WTB: Hybrids

[jglow]

@dkel 88045 wrote:

Well, one of those bros just bought my Trek!

Just to close the loop on this thread: Yep, I just bought dkel’s Trek! (Or as my 3 year old son called it: “motorcycle.”) I took it out for my first ride this evening, actually, and figured I should finally join the forums. Hi.

[dkel]

@jglow 88050 wrote:

Just to close the loop on this thread: Yep, I just bought dkel’s Trek! (Or as my 3 year old son called it: “motorcycle.”) I took it out for my first ride this evening, actually, and figured I should finally join the forums. Hi.

Awesome! Welcome to the forum. Be sure to tell us how things go for you in the “my morning commute” thread. You start tomorrow, right?

[jglow]

@dkel 88052 wrote:

Awesome! Welcome to the forum. Be sure to tell us how things go for you in the “my morning commute” thread. You start tomorrow, right?

Work is taking me to NYC tomorrow and I don’t think I’m quite up for that big of a commute yet. :p

[mstone]

There’s a difference between a “road bike” and a “racing bike”. I use a drop bar road bike for commuting, errands, light offroad, touring, towing the kid, and anything that doesn’t involve an unimproved trail on the side of a mountain. Fit properly, weight shouldn’t be heavy on the hands and 37mm tires just soak up rough surfaces.

I don’t own a racing bike.

[hozn]

I tend to agree with cvcalhoun; the idea of a road bike being more comfortable than a more upright bike is still a little counter-intuitive to me. Perhaps as distance drastically increases, though Rod should really weigh in, since AFAIK he rides more than anyone else on the board and it is on a flat-bar hybrid/mtb. Now for many/most people physical comfort or convenience isn’t the only factor; they want it to be easy/er to get up to speed, climb hills, etc. And for that lightweight bikes with skinnier tires that put you in a more aerodynamic position are a huge benefit. Certainly that is why I ride what resembles a road bike (a cx bike) on my commute (and why I wouldn’t put a rack/paniers/basket/etc. on it). I ride for the sake of riding more than the sake of doing anything useful by bike; it’s convenient that I can also get to work while also going for a bike ride, but that’s really of secondary importance to the bike ride itself. In my experience road bike geometry requires some adaptation of the body; it’s not a very normal position, as I’m sure dkel is experiencing. Different muscles need to be strengthened, flexibility needs to be increased, etc. Riding a road bike is IMO about deciding the bike is a primary player in the equation. A hybrid (or non-agressive mtb) is much more natural for the normal human to just get on and ride.

[mstone]

@hozn 88062 wrote:

In my experience road bike geometry requires some adaptation of the body; it’s not a very normal position, as I’m sure dkel is experiencing. Different muscles need to be strengthened, flexibility needs to be increased, etc. Riding a road bike is IMO about deciding the bike is a primary player in the equation. A hybrid (or non-agressive mtb) is much more natural for the normal human to just get on and ride.

Not really–an upright also needs body adaptation; there is no exercise in the world that you can just go full bore on without building up muscles. A person can hop on a beach cruiser for the first time in years and go down the boardwalk for a mile but they can’t hop on the same bike and ride a century just because they’re in a “comfortable upright position”. (What the cruiser will almost certainly do better is let them toodle along at walking pace while looking around, because of the lower cg.) Being comfortable on the bike comes from fit and time, not from some magic in the category the bike is sitting in on the vendor web site. I see people riding department store MTBs with the saddle slammed and their knees sticking out and I guess they find that ok, but if I rode that way for 40 miles I would hurt. What is really unnatural isn’t drop bars, it’s spending hours with your arms out in front of you and your hands in a non-neutral position on a flat handlebar. Interestingly, I hear a good number of complaints from people riding flat bar bikes that their hands hurt after long rides, but they assume that it’s just them and that drop bars would only make things worse. Sure, there are some who will suffer anything in pursuit of a couple MPH, but there are a heck of a lot of people riding drop bar bikes for purely practical reasons. When I’m in my sandals and Hawaiian shirt on my way to the library on my 40lb drop-bar everything bike it isn’t because I’m wanting to be aero and fast, it’s because it’s comfortable and it works. I think the handlebars are kinda like the seat: someone will knock on the brooks, say “it’s not squishy enough” and not understand that after a couple thousand miles it’s like sitting in a barcalounger. Anyway, I encourage people to try out a good drop bar bike if they’re looking to spend some time on a bike. Unless they’re planning to race, they should try a relaxed geometry with the top of the bars no lower than the seat. That still lets them get out of the wind a bit, gives them a bunch of hand positions, lets them keep a neutral hand position while still being able to use the brake & shift, etc. If they also want to try a more aggressive fit, great–but they shouldn’t confuse the handlebar shape with the comfort and utility of the bike.

(I’ll also note category-busters like drop bar mountain bikes, flat bar road bikes, etc., and refer to my usual rant against trying to have a meaningful conversation about things like “hybrid bike” or “road bike” or, worst of all, “cross bike”. Talk about specific bikes, or expect that the conversation will be nothing but superficial generalities with dozens of counterexamples.)

[americancyclo]

I’ve found that my wrists are more uncomfortable on my flat bar mountain bike than they are on my drop bar road bike, but that may be due to the fact that i had a professional fitting on my road bike and i’m just winging it on my mountain bike.

