As typical as it sounds, I was new at biking and didn't have a clue what I was looking for. I had been riding my clunky department store mountain bike for the past 5 years, in an attempt to lose some weight, so I figured anything would be an improvement. It wasn't going very well, I was discouraged often and only rode a max of 5 miles per ride on that thing. I knew I wanted something that could handle a gravel/stone trail as well as roads so a hybrid seemed to be the right fitting. I tried out many different models at my LBS and eventually narrowed it down to the urban bike I have now. If I could relive that day, I would still choose a hybrid over a road bike but rather than a urban model I would've considered the future more and went with something more performance based, but for the foreseeable future this bike is more than comfortable for up to the 50 mile rides I've taken on it and has proven to be a good asset to my newly founded healthier lifestyle.