you to shift down or up into. Being able to shift between gears to make your ride easier, or more difficult if you are aiming for a workout, is one of the biggest perks of this style of ride.

Finally we want to point to the alloy based, linear pull brakes that allow you to stop on a dime when you need to. Being able to quickly stop is of the utmost importance considering most road cyclists are, well, on the road. Safety is paramount and being able to get to and from your destination is probably pretty important. Most lower priced bikes tend to forego the little things that people won’t notice, like brakes, but that isn’t the case with this Schwinn unit.