Originally Posted by
Rolla
Interesting. They call the FX Sport 4 a "fitness bike for riders who want the speed of a lightweight road bike with the comfort and control of a flat handlebar," so I guess it's a "hybrid" of a fitness bike and a flat-bar road bike.
Neither the Trek nor the Sirrus has tubeless-ready tires or wheels, so maybe that's what distinguishes them from true gravel bikes. I suspect the geometry is different as well, but I haven't bothered to compare.
IMO, all of this just further establishes that "hybrid" is an outdated term for a vague-at-best bike category.
You keep moving the goal posts. Now they have to be tubeless ready. That can be changed if desired. Or you can do tubeless the old school way.
A “gravel bike” is kind of nebulous as well. There’s racing, all road, gravel, bikepacking, etc. It’s just as open a term as “hybrid”. In fact, “hybrid” is probably a better name since gravel bikes are just road bike built to act like a 1990 mountain bike or a 1990 mountain bike modified to act like a road bike.