Coast in Style and Check These Best Beach Cruisers for the Ultimate Leisure Ride (2024)

If you need some two-wheeled therapy, a beach cruiser might be just the vehicle. These simple machines are often among the cheapest options if you’re in the market for a new bike (though there are some pricier models on our list, including e-cruisers). And you can order many of them online—even customized to your liking—and get them delivered right to your doorstep. We recommend you grab one of these rides, which we determined via testing and research, for a leisurely roll around town, on a trail, or, of course, on the beach.

Doll up your next ride. Check our picks for the best bike lights, saddle bags, and bike jerseys.

• Best Overall: Brooklyn Bicycle Co. Brighton 7-Speed Cruiser
• Best with a Rack: SixThreeZero EVRYjourney 7-Speed
• Best Value: Schwinn Mikko
• Best E-Cruiser: Ride1Up Cafe Cruiser
• Best Rustproof: Priority Bicycles Coast

What Is a Beach Cruiser Bike?

To some, a cruiser is just a singlespeed bicycle with balloon tires, a comfy saddle, a coaster brake, and a wide, sweeping handlebar. You’re not constricted by Lycra or expected to keep pace when you’re on one. There’s a good chance you’re wearing flip-flops—and maybe even a bathing suit. Hopefully, you’re near a beach but you certainly don’t have to be.

A leisurely cruise downtown to grab lunch can be as pleasant as an early-morning roll on a boardwalk. But not every beach cruiser settles for simplicity. Most modern-day models take it to the next level or beyond (with more gears, bigger wheels, cleaner belt drives, internal gearing, mounts for racks, or even motors). Knowing how and where you want to use your new cruiser bike will help you determine what else, if anything, you want from it.

Do I Need More Than One Gear on My Beach Cruiser?

That depends.

For riding the length of a boardwalk or ambling along Main Street, one gear is all you need—and it frees up a hand to hold a soft-serve twist. Singlespeed bikes are cheaper, cut weight, and are, overall, easy to use. They require less maintenance as they have fewer moving parts, but they only go about as fast as you can pedal. Be careful of hills, though, as that one speed also means you’ll have to pedal harder to climb.

But if your rides are a little more challenging than the flat, coastal roads around your favorite seaside town, consider a beach cruiser with multiple gears. Multi-speed bikes can accelerate much faster than single-geared ones and offer a much smoother ride.

Electric Cruisers and E-Assist

Even though the idea of the beach cruiser is to take it easy, there’s nothing wrong with speeding up. Pedal-assist e-bikes can do wonders for your downtime by letting you get to the beach faster, and often without breaking a sweat. Most e-cruisers are class 1, which means they stop helping you pedal once you reach 20 mph, but some go as high as 28 mph (class 3).

We at Bicycling have ridden as many bikes as we can get our hands on to find the best beach cruisers available. For this story’s latest update, we added context for which bikes our testers have spent time on—the Priority Bicycles Coast Beach Cruiser, iZip Simi Step Thru Beach Cruiser, and Specialized Roll Low-Entry Beach Cruiser—linking out to full reviews where we have them. We also added testing notes for the Ride1Up Cafe Cruiser, a bike deputy test editor Tara Seplavy rode and evaluated in the last year. We haven’t tested the other bikes but carefully chose them with Seplavy’s help based on specs and and her context from ride testing the other models.

We know from experience what makes a beach cruiser desirable, so we’ve based our list on value, quality of parts (most of which have been tested separately), user reviews, comfort, our positive experience with brands, and overall aesthetics. We recommend these nine beach cruisers for laid-back rides—no matter where you are.

We got our hands on this bike and everyone who hopped on to take it for a spin shared the same first impression: “This is the most comfortable bike I’ve ever been on.” Its super relaxed geometry lets the rider—even one of our testers with particularly long arms and legs—stretch out to avoid bending their elbows or knees when cruising at momentum. Add to that the cushy seat, soft grips, barefoot-friendly pedals, and smooth-rolling balloon tires, and we’re lucky we didn’t doze off mid-ride.

