Originally Posted by corwin1968

I would recommend looking at "flat bar road bikes" rather than "hybrids". I know both fall into the hybrid category but I think the flat bar road bikes will become a category of their own. I'm 100 pounds heavier than you and I know I would not like a typical hybrid (very upright riding position, one or more suspension components, huge range of gearing, wide cushy seat, etc....). For me, when I'm on a bicycle I want to go fast. I know that's a very relative term for a guy my size but why ride something that is pretty much guaranteed to keep me at a slower pace? My solution was to build up a flat bar road bike and to set it up right on the margin between comfort & speed. Bascially, it's a skinny a seat, as low a riding position and as little suspension...actually none....as I can stand while still allowing me to ride my desired distance/time.

I've been riding off and on since 1995 and have a fair idea what I want so I'm building up a 1995 hybrid to be exactly what I want. Some changes I made include thinner, high performance tires, lower handlebars (still seat height), a new fork to decrease trail and make the bike have quicker handling, custom hand-built wheels to handle my weight and an extremely tight cassette for very small gear jumps to allow for fine tuning my cadence. I'm about 75% done and so far the bike is easily living up to my expectations.

Any of the new flat-bar road bikes could achieve the same thing by simply swapping out the tires and cassettes, things an LBS would probably do at a discounted rate at the time of bicycle purchase. You would end up with a comfortable but still relatively fast bike that you would probably love to ride.

The most important thing is to test ride anything before you buy it. If the LBS can't make it comfortable during your test ride, it may never be comfortable.

SlimRider and I seem to give very similar advice in cases like this but he's much more familiar with what's available out there. I'm mainly a Trek guy and I'm familiar with James Coda's only because they are practically the only modern cro-moly performance hybrid out there, which is my preferred ride.