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BUYER'S GUIDE

8 of the best 2021 new-generation hybrids — and why your next bike should be one of them

No longer dull, hybrid 2.0 bikes combine practicality and speed

Hybrids have been around since the 1980s, but in the last few years a distinctly modern version has emerged. Here’s why your next bike should be a hybrid 2.0.

  • Hybrid bikes combine some of the features of road bikes and mountain bikes, hence the name

  • The bikes we call hybrid 2.0 take disc brakes from mountain bikes and compact double-chainring gear systems from sporty road bikes

  • The result is bikes that are quick and fun, but still comfortable; ideal for the streets or the lanes

  • For round-town use, budget for a rack and mudguards too; these bikes almost always come 'stripped down'

  • Prices start around £400

8 of the best hybrid 2.0 bikes

The bikes known as hybrids combine road bike size 700C wheels with mountain bike brakes and gears. They appeared not long after mountain bikes became popular in the 1980s, providing riders who didn’t want to ride off-road with the other advantages of mountain bikes: upright position, powerful brakes, and wide gear range.

Hybrids have long been the best-selling bike type in the UK, and they’ve developed along with changes in the bikes that supply their components. In the last few years, with compact chainsets dominating on road bikes, and disk brakes providing reliable, powerful and weatherproof stopping for mountain bikes, we’ve seen a new generation of hybrids develop: hybrid 2.0, if you like.

Kinesis Tripster ACE - drive train.jpg

Compact chainsets are good for hybrids because they can provide a wide gear range without the complication of an extra chainring, especially when combined with the rear sprocket sets intended for mountain bikes. There are still plenty of hybrids on offer with triple chainsets, but they’re now an unnecessary complication, even more so than for most road bikes.

Disc brakes are the development that really ushered in hybrid 2.0. Since hybrids get used around town a lot, they need brakes that are affected as little as possible by the weather, and immune to the effects of a wheel getting dented or knocked out of true.

Kinesis Tripster ACE - rear disc brake

Those are the big advantages of disc brakes, and there’s another bonus too. I see an awful lot of bikes with very badly set-up rim brakes, and in particular V-brakes that are flapping around with the cable unconnected; closing them is awkward and people just give up. Discs have their issues too, but at least if you get the wheel into place, they work.

What are hybrids good for?

Their upright riding position and good brakes makes hybrids ideal for short trips round town. That doesn’t just mean commuting, which actually accounts for a minority of short trips, but also general getting around, visiting friends, going to the pub or the shops and like that.

With a rack and especially with mudguards a hybrid is practical, sensibly-priced general transportation. A few hundred quid for a decent hybrid — less with a Cycle To Work scheme deal — pays for itself in a just a few months of not driving or using public transport.

But hybrids aren’t just about practical cycling. They’re great for unhurried country lane pootling. The upright riding position lets you sit up and enjoy the view and the medium-width tyres let you explore dirt roads and tracks as well a poorly-maintained back lanes.

If you’re accustomed to speeding through the countryside with your head down and bum up, a hybrid is an altogether more relaxing ride, but still capable of covering distance. And yes, you can ride poor roads and a bit of dirt on your regular road bike, but a hybrid frees you from constantly scanning for every rock and pothole.

Eight great hybrid 2.0 bikes

Even within the hybrid 2.0 spec of double chainset and disc brakes there’s a lot of variation, along a spectrum from upright and cruisy to low-slung and speedy. Here are a few we like.

Carrera Subway All Weather — £430

2020 Carrera Subway All Weather

Here's an eminently practical example of hybrid 2.0, especially if you plan to ride through the winter. The all-weather edition of Halfords' popular Carrera Subway comes with mudguards, lights, reflective decals and heated grips, a feature we're not aware of being offered by any other bike maker. Now, that may be because it's a gimmick, but considering the rest of the spec here is very decent for the money, it's a gimmick we'd be willing to take a chance on. Oh, and the brakes are Clarks Clout hydraulic discs, considered in the mountain bike world to be the best budget stoppers you can buy.

