Originally Posted by
balindamood
While I agree with this designation for anything that has been introduced in the last 10 years, most major builders (Trek, Bridgestone, Jamis, Cannondale, Giant, Novara to name a few that I have seen recently) all introduced 700C hybrids about 1990 and kept pushing them til about '94 or so. These were very good bikes for a market that did not exist, and are still odd ducks (the closest modern equivilent is the Surly Crosscheck). They were basically mountain bikes designed around 700C wheels. The clearences generally are not enough to put modern 29'er tires on them, and they are generally too heavy for cyclocross (MTB tubing). I look especially for the early ones when the builders thought that people would shell out $800-$1000 for a high-end hybrid...which they foundout people wouldn't. Most of the earlier ones ('90-92 or so) had higher end butted tubing and Deore DX or higher level components. Once they pricey ones didn't move, they dropped the higher end ones and focused on the lower end of the market (which also didn't really exist in the world of $1.30/gallon gasoline), ultimately fizzling out by the mod 1990's.
Your nostalgia is showing. The early hybrids weren't all that different from today's hybrids and they suffered from the same problems. While they might be good bikes for smooth trails, they suffered when the trails turned ugly. Their larger wheels made climbing more difficult. There weren't a lot of tires wide enough to work with rough terrain so blipping rims was a constant problem. You had to run higher pressures which made riding rough terrain much more difficult especially in the era of no suspension. The tires that were available didn't have aggressive enough tread to grab the trail surface and help propel you uphill and the skinny tires didn't hold a line all that well when they encountered rocks and obstacles.
The frames were also more 'road' geometry oriented. They had steeper head angles which made them great climbers (slack angle bikes tend to have wheel flop on climbs) but when gravity took over, the rider was hanging way over the front of the bike. It made the bike much too twitchy for downhill rides. Damned things were scary! I had a 26" wheel hybrid (Specialized Rock Combo) and it was a very wild ride even with wider mountain bike tires.
The problem with them was that they were odd ducks. They were sold to people as a "do anything" bike which they might have been in the hands of someone who knew how to ride off-road. But the people who knew how to ride off-road already had mountain bikes that were up to the challenges of off-road riding. The bikes got sold to people who were newbies and a skinny tired bike in the hands of a newbie off-road is a recipe for disaster. Those who survived their first serious off-road experience with a hybrid usually didn't come back for a second ride. Or they bought
real mountain bikes and discovered the joys of off-road riding. Only a few did the latter.