But this bike’s relaxed attitude doesn’t discount it as a capable utilitarian ride. Front and rear-carrier braze-ons let you outfit it with racks and bags to carry essentials to the beach or grab a six-pack and sandwiches on the way home. You also get a bottle-cage mount and internally routed cables. Choose from six refreshing colors (with matching fenders, rims, and a chainguard), including beach-inspired sea glass and matte coral. The Brighton also has a wide gear range for climbing hills, faster acceleration, and comfortable riding.

Available in both men’s and women’s models and in speeds of 1, 3, 7, and 21, plus two electric versions (250- and 500-watt), there’s an EVRYjourney for everyone. The one you’re looking at here—the 7-speed women’s model—gives you an alloy frame and steel fork, Shimano Tourney 7-speed drivetrain with Revo twist shifter, 1.95-inch semi-slick tires on 26-inch rims, fenders, and a rear rack.

Comfort features include soft grips, a cushy seat, and geometry that puts the rider closer to the ground and moves the pedals forward so you still have proper leg extension. Snap-on attachment points let you easily add accessories like racks, baskets, child seats, and more. And a 365-day test ride and lifetime warranty means you can decide now and change your mind later.

This cruiser is as classic as they come: steel frame, 26-inch wheels, rear coaster brake, classic cruiser handlebar, matching fenders and chainguard, and a cushy seat on springs. Both models come in a variety of colors as well as 3- and 7-speed options (in addition to the singlespeed shown here). It’s a prototypical beach cruiser, for better (affordable, low-maintenance, easy to ride) and for worse (rust-prone, heavy, built for flat terrain).

Designed with a classic moto style, Ride1Up’s Cafe Cruiser has a casual ride feel. And it’s also practical, with a built-in rack and light. The zippy 750W motor powers the Cruiser to 28 mph (20 mph using the throttle) with a suspension fork and 3-inch-wide tires to smooth things out when it gets bumpy. Ride the Cafe Cruiser to the bar, along the boardwalk, or to Sunday morning brunch, and add a passenger kit for $125 with a padded seat for the rack, footpegs, and wheel guards.

Resident e-bike expert Seplavy rode the Cafe Cruiser and found it plenty powerful to climb short hills. But, like several wide-tire bikes, it has some handling issues while taking turns. It gives riders a range of about 30 to 50 miles per charge, which is more than plenty for beach rides and casual jaunts.

“Ride1Up’s Cafe Cruiser is a fun and sporty bike for weekend rides around town, rolling on the boardwalk, or hitting up the local coffee shop,” she says. “Weighing in over 73 pounds, this bike is certainly not lightweight, but its zippy rear hub motor (with throttle) quickly gets it up to speed. While the Cafe Cruiser has a wide-range 8-speed cassette, the bike’s portly weight, sweptback bars, and overall size make it challenging to ride up very steep hills.”

The salt air is no match for the Coast’s rustproof components, which include stainless-steel spokes, an aluminum frame and fork, and a maintenance-free Gates Carbon Drive belt. Sealed bearings keep out water, and Kenda puncture-resistant tires are hardly fazed by broken glass and clamshells. On boardwalks and level city roads, you’ll likely spend most of your time in the hardest gear, but you’ll be thankful for easier pedaling when the street takes a slight upturn.

A double kickstand keeps the bike from tipping when parked, and the option of grabbing a single-, 3-, or 7-speed is nice. The cruiser-style handlebar also has a 3-speed twist shifter on the right and a front-hand brake on the left (though you can also use the coaster brake). It’s the best beach cruiser for coastal living.

Read Full Review View 23 Images

Beach cruisers are part of the quintessential summer experience. Usually, though, they’re heavy, clunky, rust-prone, and hard to ride anywhere but on the boardwalk. Priority’s E-Coast casts those notions aside.