Triban RC500 Flat Bar Road Bike — £649.99

Triban RC500 flat bar

The flat bar bike in Decathlon's Triban RC range is a great example of hybrid 2.0. The riding position is fairly upright for a cruisy ride even with drop bars; with flats it's perfect for unhurried country lane exploring or the office run. There's plenty of space for mudguards, and you could easily go up a tyre size or two as well.

Boardman HYB 8.6 2021 — £550

2021 Boardman Hyb 8.6

Flat-bar bikes have always been a mainstay of the Boardman range, and the latest selection includes this great-value runabout. Shimano Acera mountain bike gears provide a wide range with a bottom ratio that should get you up the steepest urban hills even if you're laden with shopping. Tektro hydraulic brakes bring it to a halt.

Cube SL Road Race 2022 — £1,350

2022 Cube SL Road Race

Here's a go-faster hybrid that will still take bad roads and trails in its stride thanks to its 40mm Schwalbe G-One Allround tyres. Hung on the lightweight aluminium frame are a set of Tektro hydraulic discs and Shimano GRX 22-speed gears with an 11-34 cassette for a wide gear range. It's a bit short of features and extras, but there are mounts for rack and eyelets, so you can fit them without too much faff.

Genesis Croix De Fer 10 Flat Bar 2021 — £1,249.99

2021 Genesis Croix De Fer 10 Flat Bar

The Ridgeback/Genesis bike family has always excelled at practical bikes and the Croix De Fer 10 Flat Bar carries that tradition into hybrid 2.0 territory with an 11-34 cassette for a very wide gear range that'll get you up just about anything in the UK. There are mounts for a rack and mudguards (and just about anything else you can imagine), so you can set it up for touring as well as round town use.

Cannondale Women's Quick Disc 1 2021 — £1,200

2020 Cannondale Quick 1 Womens hybrid

A bike with an upright riding position doesn't need a women's version as much as a drop-bar bike, but it's nice to get components like an appropriate saddle as part of the package, without having to get the shop to swap them over.

There's a men's version too, for the same price.

Merida Speeder 900 2022 — £1,450

2022 Merida Speeder 900

A flat bar bike called Speeder — well, it's almost mandatory that it'l be hybrid 2.0. And this is what we find. The Speeder 900 has Shimano's excellent second-tier Ultegra gears and hydraulic disc brakes. It rolls on quick but comfortable Maxxis Detonator 32mm tyres and it's very much a fast flat-bar bike. In his review of the Speeder 900, Matt Lamy said: "The sheer speed and efficiency lurking within the Speeder 900 is hard to ignore. This is a very fast bike."

Specialized Sirrus 4.0 Disc — £1,499

2021 Specialized Sirrus 4.0

Quite possibly the ultimate example of hybrid 2.0, the Sirrus 4.0 has a carbon fibre frame, making for a light and lively ride, and Trek's IsoSpeed decoupler, which isolates the saddle from bumps by detaching the top of the seat tube from the seatstays and top tube.

Explore the complete archive of reviews of urban and hybrid bikes on road.cc

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John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.

He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.

Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.

John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.

He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.

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42 comments

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E6toSE3 | 2 years ago
0 likes

Orbea Car-Pe bought a few weeks ago.
   Gave away my metal bikes in second lockdown after I'd had massive heart attack with 3 resusitations on front garden paving in April-2020. Neither the first-generation with V-brakes Specialized Tricross nor my beloved red steel Langster were suitable for hilly south east London post heart attack.
   Kept looking for used bikes I could work on but nothing available that wouldn't cost over £200 on cables, housings, tyres, tubes, rimtape, cassette, bottom bracket, saddle, etc. No new bikes at bomb up and down Shooters Hill and lock to metal posts prices felt right for me.
   Popped into a new shop on industrial estate behind laminate flooring supplier that was why I was on the spot in North Wales when visiting family and just because can't pass a bike shop. Mumbled something about what I'd been looking for without expecting anything in a mountain bike region. Assistant suggested the above mentioned Orbea. Rode 5 metres on it and bang! Perfect!. £579.
   700C * 38mm wheels and tyres. 7-speed Tourney (single chainring, disk brakes) except for cranks. Later added Bontrager mudguards and Boardman flat pedals. Gearing perfect for around here (OK, my base strength and fitness is much higher than most people). Wheels with fat tyres ideal for our potholed roads and bridlepaths.
   Frame is stunning - taut, lively, probably not for a cycling newbie - wheel & tyre mix puts the saddle at tiptoe height off the ground. Could happily buy another with Shimano 105 hydraulic as gravel and fast tourer. Cheapest bike I've ridden in nearly 50 years and I love it! Brakes were too soft and Shimano manual says this is deliberate to prevent rub. Tightened them up, no rub, excellent responsive brakes. Whole package is best of everything I've tried including Boardman. Glad I waited instead of getting something that 'would do' 

