Brand-X Road Bike £244.99 @ Wiggle

Why would you do that? It's got an ever narrower range than the brand X, 44 front only and max 28 rear, Microshift rather than Shimano cassette, and it doesn't have sti shifters.

But the cassette is a slightly unusual 14-28 ratio, which means that the top gear 50x14 is actually not as high as a normal 11-speed setup - most higher specced bikes would have a cassette with an 11 tooth small sprocket (and many/most also have a big chainring larger than 50t).

The 14-28 cassette also suggests to me that the gearing of this bike has actually been thought through since the real problem with a 7-speed setup is that the jumps between gears are a bit high - the closer ratio 14-28 cassette over say 11-28 counteracts that a little. (edited)

It's an alright spec for the money in the current time but I am not a fan of the look. It reminds me of the budget eurobike I saw on a GCN video a while ago.

If it's this: philsroadbikingblog.blogspot.com/201…tml then the gearing on this bike makes it even easier in the lowest gear, because its 34 not 38.

Numbers refer to teeth on the cog, which tells you the ratio between the rings.
Front being 50 and rear being 12 means for every rotation of the pedals you've moved 50 teeth, and that will move the wheel 50/12 = 4.16 times.

If you have 34 (front smaller cog) and 28 (rear largest cog) you are getting 1 turn of pedals = 1.2 turns of the rear wheel.

The TDF is 38/26 at the lowest ratio, or 1.5 turns of the wheel per pedal, so this bike would be easier in a low gear (e.g. up a steep hill).

The higher the ratio, the harder each turn of the pedals will be, but the faster you can go. So a 54 front 11 rear would be a 4.9 ratio, and a lot harder than 34/28 at 1.2 for each pedal turn.