After the Hybrid ...

[pooks]

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!

Our hybrids are in the living room. (The garage is filled with 20 years of other stuff, sigh.)

I bought the hybrid for the same reason as you, more or less. I knew nothing about the different bikes (still don't -- I mean what is the difference between urban, comfort and hybrid -- I thought there were three kinds -- mountain, road and hybrid). We're taking ours camping this fall and that's where I'll figure out whether we really will use them on dirt; around here there isn't any, except for the mud in the street I had to ride through a few days ago.

I have been dissatisfied with m bike almost since I got it, because of us ordering them online and not getting fitted to them. I have no idea what is right, how they're supposed to feel. A lot of guys on bikejournal talked shaft drives down, said that they were too heavy, etc. And I knew how much trouble I was having riding -- and my bike weight about 34 pounds, the tires aren't slicks or skinny and I kept thinking, I'm riding on streets, why am I making this so hard?

So the idea of getting a lighter, faster bike was very appealing.

Plus, I kept thinking about the LIVESTRONG we're riding in Austin and how that 40 miles would be easier on a road bike, so why do I have this hybrid, and this shaft drive?

HOWEVER -- while I still foresee wanting a road bike at some point in the future, as I get stronger and we approach cooler temps I realize that my struggle with riding has been as much about my lack of conditioning and inability to handle heat as it was about the bike -- actually more. Plus I'm really glad I'm not having to deal with chains and grease and stuff. The bike cost $600 which I now realize is entry-level, not expensive, and I'm coming around to the attitude that this is a pretty nice way to start riding for somebody like me with no knowledge of gears, chains, bikes, etc.

Thanks for the advice, Xeney -- I see exactly what you're saying, and am beginning to feel like even though I would like a road bike eventually, I'm now seeing that as something in the future, not as immediate as I was feeling even two weeks ago.

Once I get a road bike, I'll probably kit out the hybrid to be really more useful for shopping trips, etc.

Oh, forgot to say -- there are no bike snobs in my circle of friends. The only guy who cycles regularly rides 35-40 miles at a time, but feels like he spent a lot when he recently spent $800 on a bike.

Other than him, the others are amazed that we ride any distance that can be calculated in miles rather than blocks. (Of course, as out of shape as I am, I sometimes am amazed at the same thing.)

Edited to add: Well duh, maybe some of my doubts about the shaft drive were due to bike snobs. Heh.