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tomascjenkins | 2 years ago
1 like

Would make more sense to start afresh and leave all these old comments on the old article about old hybrids, and have this article as a new 2021 article about 2021 hybrid model bikes. After all that's what its about. Might also not appear to be a recyled piece.

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Jim-Newbury | 3 years ago
2 likes

Although I can see this was recently updated, it seems to follow a very narrow understanding of 'hybrid'. Not one of these bikes has a suspension fork. And why limit them all to a double-chainring when there are some exciting single setups?

Regularly travelling miles on towpaths -- think roots, compacted earth embedded with flint, grassy stretches, patches of gravel -- I consider good suspension a necessity, but a mountain bike simply over the top.

So, nothing here for me!

 

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d_c_h_w | 3 years ago
6 likes

"Hybrids have been around since the 1980s...."

This article has been around since the 1980s (nearly), and most of the bikes referenced in the comments section are long gone from the original  (and updated) article. 

Are hybrid bikes not worthy of a  'fresh' acrticle at some point?

 

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Zigster | 3 years ago
1 like

I've got a Pinncacle Lithium which is awesome.  I was thinking seriously about a gravel bike but, with some WTB Riddlers, the Lithium does the job just as well and for a fraction of the price.  The only other modification I've made is to add "inner" bar ends which are more comfortable for road riding.

I still have several other bikes, but the Lithium is a great all rounder and very easy to live with for day to day riding.

I am half thinking about swapping to a 1x set up but I suspect I'm overthinking it and I should just stick with the bog standard triple which gives me a huge range, albeit not quite enough at the top end.

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ktache | 4 years ago
3 likes

I found V brakes to be incredibly easy to work on.   Cantilevers can be a proper nightmare, and require a lot more finesing and adjustment.  Some people are not that mechanically competent, and if they cannot even hook up their V brakes, think what happens when their disks go iffy.

And cheap disks will go wrong wrong very quickly.

Avatar
E6toSE3 replied to ktache | 2 years ago
2 likes

Agreed. V brakes easy but need checking every month. Serviced many friends' and neighbours' V brakes - new cables, housings, pads, and, most of all, simply spinning the adjustment nuts at the brake lever and pulling cable about 1cm through the fixing at the brake. Cable stretch and pad wear leads to loosening in the hooks then to popping out. Maybe 3 minutes to turn death trap into safe bike. 

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Miller | 4 years ago
0 likes

Yes, discs especially hydro are good for hybrids. Whereas v-brakes are the absolute worst, as mentioned in the article. My kids were messing around with two neighbouring kids the other day, and those kids asked me to look at their bikes. Both bikes had one completely unhooked v-brake.

V-brakes only work well with frequent maintenance with the end result that on unloved bikes they very soon competely cease to work.

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E6toSE3 replied to Miller | 2 years ago
1 like

Implies parents couldn't care less about their children. Bought bikes, forgot about them. Harsh reality of family life nowadays. And they will squawk "I love my kids" and smash into anyone who hints at criticism no matter how politely suggested

Avatar
handlebarcam | 4 years ago
4 likes

Hybrids!

Huh, yeah!

Good God y'all!

What are they good for?

Well, urban riding, mostly. Short commutes and carrying a bit of shopping, if you fit a rack.

