Originally Posted by
a1penguin
+1 It may depend on what you consider a "long ride". If it's more than 10 miles, drop bars will be more comfortable and the more aero riding position will give you a faster ride. I read a number of posts where people starting out purchase a hybrid and six months later are looking for a road bike. There are people who take their hybrids on longer rides, but most people use road bikes for road riding.
Yeah I guess it's all relative. Having not ridden a bike for exercise in probably 10 years I look at a 10 mile R/T ride and consider that a long ride right now though I could see how that balloons to 13 miles then 15 miles then 20 miles rather easily if you're having fun, so I'm sure my definition of a "long(er)" ride will change over time. The hybrid I am thinking of buying has flat bars now though the shop has photos of the bike with drop bars and they say that many people prefer doing that if they're riding long(er) distances. So, if the flat bars end up being less than ideal it's nice to know that it's easy to swap bars out and make the switch. The CX bike could, presumably, do that just as well switching to flat bars but I don't imagine many people make that switch over going from flat bars to drop on a hybrid.
Here's the page showing the bike converted to drop bars with the hydro brakes swapped out for Avid BB-7's
http://www.joe-bike.com/commuter-bikes/norco/