This bike has everything needed for summer days at the beach or riding around town or the campground. The E-Coast’s aluminum frame and fork won’t rust like steel ones, and the Gates belt drive never needs chain lube. The 26-inch-diameter x 3-inch-wide tires help the bike float over sand and soak up cracked pavement. The 500W rear hub motor gets the E-Coast up to a 28 mph, and hydraulic disc brakes ensure stopping power.

This beachy-looking cruiser has a rear-hub motor that lets you zip along at 20 mph and a down tube-mounted battery that will provide enough juice for up to 62 miles in the slowest setting. In the highest pedal-assist mode, that range drops to 15 miles, meaning the Simi is better for slow-speed rolls than fast commutes.

The step-thru frame makes the Simi suitable for everyone, especially those just getting into—or back into—riding. You get quite a few extras with this bike (extras often left off other bikes that cost as much or more), such as a kickstand, fenders, lights, a rear rack, and a bottle-cage mount. With a 7-speed drivetrain and a 12-28 cassette—not to mention the bonus boost you get from the motor—this beach bike can do more than just hit the flat boardwalk for an out-and-back morning jaunt.

In her review of the bike, contributor Riley Missel said its motor is solid, given its price, though the Simi isn’t the smoothest she’s ridden. “It had subtle engagement rather than making me feel like I was constantly accelerating like some e-bikes can do,” she said. “I felt the most consistent assistance and smoothest ride in a lower gear going between 8 and 12 mph. At 250 watt-hours, the battery is what I would consider light-duty—in the lowest assist setting, it can extend the range of your ride substantially; in the highest, it’ll do a good amount of the work for you but for only so long.”

Read Full Review View 34 Images

With one of the lowest step-through frames in the business, the Roll 2.0 Low-Entry is ideal for anyone apprehensive about swinging a leg over a top tube or being able to touch their feet to the ground at the last second. Beefy 650b x 2.3-inch tires roll smoothly on the road but come to your rescue when the pavement gets sketchy or a sandy shortcut starts calling your name.

Its upright geometry puts you in a position that takes strain off your neck and back and lets you take in the sights around you. But that means it isn’t ideal for steep climbs up winding mountains. Nor is the Shimano Altus 7-speed drivetrain, but that’s not what this bike is for. It’s also not for going fast. But for what it is—a $800 cruiser bike with mounts to add a rear rack and a head tube tall enough to hang a pretty deep basket off the BMX-style handlebar—the Roll 2.0 Low-Entry can double as a daily cruiser and around-town grocery-getter.

Test editor Adrienne Donica found the bike slow, though an enjoyable ride. “My riding partner averaged a full 2.5 miles per hour faster without me when I hung back from our usual route one day,” she wrote in her review. “Of course, that’s not scientific, considering she is in better shape than me and was riding a faster-rolling touring bike—but if you like to go fast, look into a more aggressive hybrid model. Tackling hills felt more grueling than with other bikes because of the upright positioning. I was glad to have some flexibility with the wide range of gears, though.”

Read Full Review View 33 Images

A classic cruiser with classic lines, the Rover 9 has a light 6061 aluminum frame and steel fork, hydraulic disc brakes, and a 1x9-speed drivetrain controlled by a Microshift trigger shifter. Moderately grippy, 45mm-wide Kenda Koast tires (with coffee-colored sidewalls) on 27.5-inch alloy rims roll fast and eat potholes in your path. The open, alloy pedals aren’t the most barefoot-friendly compared to rubber-coated pedals, but that’s an easy and inexpensive swap.

The Rover 9 comes in two sizes (medium for 5-foot-5 to 5-foot-9 riders, large for 5-foot-10 and taller), two colors (brushed alloy and matte black), and one frame (there’s no step-through model here). And with nine gears to click through, the Rover 9 crosses over into short-commute territory.