Cheap doesn’t have to mean nasty. You can get a decent new bike for as little as £200. Here are 10 options that show how low you can go.

Better quality, more expensive bikes are much more affordable with Cyclescheme, thanks to big savings on RRP and the fact that you pay in instalments. Yet budget remains a factor. During a cost of living crisis, you might be unwilling to splash out on a nicer bike. Or if your salary isn’t much more than the minimum wage, you’ll be unable to spend a lot due to the way salary sacrifice works. Either way, the good news is that you can still get a reasonable bike.

The least that you can spend depends on the bike’s type. Singlespeed city bikes are cheaper than e-bikes, for example. Where you get it from is also a factor. Online stores with own-brand ranges tend to have more bargains, as do superstores such as Decathlon, whose bikes could plausibly have filled every slot in this list. You also need to consider what you are prepared to overlook or do without. Different cyclists will have different definitions of ‘fit for purpose’.

We’ve suggested workarounds here where a good enough example of a certain bike type is unavailable for less than £500. E-bikes are a case in point, but it’s also true of cargo bikes, tourers and gravel bikes.

Singlespeed: Bobbin Bikes Shadowplay £195

Normally £299, the Bobbin Bikes Shadowplay is only two thirds the price at the time of writing. It’s a minimalist steel bike whose single gear makes it most suitable for flatter cities such as London or Cambridge. While fixie-style singlespeeds have sidepull brake callipers and narrow tyres, the Shadowplay is equipped with more powerful V-brakes and wider tyres that will provide improved comfort and better pinch-puncture resistance over potholes. There’s not much to go wrong with a bike like this, and it’ll be cheap to fix if anything does. Note that there are only two frame sizes so it won’t fit everyone.

Folder: 20-inch folding bike B’Twin 100 £199.99

Decathlon’s cheapest folder is no Brompton or Tern but for a bike-rail commute with a few miles of pedalling at each end, it will do the job just fine. It folds to 78×66×41cm and at 13.3kg isn’t too heavy to lift into luggage racks. For short journeys it’s comfortable enough thanks to an upright riding position and 20x1.75in tyres, although the handling is a little twitchy and its single gear tops out at about 12mph. Riders taller than about 5ft 9in (176cm) may find that the seatpost isn’t long enough. Don’t forget to buy mudguards, like those of the £279.99 B’Twin Tilt 500.

Roadster: Dawes Cambridge £349.99

Roadsters like this, which you might think of as Dutch bikes, work well for short trips in normal clothes. The sit-up-and-beg riding position, backswept handlebar and broad, sprung saddle are comfortable for unhurried journeys. The steel-framed Cambridge comes with mudguards, a chain guard, kickstand and basket, and there are fittings for a rear rack. Like most roadsters, it’s heavy at 17kg. It’s cheaper than most because it uses inexpensive 1x7 derailleur gears rather than hub gears, and V-brakes rather than hub brakes. Despite its gear range, it’s better suited to flatter cities like the one it takes its name from. If you want a genuine Dutch bike, meanwhile, they are available for less than £500 from dutchbike.co.uk.

Hybrid: Trek FX 1 Mid-step Gen 3 £375

At 12.5kg, Trek’s FX 1 is lightweight for a hybrid at this price. Some of that is due to the fact that it doesn’t come with equipment such as a mudguards and a rear rack – although there are mounts for these. It’s also down to its lighter-weight aluminium frame, the use of V-brakes rather than disc brakes (which also saves on the budget) and its decent-quality Bontrager components. Gearing is entry level, a 3x7 mix of Shimano Altus and Tourney, but the range is wide enough for hilly areas and long rides. It’s a straightforward, general-purpose hybrid that’s been well put together. There’s also a version with a top tube.

