Originally Posted by
Lexi01
Frankly, I reckon if the bike is lacking front suspension it can't be referred to as a hybrid - I.e. you'd find it pretty hard to ride on all terrain. I take mine on the road for 30km to get to a nice little MTB park, flick on the front susp. then take it on single track for an hour or so then back onto the road to get home...
That, to me, is the essence of a hybrid. It goes anywhere...
Bikes such as
this are still considered MTBs, despite not having a suspension fork. So I see no reason a suspension fork should be required to call a bike a hybrid.
For me to think of a bike as a flat-bar road bike instead of a hybrid, it usually has skinny tires, same or close to the same gearing as a road bike, many of the same components as a road bike, and often a carbon fork. The
Fuji Absolute 1.0 would be a good example of this, though I still won't fault someone for calling it a hybrid.