[Emm]

Interesting conversation…

My hybrid (trek verve 2, the one with front shocks) is a great utility bike. Good for commuting to and from work with a back rack and loaded panniers, carrying groceries, riding on some less-intense mountain bike trails with friends, etc.. What is sucks at is long rides on pavement. At around the 20-30 mile mark it’s no longer comfortable. The upright position actually begins to hurt my back and my hands. Plus, the bike doesn’t go fast, so a 30 mile ride can take me 2+ hours. This limits the number of friends who’ll go with me–my fiancee likes to ride fast on his cervelo so we cant ride together, and my hybrid owning friends won’t ride more than 5-10 miles at a time. So I ride alone, and that can be a bit boring.

Since I’ve developed the unanticipated interest in doing longer rides, I’m getting a road bike. Hopefully it’ll be set up around July 4 if I’m lucky… But the hybrid will still be my commuting bike for days I’m bringing my laptop or other supplies into work, and also my bike for going to mountain bike trails, touring the city, etc.

I think alot of it just depends on your interests, and interests evolve over time.

[DismalScientist]

@mstone 88057 wrote:

I don’t own a racing bike.

All my bikes are racing bikes. If I see a rider chugging up Rosslyn hill in full kit on a fancy plastic bike, I’m racing him. It does matter if I’m on the mountain bike with studded tires, my converted fixie, or a steel touring bike.:rolleyes:

[mstone]

@DismalScientist 88090 wrote:

All my bikes are racing bikes. If I see a rider chugging up Rosslyn hill in full kit on a fancy plastic bike, I’m racing him. It does matter if I’m on the mountain bike with studded tires, my converted fixie, or a steel touring bike.:rolleyes:

Yeah, well, I don’t really worry about other people and am just enjoying my own ride.

[dasgeh]

@jglow 88050 wrote:

Just to close the loop on this thread: Yep, I just bought dkel’s Trek! (Or as my 3 year old son called it: “motorcycle.”) I took it out for my first ride this evening, actually, and figured I should finally join the forums. Hi.

Welcome. If you’d like to start riding with your 3yo, there’s Kidical Mass Rockville this Saturday, and Kidical Mass Arlington this Sunday.

[vvill]

@cvcalhoun 88030 wrote:

I know I’m in the minority on this board, but I have never actually understood how a road bike is practical–and I’m far from a “beginner.” Some reasons:

• I bicycle at least once a week on the Georgetown Branch Trail, which is unpaved, subject to erosion, and generally not suitable for road bikes.
• I want to be able to bike with my granddaughter in her bike trailer.
• I want to carry my purse with me at all times, and be able to pick up groceries while I’m out. I keep a rack and a couple of large panniers on my bike for these purposes. (About half the weight of my bicycle come from them, and from what I keep in them.)
• I want to be able to look around at the scenery while I’m riding.
• Going slowly and looking ahead of me makes me safer.
• I want a bike sturdy enough so that I almost never have to deal with repairs. I don’t even bother to carry inner tubes with me, since it’s been years since I had a flat. Having the latest and greatest bike would be no use to me if it were broken when I needed to get somewhere. (And I don’t have the money or the storage space to keep multiple bikes as spares for this purpose.)
• My wrists are already what gives out first on a long ride. There is no way I want to be putting more of my weight on them.

I suppose if I had an interest in racing, or even long recreational rides, I might feel differently. But I use a bicycle primarily for transportation, and seldom need to go farther than my hybrid will take me. And every time I start thinking I want a road bike, I ask myself what I’d use it for–and go back to my trusty overweight hybrid.

I tend to agree, although I think a lot of manufacturers do realize this and cater for it. There’s quite a bit of crossover between CX bikes and commuter/utility bikes now, and the boom in more practical/classic looking bikes from Surly, etc. and interest in heavy Dutch style bikes shows that.

That said, in terms of practicality, an overweight bike can be a burden if you need to carry the bike on stairs, on vehicles, or say, lift it up to store it alongside 5 other bikes.
Also, a lighter more aerodynamic bike gives you the ability to commute longer distances, and over hillier terrain and in windier conditions – for my commute, a CX style bike is just about ideal. The tires and gearing can handle anything, it’s comfortable, I never get flats, and it’s almost as efficient as a modern racing/road bike. And going slower works if the infrastructure is there, but on some roads out in the ‘burbs I prefer to be able to go a little faster in the traffic flow. (If I am feeling too beat I’ll take the sidewalk, or backstreets if that’s an option.)

Interesting point about repairs. I think most decent bikes are comparably sturdy enough for general use, although I do always carry an inner tube/pump/tire levers – even though I don’t think I’ve ever got a flat on any tires > 25 mm since I started using a floor pump.

For drop bars/wrists, I’m pretty sure I weight my hands less on the dropbars than I do on my flatbar/beater MTB. Not sure if it’s geometry or what but my dropbar bikes tend to just roll straight a lot easier, so I often take a hand or two off and coast, or just lightly grip near the center of the bars.

@mstone 88071 wrote:

expect that the conversation will be nothing but superficial generalities with dozens of counterexamples.)

Welcome to the Internet.

[sethpo]

So, in summary, different bikes for different folks and different uses. Isn’t the cycling world wonderful?

Also, n+1.

[cyclingfool]

@mstone 88071 wrote:

I’ll also note category-busters like drop bar mountain bikes…

Thanks for the shout out.

[rcannon100]

@americancyclo 88074 wrote:

I’ve found that my wrists are more uncomfortable on my flat bar mountain bike than they are on my drop bar road bike, but that may be due to the fact that i had a professional fitting on my road bike and i’m just winging it on my mountain bike.

I put extensions on my flat bar. Gives me lots of different positions. In traffic when I want to be alert, on the flat bar. On the trail cruising, forward in the extension in a nice comfortable hand position that also tucks my body down just a little bit more.

[Author]

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