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Old 04-14-11 | 04:30 PM
  #55  
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badger1
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From: Southwestern Ontario
You're wading out into some murky waters here; the whole 'hybrid' notion is really quite difficult to pin down.

The current Trek FX bikes are a good example. If your 7.5 is 60% (or more) anything, it would better be described as a "sport/light road touring bike with a horizontal top tube length [for a given size] appropriate to flat rather than drop bars". It most certainly is not 60% mountain bike. The geometry is quite typical for road tourers, for example, and the rear axle spacing is also common on full-on touring bikes.

I ride a Spec Sirrus; to me, it's a road bicycle which happens to have flat bars (my preference). It does have a top tube length appropriate for flat bars, and slightly longer chainstays than would be typical on a road racing bike (though very typical for an audax bike), and (mini) v-brakes, but otherwise ... full Apex drivetrain, road wheels, and tires. It's a road bike, but in marketing-speak often referred to as a hybrid. It is also referred to as a 'hybrid' by those who equate 'road bike' with 'road racing bicycle' (see below).

To my mind, this problem of definition arises primarily as a result of that desire to equate, or silly/snobby prejudice which equates 'road bike' with 'road racing bicycle'; to me, this simply makes no sense. A road bike is a bicycle designed, and intended, to be ridden primarily on surfaced roads. Your 7.5 is that, as is my Sirrus, as is (for example) a fully-suspended Moulton.

Some want to reserve the term 'hybrid' for a bicycle designed/intended to be ridden on mixed surfaces (paved, dirt roads), and that makes some sense to me. Not so much a function of any one or two features (drop or flat bars, axle spacing) but rather how the bike as a whole is designed and set up. Similiarly, a mountain bike is a bicycle designed, and set up, to be ridden primarily on unsurfaced/rough/singletrack terrain -- 'off-road', if you will.

Last edited by badger1; 04-14-11 at 04:37 PM.
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