Bike Tier List
This is a Borgen bike tier list, by Shred, with some explanations.
Please note: This is all in MY opinion. How you choose to spend your AC is, ultimately, up to you. Some people may disagree with the odd few placements but for the general player unsure as to what to do, this should be reasonably accurate from a new player perspective.
TL;DR - If you're on a budget, Daimona Lyssa II, Item Magnet and Crazy Tapper are the only bikes I would deem essential. Add Coin Detector if you intend to manually grind for lots of AC, but with dailies etc there are more ways to obtain AC for free than before.
S
Item Magnet - Useful at all stages of the game for memories, more cores, more ancient coins.
Daimona Lyssa II - All the benefits of Daimona Lyssa, plus regen. Considerably more expensive at 1333AC. Many situational benefits over DL (poison pill no damage, thanks AO iz BACK, staying alive longer by picking targets carefully in MO, thanks Frankmusik). No doubt better than Daimona Lyssa, but consider the cost difference if this is an early purchase, Daimona Lyssa is still S tier. Daimona Lyssa II does have considerably better perks than Daimona Lyssa, which is a decent advantage for most of the game.
Daimona Lyssa - Gains are great so long as you can survive the extra damage, is probably the best "I want gains" bike there is. Cheap at 400AC.
A
Crazy Tapper - Borderline essential for transposing, has limited utility after God Tier. Decent bike to ride while grinding as well, somewhat displaces Vision of Homer if you have to pick one or the other.
Coin Detector - Fantastic for AC, particularly if you are grinding out for expensive Borgen weapons.
B
Phalanx - Good damage bike. With many event gears having decent attack%, combined with berserk being so good, it's hard to recommend using this over higher tier bikes.
Vision of Homer - A solid exp bike, but simply cannot compete with berserk gains.
Ruiner - Poison is a useful exp gaining method, but it's much more effective to use the Daimona Lyssa II bike combined with pills. Cheap.
C
Apollo's Chariot - The best multi-spread bike on paper, but is still a multi-spread bike and so still is not as effective as single-focus bikes higher up in this list. The 'dusk 'til dawn' text seems to be flavour currently and does nothing. Over 2k AC cost feels pricey.
Shadow of Ares - Multi-spread bikes are simply not as effective as high single perk focused bikes.
Armament Force - HP/Atk split bike. It's limited in utility.
Drachma Boat - Has potential use pre-Light Seeker, but there is Santa Sleigh in VQM, and it's quite a lot of AC to spend when actually there are far more useful bikes to choose from.
Wrath of Homer - Slightly more useful than Armament Force, but it's just not better than Homer/Phalanx.
Turducken - Shield Wall + HP. It's better than Shield Wall, but HP as well doesn't turn this into a bike you're going to be frequently using. Has the added benefit of allowing you to store up to 20 super charges. Nice if you're already using it, but again not a reason to use it specifically.
Shield Wall - It's just got limited utility. I'm not sure where anyone would use this actively when slayer focuses on killing before you die. Gets you 100k power triumph earlier than you otherwise might. Made completely redundant by Turducken, depending on cost.
Drachma Attack - Split between drachma (not that useful a perk to ride a bike for after Light Seeker) and attack means it's not fantastic at either, average.
Touch of Asclepius - Auto HP regen has uses. Now we have Heart of Cupid, it's possibly less desirable. With Daimona Lyssa II having regen, and dying isn't really a big deal, this probably isn't a bike you'll choose to ride all that often. PEs, perhaps. It is cheap.
Tears of Eo - Same problem as Shadow of Ares.
Niche
Should be clear why most of these are niche:
Light of Theia
Words of Pasithea
Achlys Daimona
Focal Point
Bounty Tracker
Cartographer
Meat Shield
Munitions Expert - Has use in that you can build up many super charges then unleash in a flurry of damage and gains, but all that time accruing charges means you're not using a better bike instead.
D
XP Inverter - Diffuicult to maintain low health. Poison pill with ghost cloaks an option, but ghost cloaks not a realistic booster to maintain long term. Expensive.
Drachma Inverter - Difficult to maintain low health. It's just not that great, stick with Drachma Boat. Expensive.
LP Inverter - Same as other inverters.
Model S - Random in a game of grinding for consistent gains is not good.
Bellerophon - Just isn't noticeable enough, waste of a bike slot.
Insight of Perseus - Same problem as Bellerophon.
What about the bikes that cost drachma?
Check out the wiki for what these bikes do. They all cost drachma which is way less of a big deal than premium currency bikes, and feel free to buy a bike if it's going to help you, perk wise. Drachma bikes are completely replaced by the bikes in this list long term. I suggest always prioritising ships before bikes, though.