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Marco Novelli | 5 years ago
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Marco Novelli | 5 years ago
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Marco Novelli | 5 years ago
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Marco Novelli | 5 years ago
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Marco Novelli | 5 years ago
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this is the final final comment!

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Marco Novelli | 5 years ago
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This is a final comment!

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Marco Novelli | 5 years ago
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Marco Novelli | 5 years ago
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Hello. I like my moto!

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Miller | 5 years ago
5 likes

All these hybrids still with double chainsets, what's that about. I'm not massively into the 1-x thing but a commuting hybrid is really the ideal vehicle for the simplicity of a single chainring drivetrain. As obliquely alluded to in the article, no-one can be bothered doing much maintenance on a bike for office/shops/pub so anything that keeps it simple is to be welcomed.

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BehindTheBikesheds | 5 years ago
0 likes

And still worse than 10 years ago for same money, latest crop are low specced fat bloaters, specialized have done the full carbon hybrid long before.

A Globe Pro 2007, rrp £799, 2kg lighter than the Cube SL and the Cannondale 'quick' which was given only 3.5 stars and weighed a ridiculous 23lb according to Steve Worland

The 2007 spec shames that of the so called hybrid 2.0 

Specialized A1 Premium Aluminium trekking design frame, fully manipulated tubing, FACT carbon seat stays w/ Zertz inserts, fender and rack braze-ons
Specialized FACT carbon fork, Zertz inserts
Specialized OS carbon XC rise bar
Shimano M-761 Deore XT rear derailleur

Shimano SL-780 XT
Specialized Globe rims, double wall w/ machine sidewalls and eyelets
Specialized Pavé seatpost, FACT carbon w/ Zertz inserts

Brakes Avid SD-7R

 

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fukawitribe replied to BehindTheBikesheds | 5 years ago
0 likes
BehindTheBikesheds wrote:

And still worse than 10 years ago for same money, latest crop are low specced fat bloaters, specialized have done the full carbon hybrid long before.

A Globe Pro 2007, rrp £799, 2kg lighter than the Cube SL and the Cannondale 'quick' which was given only 3.5 stars and weighed a ridiculous 23lb according to Steve Worland

The Globe Pro looks like a good bike - very nice do-it-all at 9kg if it was - but if I was planning more road based and not going more off-road/camping/bike-packing i'd probably go for the Cube SL myself.. looks cracking, decent spec, M315s and the Globe is (was)  >25% more expensive. Each to their own

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BehindTheBikesheds replied to fukawitribe | 5 years ago
0 likes
fukawitribe wrote:
BehindTheBikesheds wrote:

And still worse than 10 years ago for same money, latest crop are low specced fat bloaters, specialized have done the full carbon hybrid long before.

A Globe Pro 2007, rrp £799, 2kg lighter than the Cube SL and the Cannondale 'quick' which was given only 3.5 stars and weighed a ridiculous 23lb according to Steve Worland

The Globe Pro looks like a good bike - very nice do-it-all at 9kg if it was - but if I was planning more road based and not going more off-road/camping/bike-packing i'd probably go for the Cube SL myself.. looks cracking, decent spec, M315s and the Globe is (was)  >25% more expensive. Each to their own

The top spec Globe RRP was the same as the Cube SL, Evans ended up flogging them for around £550, for XT level plus carbon post, S-Works OS bars, carbon forks and stays, basically massively greater value even taking inflation into account. I bought a 50 mile used minter for £240 in 2008.

More road based, well the 'pro' is a 130mm OLN frame, I've gone climbing in the Alps, commuted, toured, audax and done fast rides at the weekend in all sorts of conditions, the limiting factor is the rider plus tyre/wheel choice, certainly not the frameset.

The versatility of the frame pursuaded me to find another (Although it's just the expert) and I converted it to drops. If I could only have one bike this would be it. It isn't much to look at but it handles great and has more flexibility in use than all the hybrids here and pretty much all the gravel bikes you'll find in the shops.

