Originally Posted by
meanwhile
A "hybrid" is just a touring bike with flat handle bars and a 1980's marketing spin. Even if you narrow the definition down to require cantilever brakes, people were riding bikes a long time ago.
Don't some of the Cannondale Bad Boys sport caliper brakes with suspension forks? If those bikes aren't hybrids, nothing is.
Bikes sold as hybrids tend to be more of a mountain bike frame, with 135 rear dropout spacing, high bb and slack angles. My "flat bar road bike" is actually much more of a flat bar touring bike, with slack angles and long chainstays but also lower bottom bracket than mtb and 130mm rear spacing, fits closer to what you describe as a "hybrid" than most bikes sold as hybrids do. Some of the flat bar road bikes have tight wheelbase and steep seat tube/head tube like a crit bike. With flat bars and vee-brakes, it's a new style, but as you know, nothing is new in bicycles, they tried everything imaginable over a hundred years ago in the golden age of bicycling.