Hello, everyone~! How's the Spring time going for ya?

Well, I can clearly see that I have done a terrible job in selecting the right bicycle for me; my Magna Mountain Bike is crumbling to pieces after less than a year of everyday use. I do not know bicycles and once a guy told me to dump a Magna in the garbage. The bicycle was only $80.00 so, I got what I payed for.

So, now, for $500.00, I am looking to purchase a brand new bicycle that would be best for me. I am thinking that a hybrid would be my best bet. I mainly use my bicycle for year round transportation and to get groceries.

My main thing I am hoping to hear from everyone is what is the concept behind a road bike and what is the concept behind a hybrid bike? Also, what are some tips and selecting the right bike? I am sure the lady or gentlemen in the store can help me out with that but, if anyone here could fill me in, that would be great! I am thinking of heading over to Erik's Bike Shop to find that awesome brand new bike.

Well, if anyone could be so kind to share some advice, tips, and help, I would greatly appreciate it.

Road bikes are mostly an excuse for men to shave their legs. Do you want to shave your legs? You can shave your legs and ride a hybrid but it will be harder to explain to your wife.

I have a road bike and a hybrid. They ride quite different from each other. My road bike, a Specialized Allez, has very skinny 700x23c tires and tall gears. Its drop bars allow me to get into an aero position when riding (especially in the wind). I also find I am more efficient when pedaling off the saddle (standing and pedaling). The hybrid takes the bumps of average to poor road conditions better than the road bike. While it isn't as fast, the difference is quite small for me when commuting, due to stop signs, traffic, etc. My hybrid has a flat handlebar, which helps with control, but doesn't offer as many possible positions as drop bars. Wind has a greater impact on my ride on my hybrid than on my road bike. I have a rack and fenders on my hybrid, making it an ideal commuter. I could add a rack to my road bike, but haven't found one that would go with the style of the bike.

If I could only have one of the bikes, I would probably go with the hybrid, though I really getting out on the road bike, too.

I had a good mountain bike and when I tried to ride it on the road for fitness it was a pain to keep it moving. I bought a hybred 10 days ago and have ridden 9 of those 10 days and I'm really liking it. I got a Trek FX 7.5 which goes for about $900 but a Trek FX 7.3 is pretty close to your budget number.

Check 'em out.

What he said!

No seriously ...

"a roadbike" is a very shady term and goes from cheap commuters over middle range tourers through expensive racers to extremely expensive TT'ers ... these are all "roadbikes".
What you mean is a "racebike", right?

Well let me put it like this ... unless you are averaging at least 20 mph a racebike is completely unnecessary and will not make you measurably faster for normal cycling.
I have a sporty hybrid and I average about 18 to 20 mph ... I pass 99% of the racebikes I meet along the way.
Not trying to brag just making a point.

Why do people want racebikes?

1) they think it makes them faster
2) they want what the pros have
3) they want to brag about how expensive it is

Unless you are lucky at a clearance sale you won't find a brand new racebike for $500 anyway, so hybrid it is

The original concept behind a hybrid was to create a bike that worked reasonably well on both pavement and on dirt trails. The term seems more broadly used today to incorporate flat-bar road bikes.

Some examples:

• Specialized Crosstrail: Falls towards the dirt end of the scale. Comes with wide tires and suspension fork. A good choice if you know you lean towards riding dirt.
  
• Kona Dew: Simple, no suspension, falls in the middle ground. This is the style I would recommend as a good, default choice. If you are unsure and do not know whether you want a dirt-oriented or road-oriented bike, then go with something like the Dew.
  
• Specialized Cirrus: Flat-bar road bike. Skinny tires. Good on pavement. Not meant for dirt trails.

All the various bike brands have their equivalents to the above.

Drop-bar road bikes come in different styles as well. Racing road bikes tend to put you into a low tuck. Recreational road bikes are more relaxed, putting you into a more upright, more comfortable position. Touring road bikes often come with wider tires and beefier frames to handle the added load of luggage.

For groceries and just general riding, I would look at a style similar to the Kona Dew. You can easily add fenders, and also a rack to support grocery runs.

Kona also makes a model called "The Bike" that comes with fenders and a three-speed rear hub. It's a 26 inch model that is just a basic bike. You could easily add a rack to it.

I'm picking on Kona only because I happen to know that brand's models off the top of my head. Brands like Trek, Specialized, Giant, etc., are also good and have comparable models.

4) They find the handling and comfort the best for the kind of riding they do.

A "sporty hybrid" is very different from a road bicycle (or "racebike", if you like), and not just in terms of top sustainable speed. Body position is different, handling is different, overall feel of the bike is different. One doesn't have to ride at a predetermined speed to feel this difference and to have a preference for one over the other.

