There are, in my opinion, no best brands or best models. There is, however, poor quality and good quality. I prefer to
focus on the quality level of a bicycle, rather than its name. For example...
Many people would argue that Raleigh is a great brand - I would not. Some would swear by the Bianchi, or Peugeot, or what ever, not knowing that those are, often times, mass produced cleverly marketed bicycles.
The point is this. There is no short cut to finding out what brand is better. Nor is there a short cut to learning with model is best in a brand line-up. To me, it is all about the quality of the bicycle and that is a product of caring craftsmanship applied to high quality materials - something that does not come off of an assembly line, in my opinion.