I just see what's on show with the hybrid 2.0 tag as retrograde to what we've had before, even the Cannondale carbon is a porker, Spesh did their Sirrus Carbon Pro Ltd back in 2008, I bought a NOS 2009 version with V pegs last year (the earlier models had caliper mounts IIRC),  these were made of FACT 9M, a 2-300g sacrifice in weight over the road going carbon layup but a far more robust frameset. I've just built it up and for £800 I've got a sub 8kg hybrid that makes the Cannondale look like a rip off

 

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fukawitribe replied to BehindTheBikesheds | 5 years ago
1 like
BehindTheBikesheds wrote:

 

The top spec Globe RRP was the same as the Cube SL, Evans ended up flogging them for around £550, for XT level plus carbon post, S-Works OS bars, carbon forks and stays means massively greater value even taking inflation nto account.

If it was £ 799 in 2007 then that's about £ 1,100 now. It has some great parts on there for sure, in particular the mechs, and if they're worth the extra for you then great - and some aren't so brilliant (Speed Dials vs M315s - nice but nowhere near as good IMO) but "massively greater" ?... sounds rather Trump-esque ...

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jarderich | 5 years ago
2 likes

I had a Boardman Hybrid Comp for several years but had to replace the drivetrain twice because of wear. This wasn't the fault of the bike or the components, but a combination of a rather crappy commute and myself perhaps not being as attentive as I could be .

However, when I replaced the Boardman a couple of years back I got a Genesis Day One with an 8 speed Alfine hub which has proven far more suited to the rigours of my back-roads commute. Granted, getting the rear wheel out to fix a flat isn't straightforward, so I converted to tubeless last Autumn and now run Clement Strada USH's. So far so good.

When the time comes I would definitely look for another hub-geared commuter. Yes there's a weight penaly compared to rigs with derailleur gears, but in my experience the pro's (ease of use, less maintenance, lower running costs) far outweigh the cons.

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Eton Rifle | 6 years ago
0 likes

I have a Specialized Crosstrail Elite for my short daily commute and it has been perfect for urban cycling.  As the article says, upright riding position gives superb visibility, flat bars give great comtrol, especially at low speed, good gear range to get moving quickly and keep up with the traffic, disc brakes stop me on a sixpence etc.

I'm fairly new to cycling (as an adult, anyway) and although I now have two other bikes (a Vitus Zenium and a Dawes Galaxy) there's something about the Spesh that just feels 'ride-able'.  It may be because I simply use it more often than the other two and am more familiar with it but a hybrid is a great 'go to' bike and I love its versatility.

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Geraldaut | 6 years ago
0 likes

Ha! I have a Specialise Globe with Nexus gears for communting and hauling around the kids (used to have one seat in front and another in the back). These days I just have a dutch seat for kids up to 32kg in the back. The bike weighs now 20 kgs. That is a real training bike at my commute every day!

With mudguards, full chain guard, big bag in front, 42 mm tyres and this 5kg seat in the back feels like a truck. On weekends I then feel like flying on my 10 kg Gravel bike...

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ri9rashed | 6 years ago
0 likes

Few months past I was confused when I started for my office. I saw some of my colleagues came to office riding bicycle. It looked like fashion. When I got a motivational mail from one of our colleagues, it became clear to me. It was a part of an exercise and a comfort journey to the nearby places.

I decided to buy a bicycle, but a question arose where could I buy my bike and what type it would be.

One of my colleagues suggested for hybrid bikes. I didn't have direct knowledge about bikes. Finally, I got a hybrid bike "Schwinn Discover Hybrid Bike" for me. At first, I was amused that I have a bike at all. But afterward, I was very much pleased riding the bike. It has SR Suntour suspension fork with spring system which always supports me from heavy stress.

Not only that it has Promax alloy linear pull brakes, a strong braking system that enables to stop the bike instantly.

So I'm so happy for the hybrid bikes.

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Mungecrundle | 6 years ago
0 likes

I managed to kill my first set of brake pads (in 15 years of using disc brakes) just a couple of weekends back. It was sunny so I decided to do my post winter strip down on my mtb / commuter. I have always taken a somewhat cavalier attitude to the brake pads themselves, just throw them in the degreaser with everything else, wash them off in soapy water and refit. Occasionaly I have had to work them over with a scouring pad or a bit of rough wet and dry, same for the discs to remove any glazing.

