VegasTriker

I'm surprised nobody has gotten more technical when it come to the comparison so here goes.

Road bikes are primarily intended for riding on roads and paved paths. They don't handle well off-road. The people who buy them usually buy the with the intention of going longer distances and faster. That means a lighter bike (also more $$$), narrow high pressure tires with little tread, and a more aggressive bent over riding style. So, you often see curved drop bars on road bikes. The gearing on a road bike is higher than for a mountain bike. If you look at the rear cluster on a really light road bike it has a lot of closely spaced gears but no really large gear on the cluster. Large chainring is usually 52 tooth. I can't recall seeing anyone with a road bike that has any form of suspension. Component makers like Shimano have two different component lines, one for road bikes and one for MTBs. Similar level road components are probably lighter and more expensive than the same level in the MTB category (pure speculation!).

Mountain bikes are usually equipped with wider tires with a deep knobby tread for traction in gravel and loose soil. The bars are flat and you ride in a more upright posture. The gearing is a bit lower with the largest chainring being a 48 tooth and the gears on the rear cluster are usually wider with a much lower gear for the easiest gear to pedal. You can certainly find lighter mountain bikes but not nearly as light as many road bikes.

I think the reason you are finding a lot of used MTBs versus road bikes is that the average Joe went out an bought one thinking that he just might want to go off road some time and so bought a MTB rather than a bike strictly for road use. There are just a lot more of them out there so more show up on CL. Also the person buying a road bike was probably a more dedicated rider and bought a more expensive road bike so the ones that come up for sale tend to be more expensive.

Garfield Cat

A hybrid that you might consider is the Specialized Sirrus, often called a "fitness bike". You want some fitness and not particularly any high speed racing rig? But want to get into shape ?

Specialized Bicycle Components

ksisler

Bob; Got to think through this; At this stage you have been out of the saddle for a long time. During that gap both your body, your mind and the bikes being build have changed a LOT. My recommendation would be to hit craigslist and look for a clean non-suspended Trek hybrid/MTB in the $100 range (tons available). Put on 1.5" road tires and ride it a lot for about a year or two. After that you will know your mind and bikes a lots better and your body will have advised you what it is newly capable of. Sell the Trek for $125 and buy a nice bike that works for you. Any good Specialized or Trek or Giant focused local bike shop (or Amazon or bikedirect.com) can fit you up nicely.

Hope that helps.
/K

linnefaulk

Remember the days when we only had to choose between a 10-speed and a 3-speed?

chasm54

Hybrids have nothing to recommend them, in my view. They do nothing very well.

badger1

crazyb

They are good for riding around the neighborhood or shorter trips, any bike out there has a purpose for somebody.

browngw 

I'm sorry to see this thread has fallen down to the level of putting down hybrids and suggesting they are good only for short trips and neighbour rides. My Giant has taken me on many multi-day treks and tours including the GAP in Penn. It still does Port Dover to Brantford rail trails, 100km return, on a regular basis.
Don't get your exercise by jumping on bandwagons and jumping to conclusions. Hybrids are popular because they are the middle of the road useful machines that people expect they should be.
Maybe its time to start calling them simply "bicycles", and all the others special names.

Gerryattrick

The op must be more confused than ever by now. At the end of the day you can get good or bad, relatively heavy or light Road/MTB/Hybrid bikes.

As a returner to cycling there are many good, light "hybrid" bikes that are suited perfectly for long road rides. A good example, although by no means the only one, is the Sirrus mentioned above. Some of these bikes are verging on road touring bike designs, but with flat bars and a more upright riding position. The main thing you have to decide is whether you prefer drop or flat bars.

One thing I would agree with though is that you don't need any suspension or big knobbly tyres if you ride on paved roads, MUPs, or compacted trails such as forest fire roads. It just adds weight and uses up energy for no obvious benefit.

Don't worry about the category, just choose the bike.

Sixty Fiver

One should realize that while the sales of higher end mountain bikes and road bikes have been flat or sagging that the sale of hybrids and city bicycles have been steady and improving... the majority of folks don't want to smash rocks or break speed records.

