After the Hybrid ...

[KnottedYet]

Talk to Andrew at Recycled Cycles! He sold me my Kona Dew!

(a hybrid, which I love and used in a triathlon, and I just bought a steel Waterford for longer rides)

[HillSlugger]

I'm riding a Raleigh C40 hybrid (see my avatar) but I'm ready to move to a road bike. When I bought it 3 years ago I was just getting back into riding after a 15+ year break. At that time I expected that I might ride a combination of paved roads and packed trails and figured a hybrid was what I wanted. Three years later, the bike has never been off the asphalt and I'm more interested in increased efficiency, etc for road riding. My needs have changed.

I've loved my hybrid but I'm ready for a new bike.

[mimitabby]

I'm riding a Raleigh C40 hybrid (see my avatar) but I'm ready to move to a road bike. When I bought it 3 years ago I was just getting back into riding after a 15+ year break. At that time I expected that I might ride a combination of paved roads and packed trails and figured a hybrid was what I wanted. Three years later, the bike has never been off the asphalt and I'm more interested in increased efficiency, etc for road riding. My needs have changed.

I've loved my hybrid but I'm ready for a new bike.

uhoh.. you're in dangerous territory.. have fun trying to find the perfect bike for you!

[CycleChic06]

So my story just sounds like everyone else's. I started on my Jamis Citizen Hybrid that I've had for about 5 or 6 years. But I used to just ride around for fun. When I started riding more seriously, longer distances, trying to get my speed up, I decided it was time to switch to a road bike. It was the best decision ever, I bought a Specialized Dolce Elite. I kept my hybrid, though I don't ride it, but my friends use it when I drag them out on short rides.

I'm riding the NYC Bike Tour in a few weeks and am deciding if I want to ride my road bike on the city streets, but the thought of going back to my hybrid would be awful! I'm still deciding which to ride.

My road bike was one of the best purchases I've ever made!

[ChickieBabe]

I grew up riding a hybrid (several, actually), and I still own one. However, earlier this summer I did go buy an inexpensive Trek roadbike. That's not to say that I don't ride the hybrid, though. My dad and I go riding all the time on gravel back roads and rails-to-trails, where my road bike would have some trouble. Last week we actually rode over a 100 miles all on our hybrids on gravel roads.

I like the versitility of the hybrid, but I've found that my road bike feels better on the roads (duh!). Plus, I like the ability to go faster. I guess I'd say that even though I did get a road bike, if I hadn't known I wanted to be mainly on the road and get involved in a club, I would have stayed with a hybrid. They're solid bikes.

[farrellcollie]

I started on a hybrid and commuted for several years - a raleigh. I just bought a road bike this year. Still use the hybrid to commute.

[salsabike]

I also started on a hybrid, another Specialized Sirrus user, and bought a road bike, a Bianchi Eros Donna, after about a year. I was doing longer rides (e.g., 50-60 miles) and couldn't stand not being able to change hand positions on the hybrid. Love my Eros Donna no end; it's totally comfortable. And also very pretty.

[mlove]

In January I bought my Trek 7100 Hybrid. I hadn't had a bike since my cousin's hand-me-down Schwinn when I was a kid (coaster bike with balloon tires). At 54 I wasn't ready for a road bike. I didn't ride much until the end of July when I finally got a bike rack and could drive to rides (I know that sounds weird, sorry). I have put over 300 miles on the bike in 5 weeks. So next year I will, at 55, buy a road bike. I am looking at the Trek Pilot 2.1.

If my husband decides to buy a bike next year, we can ride around town on hybrids and I can ride with our local club on the road bike.

[JamamaSpoke]

I've been thinking about this thread ever since I joined (maybe a week ago). You know wondering, since most of our riding is on the road maybe we should go to road bikes. But then the other day we were riding (the hubby and I) and we took a detour into an old rock quarry that has a bunch of dirt roads. We rode for a couple of miles and found some really cool places. It got me to thinking that I do like the ability to ride on or off road on a wim....maybe a road bike in addition to the hybrid, now that's the ticket!

[xeney]

I will point out one advantage to sticking with a hybrid instead of having a specific bike dedicated to any kind of riding you might ever want to do: right now, there are five road bikes in my living room. (Plus a trainer, two repair stands, an extra wheelset, and at least a dozen discarded saddles.) There are two more broken road bikes downstairs, plus a couple of mountain bikes and two townies.

We had friends in town yesterday and we had to meet them at a restaurant because how do you invite people over when the bikes are blocking all the sofas? My husband keeps stacking bikes in front of the dogs' dishes, and the poor dogs know how much trouble they'll be in if they knock over a bike, so they just quietly starve. If we each just had a hybrid, the bikes could live in the basement and I could have a real house again.

I need to build this man a garage.

Pooks, I think that if you get to the point where you either wish you could ride faster/longer and you feel like your bike is holding you back, or find yourself avoiding rough trails just because your bike won't handle them, that is the point where you should consider adding another type of bike. Sometimes you will encounter snobbiness about hybrids, and I think it's a little unfair. When I bought mine, I had no idea what kind of riding I might want to do, so a hybrid was a good choice for me, and if I had chosen a better one I might have kept riding it forever. But even so, I had friends who were really obnoxious about my bike, who were openly snobby about it, like it wasn't a real bike. Those guys have $4,000 road bikes but they drive to places that are five blocks away. I don't think bike snobs are the people who get to decide what constitutes "real" riding!

[mlove]

I would not discourage anyone from getting a hybrid. I managed a long ride with hills, using mine yesterday. But for long rides you do work harder than riders using lighter bikes. You can put on thinner tires for longer rides and that will help.

No one has made fun of my bike. In fact, I get a lot of positive feedback on riding with the hybrid. I think bike choice is very personal and depends on where and how far you want to ride.