This time however they refused to work properly and started to howl like Justin Bieber with his testicles in a vice and when I took them out the surface had glazed after only a few rides. I guess I must have really contaminated them in the dirty degreaser. But as they were pretty much worn out I replaced them with these cheapo Clarks pads from Amazon.

Clarks Organic Disc Brake Pads for Shimano Deore Br-M515/M475/M525/M465/M495, Tektro Auriga Comp./Dracom Moto Aquila/HDC-300/Mota 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B005PVLIJQ/ref=pe_1909131_77697001_tnp_email...

I figured at this price I could afford to give them a go and chuck them if they were no good.

Have to say that so far they bedded in very quickly, are utterly silent and they even came with their own retainer / spring which appears to be a little bit more powerful than the original at pushing them back from the disc.

I'm no expert, but my understanding was that brakes only howl when something in the system is able to resonate. Assuming that the problem is not a contaminated disc / pad interface, a bit of copper slip grease between the piston and the back of the disc pad is supposed to be very effective, though obviously use sparingly to prevent contamination of the braking surface.

Discs are perfect for urban commuting, I like to think that I can pretty much keep up with the flow of traffic, and as a result if all the other vehicles are able to stop on a dime, then I need to be able to do so as well, in all weathers.

Avatar
IanEdward | 6 years ago
1 like
Quote:

Disc brakes are the development that really ushered in hybrid 2.0. Since hybrids get used around town a lot, they need brakes that are affected as little as possible by the weather, and immune to the effects of a wheel getting dented or knocked out of true.

I'm beginning to suspect that for a lot of people, disc brakes are fundamentally UN-suited to town and commute use, especially when it's wet.

I've just spent £20 on one set of SRAM sintered pads to see if they offer any improvement on the stock pads that came with my mountainbike (a Trek Superfly, which converted into a fantastic long low and fast commuter incidentally). Currently the braking in the wet is screechy, howly and juddery. The mechanics in the local shop tried all the usual excuses (contaminated? nope. Glazed? nope. out of adjustment? nope) before shrugging their shoulders and admitting that 50% of their working day now seems to be devoted to trying to de-squeek disc brakes.

I think someone needs to develop a system that still works in cold, wet conditions with infrequent stops from slow speed, as I think most disc brakes still hark back to the downhill mountainbike days and are developed for scrubbing off lots of speed in short bursts.

Perhaps these new pads will prove me wrong, fingers crossed!

Avatar
dobbo996 replied to IanEdward | 4 years ago
1 like
IanEdward wrote:
Quote:

Disc brakes are the development that really ushered in hybrid 2.0. Since hybrids get used around town a lot, they need brakes that are affected as little as possible by the weather, and immune to the effects of a wheel getting dented or knocked out of true.

I'm beginning to suspect that for a lot of people, disc brakes are fundamentally UN-suited to town and commute use, especially when it's wet.

I've just spent £20 on one set of SRAM sintered pads to see if they offer any improvement on the stock pads that came with my mountainbike (a Trek Superfly, which converted into a fantastic long low and fast commuter incidentally). Currently the braking in the wet is screechy, howly and juddery. The mechanics in the local shop tried all the usual excuses (contaminated? nope. Glazed? nope. out of adjustment? nope) before shrugging their shoulders and admitting that 50% of their working day now seems to be devoted to trying to de-squeek disc brakes.

I think someone needs to develop a system that still works in cold, wet conditions with infrequent stops from slow speed, as I think most disc brakes still hark back to the downhill mountainbike days and are developed for scrubbing off lots of speed in short bursts.

Perhaps these new pads will prove me wrong, fingers crossed!

Funny how my disc brakes work effectively and silently in all conditions. The only sound I get is the 'tinkling' from the drilled front disc when the brake is applied (motorcycle disc brakes do this too). I like a lot of front brake, probably because of my motorcycling background, which is why my Cube commuter runs a 203mm disc.  Stops on a sixpence.   

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