If you want to go quickly and have a comfortable position on the drops and a more aero position for a headwind get a road bike. You can get ones which have a more relaxed geometry.

I started on a hybrid, found my hands hurt on flat bars, converted it to drop bars, and eventually got a road bike. The road bike was about £200 more than the hybrid but feels MUCH better, it is quicker, has better components, more comfortable etc.

So from experience I'd say go and take a decent test ride with both styles and go for the one you enjoy.

For me, owning both bikes has been a huge experience - lots of maintenance practise from upgrading my hybrid and now I'm slowly starting to realise what style of bike I want (turns out it two: a cyclocross with disc brakes, and a fixed gear road bike!).

Daven

For 200 more you should have better components indeed but that does not mean that all hybrids have lesser componentry ... it depends on the hybrid you choose.
You say it is quicker but that's probably because your hybrid isn't very sporty ... a roadbike is not quicker by default.
You say it is more comfortable but that largely depends on how comfortable your hybrid was ...
my hybrid has nice ritchey grips, bar-ends, very comfortable aerobar, front suspension for added comfort and even seat post suspension for not hurting my already very bad back.
I dare to say that a hybrid can be much more comfortable than a true raceroadbike.

People keep saying that a racebike is comfortable.
I don't at all see this.
A racebike is supposed to be light and fast ... to achieve this the racers opt to have LESS comfort.

Drop handlebars are put on hybrids and even mountainbikes btw.

Roadies walk funny and wear revealing shorts. If you want to "strut your stuff", go with the road bike!

Yep, the big cleats (at least on my road shoes) can make you walk funny. As for the shorts? There are plenty of other alternatives.

I ride both a road bike and a hybrid. Mind you, my road bike costs almost 6 times more than my hybrid but I'm actually more comfortable on my road bike. A properly fitted roadbike means that a lot of weight is taken off your hands. I ride with clipless pedals on both bikes and since riding clipless on the hybrid means MTB bike shoes, I can at least walk inside a store with them on. I can't do that with road shoes.

Comfort is a big issue with racers. The narrow saddle and the bike shorts are meant to work together and with the right saddle, there's no reason why you can't ride all day or longer.

"A properly fitted roadbike means that a lot of weight is taken off your hands."

Haha, April fools day. Good one!

"Comfort is a big issue with racers."

That's why they race on comfort bikes, sitting bolt upright on wide mattress saddles!

I even got a beard!!!!! My wife likes it!

Road bike:



Hybrid bike:



They are both very comfortable bikes and the hybrid can make some decent time but while the hybrid cruises comfortably at 30 kmh the road bike idles at 30 kmh.

The hybrid can haul stuff...



The road bike just carries me... and I don't shave my legs.

From my experience riding road and hybrid bikes both high end "expensive" and built for speed is riding a roadie is best when going for outright speed so only use that bike for riding in the hills with lots of high speed descent's with fast corners and high speed handling is needed.
It feels specifically built for this with a very racey feel to it, watching the front hub spin aswell is very mesmerizing to but thats another story.
Riding the hybrid seems best around suburbs and the city on pathways a bit of dirt "hardpack" and thats the riding I enjoy the most. There's more variety with that type of riding.
With the flat bars it has more control and comfort and with bar ends it makes a short standing sprint up a hill feel more natural I just get a higher gear stand up and really mash the peddal's.
On the road its more than capable of staying with road bikes its just up in the hills it loses out, it handles road irregularity's far better I've left roadies for dead on city link pathways because they just dont have the bike control and are to worried about damaging there bikes.
I hope I shed some light on the situation for you from my personal experience and good luck with whatever you buy.

My roadie and hybrid.
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And no I dont shave my legs either

Trying to compare a road bike to a hybrid is like trying to compare a Formula 1 car to a performance crossover vehicle or a sports car. They are two totally different kinds of bikes.

A performance bike like a Madone 6.9 or Specialized Tarmac is like a Formula 1 car. They are designed to be UCI conformant (the formula) for racing. Both are carbon fiber moncouque.

A endurance bike like a Specialized Roubaix or Giant Defy is like a car designed for the 24 hours at LeMans. Both built within a specified formula and both are carbon fiber moncouque.

A hybrid is like a performance crossover vehicle, you get great performance and you can carry your groceries home with it if you want to.

Hybrids are handy. You can still use clipless MTB pedals which means you don't have to walk around like a duck like you do with road shoes or if you don't want to, you can stick to platform pedals and wear whatever you feel like. They're great bikes for casual use which means there's no need for bike shorts. Keep riding a road bike without padded bike shorts for any distance and you will be walking funny in more ways than one.

