I started out with a front-suspension hybrid and found that at that price point, it's really not worth it. It didn't really soak up the bumps, so it was just a bunch of extra weight to push around and extra parts to maintain. Yeah, they squish down nice in the showroom, but the quick, hard bumps experienced on the road, they don't absorb at all.

Now I have two road bikes instead. Road bikes are not the delicate flowers many people would have you think. Race bikes with fancy low-weight, low-spoke count wheels, are not a good choice. But road bikes affordable by mere mortals are plenty durable.

Now in my third year car-free and commuting daily, the only thing I've done is put a flat-spot in a front wheel. I was drafting a Jetta at over 30 MPH and hit a pothole that had a nice collection of hubcaps nearby. Didn't even flat the tire. Finished the ride to work, and rode it to the LBS, then back home.

The lessons here are that road bikes are not frail, and that drafting cars before they've patched all the winter potholes is dumb.