Please note: This is all in MY opinion. How you choose to spend your AC is, ultimately, up to you. Some people may disagree with the odd few placements but for the general player unsure as to what to do, this should be reasonably accurate from a new player perspective.
TL;DR - If you're on a budget, Daimona Lyssa II, Item Magnet and Crazy Tapper are the only bikes I would deem essential. Add Coin Detector if you intend to manually grind for lots of AC, but with dailies etc there are more ways to obtain AC for free than before.
S
Item Magnet - Useful at all stages of the game for memories, more cores, more ancient coins.
Daimona Lyssa II - All the benefits of Daimona Lyssa, plus regen. Considerably more expensive at 1333AC. Many situational benefits over DL (poison pill no damage, thanks AO iz BACK, staying alive longer by picking targets carefully in MO, thanks Frankmusik). No doubt better than Daimona Lyssa, but consider the cost difference if this is an early purchase, Daimona Lyssa is still S tier. Daimona Lyssa II does have considerably better perks than Daimona Lyssa, which is a decent advantage for most of the game.
Daimona Lyssa - Gains are great so long as you can survive the extra damage, is probably the best "I want gains" bike there is. Cheap at 400AC.
A
Crazy Tapper - Borderline essential for transposing, has limited utility after God Tier. Decent bike to ride while grinding as well, somewhat displaces Vision of Homer if you have to pick one or the other.
Coin Detector - Fantastic for AC, particularly if you are grinding out for expensive Borgen weapons.
B
Phalanx - Good damage bike. With many event gears having decent attack%, combined with berserk being so good, it's hard to recommend using this over higher tier bikes.
Vision of Homer - A solid exp bike, but simply cannot compete with berserk gains.
Ruiner - Poison is a useful exp gaining method, but it's much more effective to use the Daimona Lyssa II bike combined with pills. Cheap.
C
Apollo's Chariot - The best multi-spread bike on paper, but is still a multi-spread bike and so still is not as effective as single-focus bikes higher up in this list. The 'dusk 'til dawn' text seems to be flavour currently and does nothing. Over 2k AC cost feels pricey.
Shadow of Ares - Multi-spread bikes are simply not as effective as high single perk focused bikes.
Armament Force - HP/Atk split bike. It's limited in utility.
Drachma Boat - Has potential use pre-Light Seeker, but there is Santa Sleigh in VQM, and it's quite a lot of AC to spend when actually there are far more useful bikes to choose from.
Wrath of Homer - Slightly more useful than Armament Force, but it's just not better than Homer/Phalanx.
Turducken - Shield Wall + HP. It's better than Shield Wall, but HP as well doesn't turn this into a bike you're going to be frequently using. Has the added benefit of allowing you to store up to 20 super charges. Nice if you're already using it, but again not a reason to use it specifically.
Shield Wall - It's just got limited utility. I'm not sure where anyone would use this actively when slayer focuses on killing before you die. Gets you 100k power triumph earlier than you otherwise might. Made completely redundant by Turducken, depending on cost.
Drachma Attack - Split between drachma (not that useful a perk to ride a bike for after Light Seeker) and attack means it's not fantastic at either, average.
Touch of Asclepius - Auto HP regen has uses. Now we have Heart of Cupid, it's possibly less desirable. With Daimona Lyssa II having regen, and dying isn't really a big deal, this probably isn't a bike you'll choose to ride all that often. PEs, perhaps. It is cheap.
Tears of Eo - Same problem as Shadow of Ares.
Niche
Should be clear why most of these are niche:
Light of Theia
Words of Pasithea
Achlys Daimona
Focal Point
Bounty Tracker
Cartographer
Meat Shield
Munitions Expert - Has use in that you can build up many super charges then unleash in a flurry of damage and gains, but all that time accruing charges means you're not using a better bike instead.
D
XP Inverter - Diffuicult to maintain low health. Poison pill with ghost cloaks an option, but ghost cloaks not a realistic booster to maintain long term. Expensive.
Drachma Inverter - Difficult to maintain low health. It's just not that great, stick with Drachma Boat. Expensive.
LP Inverter - Same as other inverters.
Model S - Random in a game of grinding for consistent gains is not good.
Bellerophon - Just isn't noticeable enough, waste of a bike slot.
Insight of Perseus - Same problem as Bellerophon.
What about the bikes that cost drachma?
Check out the wiki for what these bikes do. They all cost drachma which is way less of a big deal than premium currency bikes, and feel free to buy a bike if it's going to help you, perk wise. Drachma bikes are completely replaced by the bikes in this list long term. I suggest always prioritising ships before bikes, though.