A comfortable riding position and the capability to ride streets, paths, and a little trail here and there is a good thing.

My friend is riding her Specialized Sirrus hybrid 220 km this weekend... on the road.

If it was me I'd be riding my road bike or perhaps one of my touring bikes which are well designed for this kind of distance but that is just me.

Mountain bikes saved the bicycle industry in the mid eighties and nineties... hybrid and city bikes have done the same in the 00's.

Sixty Fiver

Road bike:



Mountain bike (hard tail):

fietsbob

note the poster has no Idea where they are , so their opinion is vaporous.

NB if shopping craig's List , Not only do you have to know where you are , but have to know where the person listing the bike for sale is, to go look at it.

K100Fran 

I'll second this advice. It's a sound plan that keeps costs at a minimum. You'll have tons of options after you decide how and what you like best about riding.

linnefaulk

It was the 7 day trip up the west coast of Michigan that made me think I might be better off with a road bike. Though after a 17 year absence from biking, the first bike I got running was my Trek 820.

LesterOfPuppets

But what happens if, while he's at Walmart, he picks up a GMC Denali road bike, then picks up an XC MTB that's 10 lbs lighter than that at the LBS. Could get confusing

OldsCOOL

Walmart always has room for another confused human wandering the aisles.

NVanHiker

Road bikes tend not to accept full fenders, which makes them not very suitable for touring and commuting here in the Pacific Northwest. They also tend not to have room for 28mm tires, which greatly extend the types of surfaces you can ride on.

OldsCOOL

I have a good friend that has converted his MTB for road use though I dont know for sure what he has done to it. He has lighted it up quite a bit. When he travels, the bike and parts box goes with him.

OldsCOOL

A typical study on compromise. Reminds me of the Amphicar that was both car and boat that was not good at either.

chasm54

Yeah. On the other hand, I was probably overstating my case. There's no single role that a hybrid is best at, but they're a perfectly sensible option for a lot of people. And if I think back to when I was a kid (mountain bikes hadn't been invented) I suppose one could argue that all the flat-bar bikes we then rode would now be described as hybrids of one sort or another. Back then we just called them bikes. Drop bar bikes weren't road bikes, they were racers.

Jaeger99

+1. Bazillion.

DnvrFox

My wife loves her hybrid (Trek). She started learning to ride on a mtn bike at 60yo (about 16 years ago), then tried a faster Cannondale R300 for 600 miles - she hated every minute as she felt unstable and not in control, then went to the hybrid, which she rides now for short rides. It serves her purposes well, which are exercise and enjoyment.

Retro Grouch 

I'm going to disagree with that strongly.

Take a look at my avatar. While talking with another recumbent rider on the Katy Trail, he looked at my bike and said "You've got hybrid tires on that!" Well yes I do. I live about 2 miles from the Katy Trail so I ride it quite a bit. When I built my recumbent I decided on the middle width slick tires to ride roads and trails equally well because that's what I do. On my last group ride, a mix of country roads, some chip and seal, and crushed limestone trails, some riders asked how my recumbent handled when we hit the gravel. "It handled just fine, thank you, I designed it to transition from pavement to chip and seal to gravel and back because that's how I ride."

The OP's original query was "road bike or mountain bike?" My reply is you don't have to pick. Bikes are commercially available today that have been designed to handle virtually any surface you can imagine. The only tricks are knowing where you want to ride and ability to pay the price. If you can only imagine bicycling on smooth roads or rocky singletrack, maybe a dedicated road or mountain bike is right for you. For the kind of riding that I do today, a more versatile bike is far better suited than either one.

Gerryattrick

Technology/design improvements have made and are continuing to make too strict definition and pigeon-holing of bikes made on old thinking redundant IMO.

At the extremes definitions are probably clear but in between there's so much crossover.

LesterOfPuppets

Yeah, we're up to, what, 6 different kinds of mtbs, 4 road sub-genres, at least 3 hybrid types...