veganbikes

Yada yada yada

sjanzeir

Well, here's the thing. The term "happy medium" is, in itself, a nebulous one. When I bought my 2014 7.6 FX as NOS way back in 2016 (and my second, barely used 7.6 FX in late 2018,) I did so on the premise (my own, that is) that they were the closest thing to a flat-bar road bike I could get my hands on at the time. I wanted a road bike; I just didn't want the drop bars. I didn't care at all whether they had any MTB DNA left in them; the direct-pull brakes, 135mm rear hub spacing, and wide (for the time) range cassette notwithstanding. I wouldn't have cared if they called it a flat-bar road bike, a hybrid, or an MTB with road wheels - I still would've bought it because it ticked all the boxes for me. So even though the model skewed more heavily towards the road side of hybrid, it was - and still is - my happy medium. Someone else's happy medium might be more like a Trek DS type of thing; it just seems that "gravel bike" is a lot of people's happy medium, probably because the marketing spares a lot of people the trouble of actually thinking through where on the spectrum - real or imagined - their happy medium lies.

sjanzeir

Would it still be a "crossover SUV" if it had only front wheel drive and rode on low-profile, all-season tires like plenty "lifestyle" crossovers sold today do? That's a lot of semantics to unpack, none of which make any sense outside of the marketing copy.

sjanzeir

I would've loved me a dual sport type of thing. I would've added a good suspension seat post to make it perfect. But when I went to the local Trek dealer with the intention of buying one, they said I probably might reconsider if I actually sat on one. Being just 5'3"/160cm, I quickly realized that there was no way I could deal with the extremely long reach, even on the smallest-size frame! So that was that. Why Trek designed the DS like that, with a longer reach than most of their mountain bikes, is beyond me.

sjanzeir

"Cruise control is like auto pilot..."

Darth Lefty 

Mountain bikes were hybrids of BMX cruisers and touring bikes, right?

No cross pollinization from mountain bikes on this one but it ticks pretty much all the boxes

sjanzeir

I'm sure a lot of people who had more money than they knew what to do with would've bought this if it had ever gone into production...

Brocephus

I gotta disagree. I once felt this way, and i bad-mouthed hybrids for years afterwards, after helping a freind assemble a couple over-engineered clunkers he bought for he and his girlfriend back in the 90s..
But from what I've seen in recent years, the manufacturers/designers have made significant improvements on the concept, (and many of the varied sub-genres), so I've since become a fan, and own a couple myself. In fact, earlier this year I scored a deal on a minty-nice, 9 speed Giant (flat bar road bike), that has become my #1 ride for months now.

sjanzeir

Not really - they were more like hybrids of beach cruisers and insane riders.

indyfabz

I mentioned the discs.

Eric F 

Hybrid?

badger1

I share this minority (here on teh Biek Formz) taste for dual-sport types of things (stop laughing, you in the back).

I like one of the common Euro terms for these: 'cross bike' ('cross' as in cross-terrain, not cyclocross). Anyway ... I am sorely tempted by the bike linked below, especially given a recent price reduction that makes it almost affordable in $Cdn (after GST, and our bloody 13% import duty on complete bikes).

Hmmmm ... perfect for a beginner like me, who knows nothing about bikes and doesn't know any better (I've learnt this about myself while reading through this thread).
https://www.canyon.com/en-ca/hybrid-...rahmenfarbe=BK

sjanzeir

The Canyon's XS frame has a reach of 387mm - way closer to my ballpark that the 410mm of the Trek DS's S-size frame. The salesman who said I should probably sit on the DS before I decided to buy it knew what he was talking about.

Miradaman

At the end of the day, wasn't a hybrid from its inception just a modernized cruiser bike? Basically an updated Schwinn Suburban with more gears and a flatbar handlebar?

Lombard

And self-driving vehicles haven't become much better. Remember the guy who crashed his Tesla in self-driving mode while playing a video game?

sjanzeir

Well, technically, he did not crash his Tesla. He was just out minding his own business, playing a video game. It was the Tesla that went and crashed itself for no good reason

Eric F 

It all depends on who you're trying to sell it to.

In my recollection, the early hybrids sat pretty squarely between road bikes and MTBs. It was an all-around bike for the masses of recreational/occasional cyclists who weren't interested in going as fast as possible on the road, or riding extreme conditions in the dirt. The hybrid was a mediocre bicycle for mediocre riders.

sjanzeir

Who you callin' mediocre?

dedhed

Why I own one. Riding with the kids, pulling the tag along, riding around the campground when camping. Kids got older dropped 25 tires & fenders on it and used it to commute. Still ride the MUP on it sometimes or to street festivals urban stuff like that. The bike that's easiest & cheapest to replace if it got stolen

Rolla

I’d be more generous than that, given their share of the market. I see the hybrid as a less purposeful bike for those for whom the bicycle isn’t a big part of their life or identity. Y’know, like normal people lol.

Eric F 

That’s valid.

Camilo

Seems to apply to a lot of threads these days:

Leinster

The real death of the hybrid bike was the hybrid car. Suddenly the name meant something else entirely to more people. The very bike style that beginners and commuters would use, had a name that made as much sense as clipping into clipless pedals.

Reynolds 

Or using a seatpost to hold a saddle.

indyfabz

Rode across the country in '99 with a guy riding a Cannondale hybrid. He rode in sneakers. Real mountain goat. Being a runner from Leadville, CO, will do that to you.