Gravel bike: Ridgeback Terrain 1 £399.99

There are no proper gravel bikes under £500, mainly due to the high cost of drop-bar integrated shifters. (The Merlin Malt G2 Claris is only £549 at time of writing.) Ridgeback’s Terrain 1 is a good substitute. It’s a basic, rigid-fork mountain bike that’s more capable off road than a gravel bike and a bit slower on it. You could fit slicker gravel or road tyres to minimise that speed difference, and the aluminium frame and steel fork will take mudguards and a rear rack for commuting. The 3x7 drivetrain is basic but again the range is good, and the V-brakes work at least as well as the cheapest mechanical discs. On the whole: a nice, general-purpose, all-terrain bike.

Road bike: Triban Road Bike EDR Easy £399.99

One of the few bikes under £500 you’ll find with integrated brake/gear levers. Or rather: lever. The bike’s 1x8 Microshift drivetrain has a single chainring and no front derailleur. But an 11-34 cassette means the gearing range isn’t too limited, and it’s a more intuitive setup for beginners. Auxiliary brake levers are newbie-friendly too, enabling you to slow down or stop wherever your hands are on the handlebar. The aluminium frame and steel fork have fittings for mudguards and a rear rack. It has a more relaxed riding position than most road bikes, as well as a wider saddle, as it was originally designed for women. Now it’s sold as a unisex bike. If you’re prepared to spend a little more, check out the next Triban in the range.

Touring bike: Raleigh Pioneer £425

The cheapest dedicated touring bike is probably the Ridgeback Tour at £899.99. Yet there are plenty of hybrids you can tour on (as well as commute and go shopping on) for much less than that. Key features are a comfortable riding position, mid-width tyres, wide-range gearing and a pannier rack. Raleigh’s Pioneer has all of these. An adjustable-angle stem lets you put the handlebar where you want; 40mm tyres will cope with unsurfaced or badly repaired roads; the 3x7 gearing goes low enough to haul you and a couple of panniers up hills; and it comes with a rack, as well as mudguards and a kickstand. At 15kg it’s not especially heavy for a ‘tourer’, and once you add panniers the bike’s weight is moot anyway.

Cargo bike: Burley Bee £459.99 

Cargo bikes have four-figure price tags even without electric assistance. If you want to cycle with a couple of small children and/or a trolley’s worth of grocery shopping, a trailer fixed to your existing bike is the answer. Child trailers start at around £150. For regular use it’s worth paying more if you can. The Bee, from trailer specialist Burley, comes in one-seater (£414.99) and two-seater configurations. Both are equipped with five-point safety harnesses, roll bars, UV-protected windows and a generous boot. Burley’s hitches will fit basically any bike or e-bike, and the Bee folds down quickly for storage. It’s also lightweight, making it easier to tow.

Mountain bike: Marin Bolinas Ridge 1 £479

Yes, you can get a mountain bike for less. There’s the rigid Ridgeback Terrain 1 above, plus many, many lookalikes that merely ape the style of mountain bikes. If you want a well-designed frame, a suspension fork, disc brakes and 27.5 or 29in wheels (hint: you probably do), this is arguably where proper mountain bikes start. You could happily take the Bolinas Ridge 1 around a blue-graded trail centre route. Its 100mm-travel fork is basic; all you can do is adjust the preload on its steel spring. The mechanical discs are also fairly rudimentary. On the other hand, the frame geometry, wide handlebar and short stem are all on point. It handles like a mountain bike, not a hybrid. There are rear rack mounts for commuting, too.

E-bike: Swytch Go £499

Good-quality e-bikes cost from around £1,500 these days. Cheaper ones are usually heavily compromised – unless you build one with e-bike conversion kit. The least expensive Swytch kit costs just under £500 and can be fitted to pretty much any bike with 26in-to-29in wheels – a bike you already own, perhaps, or one from this article. The kit consists of a front hub motor that’s built into a wheel, a frame-mounted 180Wh battery (larger ones are available), a pedal sensor and a display/controller. You swap your bike’s front wheel for the motor wheel, fit the other parts and the wiring, and you’re good to go. If you don’t want to do the conversion yourself, Swytch has dealers around the country who will sell and fit the kit, and some of them are Cyclescheme registered.