What budget road bike?

Will be looking to buy a new road bike some time soon and was hoping to get some advice on any good cheaper bikes (ideally under £300), best things to look out for 2nd hand etc. As it will probably spend a lot of time on a turbo/rollers I guess I don’t need the fanciest groupset or brakes, but I’d like it to last and not have shifting issues on the times I do manage to get out properly.

My previous bike was a CAAD8 Tiagra which I should have just held on to! Can’t see many for sale at the minute. There are a few Specialized Allez on eBay at decent prices, I don’t really like the triple front ring though and my old Allez had the Sora set with the little thumb downshifters which I thought felt horrible. A lot of the cheaper bikes (Triban, Pinnacle etc) seem to have Claris or Tourney drivetrain – are current generations of these good now or still best avoided?

Current Claris is really good kit, brilliant for the £. Tourney AO50 feels like quite a step down from there though.

At that price I’d avoid disc brakes, there’s loads of lightly used post lock down bikes out there at the moment. First page of an eBay search showes this but there’s hundreds of others.

 https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/175684030108?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=qMPUmnslTF2&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=TM99fk1LR4y&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

At that price if you’re ok with rim brakes you should get something ok.

Boardman Team Carbon road bikes were often bought on cycle to work and used very lightly – on eBay there are loads of those around £300-400. Most have 2×10 sram rival which I found really decent when I had one – actually hated moving to 105 Shimano on the bike I got after that. The Boardman Team road bike (alloy version) will also probably have been bike to worked in a lot of cases and should also be in budget.

Most Cannondale caad bikes are going to be out of your price range I reckon – the 9’s and 10’s all seem quite pricey.

The likes of the Allez/ Giant Defy have been sold in huge numbers so are probably a lot of what you will see. All solid – just buy on condition.

Cube road bikes have often been punted out heavily discounted on sale when I’ve looked – never bought one but probably worth a look too.

Yeah the groupset situation has gotten weird, with the lower level Shimano stuff seemingly going back to the dark ages. But by all accounts it’s very functional.
My old Triban 5 was awesome. 3×9 Sora with proper shifters (no stupid thumb button) and has lasted forever.

I’d still happily buy a Triban again though at that price point. The frames look great I think, so you can always upgrade bits over time.

https://www.decathlon.co.uk/p/road-bike-triban-rc-120-grey/_/R-p-308062?mc=8554264

Facebook marketplace is full of them in that kind of price range. I recently found a friend an absolutely immaculate, decently specced Bianchi road bike for £350