Originally Posted by
Fajah
Originally Posted by CS1
You sound like you might want a cyclocross bike, as was mentioned earlier.
Right now, my goal is to put some miles on, get back into riding shape, and educate myself. In addition to the great info provided in this thread, I've been gathering all sorts of info from this Forum in general. If I was just joining my friends on the weekends to ride, there would be no question that a pure road bike would be my first choice. However, I've been putting on allot of "city miles" and for the most part, the roads are brutal. I work from home so commuting doesn't play any part of it and I have no interest on anything remotely considered "off road".
That being said, there are attributes of a road bike that I would want combined with some level of "insulation" from the bumps and jolts one would experience riding on city roads.
CS1 is right; a cyclocross bike gives most of the advantages of both bike types as long as you're ok with drops. A crosser would have no problem in keeping up with a road bike in any except in something like a criterion race where razor sharp handling is crucial, but with the right tyres "insulates" well enough for off roading. Crossers often ridden by professionals as road racing bikes when they're riding on less manicured stages.