Hi Maryellen,

What kind of riding is your friend hoping to do? If they plan to do any technical off-road riding, the hybrid may not be for them. If they plan to do centuries or double-centuries, the hybrid may not be for them.

If they want to tool around on bike paths, do bike commuting, or do road riding up to 30ish miles and like riding in an upright position, the Trek 7700 might be the perfect bike for them.

I have bought a few bikes from Chain Reaction bike shop, which has an informative web site. They called the Trek 7700 the "Cadillac of Hybrids."

They also mentioned this about hybrids:

Hybrids used to be considered bikes that were capable of a little bit of everything, but nothing really well. Thankfully, that's changed now and hybrids have an identity of their own. They've turned into what we call "Feel no pain" bikes, with these features:

* Shorter distances from the seat to the handlebars, combined with a higher handlebar position, to give a more upright riding position.
* Suspension seatposts on most, to take the edge off the bumps.
* More comfy saddles, with softer padding and a wider profile.
* Road-bike sized wheels (700c) as opposed to Mountain-bike size (26"), for lighter weight and a better selection of tires designed for road (and bike path) use.
* Gearing more suited to the road than trail. Hybrids have similar gearing to road bikes, so you don't "run out" of your higher-speed gears when you're going downhill or have a tailwind.

These bikes are perfect for rides from around-the-block up to distances of maybe 30 miles. They're frequently used on longer rides (62-mile "metric centuries" and often times on events like the Aids or Team in Training/Leukemia Society rides), but at longer distances you need to consider whether a lighter-weight, more efficient road bike might be more appropriate.

Here's a link to their page on hybrids -- it has info about older (2002 and 2003 models), but it's still interesting.

http://www.chainreaction.com/hybrids.htm

Hope this helps!

-- Melissa