The bike control issue with road bikes on rough pathways and roads is because of the short wheelbase and the stiffness of the bike. A crit bike with the short wheelbase would shake anybody to death on a rough road and probably cause some riders to crash on a really rough stretch . I ride an endurance road bike that is designed for racing on cobblestones and I've found the handling to be a lot better than my hybrid. If I were riding something built for crits then I can see where I could have control issues on a rough road. Don't think that roadies are afraid of damaging the bike, it's the wheels. Carbon fiber frames are very, very strong. Roadies have to be more aware of potholes. That doesn't mean to say that hybrid wheels and mountain bike wheels are bulletproof. They're not. I can show you a mountain bike rim that got bent totally out of round by a pothole.

I've passed my share of roadies on my hybrid as well but for the most part roadies really don't care. They're not interested in outrunning a hybrid when they're on a 100k training ride. They usually have specific objectives when they are riding and what you happen to be doing is no big deal to them. On the other hand, challenge a roadie on the street and you'll be seeing his/her back very quickly.

As for hill climbing ? It's no contest, I'll take my road bike anyday. I'm not a masher but a spinner when it comes to climbing hills unless it's something really steep and I'll have a lot more left in the tank on my road bike with a compact double than I do on my hybrid with a compact triple as well as tremendous acceleration once I'm at the top of the hill.

When it comes to comfort, I don't have any serious issues with either bike except that I find that I have issues with my hands going numb on the hybrid. I've got to move my hands around constantly on any flatbar bike, MTB's included to prevent that. Roadbikes have never given me problems. Most people seem to think that roadbikes are uncomfortable which is a complete myth. I'm 57 and I have no problems with riding in the drops on the road bike. The geometry of my road bike isn't as agressive as something like a crit bike but not quite as relaxed as my hybird and it's very comfortable. When you consider how much time pro riders spend in the saddle day after day, week after week, you'll find that the biggest deciding factor to the comfort on a road bike is the fit. Some stages in the Tour de France can result in a rider spending well over 6 hours in the saddle and that's only one race over a very long season.

When you buy a road bike, you pay for a good professional fitting, a good bike fitting is absolutely essential. That's not to say that a hybrid is more forgiving but if you have any comfort issues on any kind of bike, then get it fitted to you.

The wide tires of a hybrid will give you a softer ride and you have more options . If you've something like 700x35 you can go narrow for pavement like 700x28 or wider if you want to ride more on dirt. Most road bikes won't give you that option. My road bike is on 700x23's and I can go to 700x25 but probably not much wider than that.

Hybrids were designed to be versatile and they do a lot of things pretty well. You can attach fenders, you can put carriers on them, you can do all sorts of things with them. Whether it's suitable for you depends on what you want to do but I prefer to have both kinds of bike.

The hybrid is like a family crossover, my Roubaix is more like a GT prototype for Le Mans.

One more thing. I've got hair on my legs like a wookiee and I have a beard.

Today was the first really nice day of the year down here in Belgium.
22 degrees centigrade and clear sunny skies

... so I decided to take my hybrid for a spin and prove that high speeds can be achieved with a hybrid.
I used 35mm Schwalbe CX comp tyres and rode to Geraardsbergen which is exactly 10 kilometers from my house.

I averaged 35,7 km/h which is about 22.3 MPH

Not trying to brag as I'm sure there are many more able guys that can beat this without even puffing but just wanting to make a point.

As mr. Armstrong said: "It's not about the bike"

Pics or it didn't happen

[QUOTE=alanknm;12449825]

Dude I agree with some of that and totally disagree with some you should have just talked from your personal experience as I did. Some of what you say was opposing what I have found riding my bikes back to back but I dont think you read what I said properly and what you've said is not related to me.
My hybrid is no ordinary one and is comparable with almost any road bike except when traveling at 50+kph though sweeping corners and straight down hills, the narrow road bars are no comparison to wider flat bars when at lower speeds through the city dodging cars and people and narrow pathways.
All the contact points on my roadbike and hybrid are identical when I built my hybrid I paid close attention to achieving this only the bars are wider and it has bar ends this is what gives it the extra control and comfort.
My former hybrid was not the fit I liked and was part of the reason I put so much effort into my current bike.
Please dont be offended by my opposition to some of your opinions.

Thats pretty fast dude your I think I'll refit my computer I wouldent have a clue of my average speed.
I nearly bought a set of those CX comp tires but opted for some sammy slicks 35c I'm taking a chance they'll fit into to my 26er frame, planing a trip to the flinders ranges and riding some trails on them.