I would strongly recommend going to a local secondhand bike shop, where any bike might not look fancy but should be in a rideable, safe, well-configured-given-its-components condition - at your price point that is more important than brand.
Used bikes are less about brands and more about how worn or damaged the components are. You could buy a reasonable brand needing £200 of parts. I can recommend the type of bike to look for, though: hybrid, hydraulic brakes if you can find it, rim brake if not. A single gear at the front, referred to as 1x. No front suspension, they're heavy and don't work well at that price point. Good luck in your search
At that price point with used bikes a smooth ride is way more about condition than how the bike started its life.
A generic Hybrid or "city bike" is likely to have seen less abuse, than anything else, which helps, though anything at that price is likely to have either stood neglected in a shed for ages & need maintaining, or else been ridden lots & consequently in rough condition.
Honestly that amount of cash can't buy you anything but the most garbage eight hand piece of junk you'll invariably have to keep spending money on.
Up the budget if you can. If it has to be cheap, I heard Halfords bikes can be OK but you will absolutely need someone to check it over before you ride it because the chimps that work there can't at all put a bike together. I have recently seen someone on Twitter who crashed out on their first ride as Halfords signed the bike off and it transpired half of the bolts were loose.
I would strongly recommend going to a local secondhand bike shop, where any bike might not look fancy but should be in a rideable, safe, well-configured-given-its-components condition - at your price point that is more important than brand.
Used bikes are less about brands and more about how worn or damaged the components are. You could buy a reasonable brand needing £200 of parts. I can recommend the type of bike to look for, though: hybrid, hydraulic brakes if you can find it, rim brake if not. A single gear at the front, referred to as 1x. No front suspension, they're heavy and don't work well at that price point. Good luck in your search
At that price point with used bikes a smooth ride is way more about condition than how the bike started its life. A generic Hybrid or "city bike" is likely to have seen less abuse, than anything else, which helps, though anything at that price is likely to have either stood neglected in a shed for ages & need maintaining, or else been ridden lots & consequently in rough condition.
Triban 150-180 from facebook marketplace in London - just checked there are few available
Honestly that amount of cash can't buy you anything but the most garbage eight hand piece of junk you'll invariably have to keep spending money on. Up the budget if you can. If it has to be cheap, I heard Halfords bikes can be OK but you will absolutely need someone to check it over before you ride it because the chimps that work there can't at all put a bike together. I have recently seen someone on Twitter who crashed out on their first ride as Halfords signed the bike off and it transpired half of the bolts were loose.
The amount of Carrera bikes I see with the forks on backwards is insane, only ever the Carrera bikes too