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road or hybrid
Hi all I am new to the site. Hello. I currently ride a careers subway 2 hybrid and to fair I have had no problems whilst commuting to work on it. But I want to start to take riding a little more seriously with regards to fitness and weight loss. So here is the deal would I be better moving to a road bike? I ask because I will be starting some longer rides soon 20 klm plus at times.
Any helpful advice would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance
Mark
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43 comments
For the record I don't think hybrids make sense either and they are nothing more than a creation of marketers.
"Fast" narrow tyres are wasted on a bike with upright position and most of 35mm ish tyres are low-end slow rollers anyway.
Comfort/city/fitness/urban bikes should be fitted with high volume tyres like Schwalbe Supermotos or even fast rolling XC tyres.
The bike in the picture is what I've been using for commuting, sportives and weekend rides for a few years. It's a perfect compromise. With the right tyres (AKA Pluma, Furious Fred or Racing Ralph (run tubeless) it's fast on the road (within 0.5mph compared to a road bike) and uber comfortable in the urban jungle (Southampton cycle network...)
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I ride a road tourer for commuting and I have a weekend road bike for fun. I also have an MTB. I don't have a hybrid. Well cos I have a specific bike for what I need to do.
But hybrids make sense for people that have one bike. You know those people that aren't cyclists but ride a bike. The hybrid is enough of a track bike to get by and enough of a road bike to commute. It's a bit of a jack of all trades really but when you just have one cheap bike to cycle on in a variety of circumstances it makes sense.
BTW marketing can be defined as finding out what people want and giving it to them. It looks like a lot of people wanted a bit of an all rounder as their bike.
Overrated? Mmm, curious choice of words. Plenty of people neither race nor go out on fast club runs (including myself for many years) and ride road bikes. Why? Well, try doing 50, 60, 70 mile runs (or even more!) on a bolt upright hybrid in windy Britain and you'll know why.
By "overrated" I meant performance gains that some people here quote. Road bikes may feel faster due to more sensitive steering, lighter weight and (too)narrow tyres at 100PSI but as I said in my previous post any rigid bike from a hybrid to a mountain bike set up correctly (aero position) and with the right tyres can be just as fast (let's not argue about fractions of a single mph) and pleasant to ride. I've done many long rides on various bikes from a 5" full susp mountain bike with locked suspension and reversed and slammed stem (it wasn't slow or uncomfortable during a 66m ride round the IOW) to a carbon road bike.
Setup and tyres are (almost) everything.
As for a "bolt upright hybrid" it's an extreme example but anyway I see too many weekend warriors on "endurance" road bikes riding in semi upright position and not using drops in strong winds... They can't go lower due to the size of their bellies, lack of flexibility and lack of a proper fit (bent back, not rotating the pelvis forward etc) so their road bikes aren't really that "fast" and comfortable after all.
Thinking on it you're right of course. A whole industry based on false ideas. How could we have all been so wrong?
Strange thing though, I know many people who have joined cycling groups or clubs on hybrids and within months ditched them for road bikes complaining that they were too slow. You would think that empirical evidence would trump anything but maybe they just hadn't thought it through properly...
That's true enough. The marketeers know the size and shape of their target market hence the evolution of the 'endurance' bike. But for a person unrestricted by that, your normal road bike will get you lower and more aero in most cases.
I haven't really read the flurry of activity above, but I can say from my own experience, moving from a Carrera Front suspension hybrid to a Specialized Roubaix, the Roubaix just keeps getting better, I have been out tonight and gone on my furthest ride, a mere 71.5 Km. I feel as fresh as a daisy and if it weren't so cold (and dark) I would have carried on further! I never felt that way after being out and about on the hybrid, it always felt like a slog, whether that was the weight of the bike or the weight of me or the stupid unlockable suspension I don't know.
I am however glad I bought the hybrid as it introduced me to cycling gently, I don't know how I'd have fared if I'd have bought a carbon Tarmac straight off?
For me only the super fit supercyclists would say "it doesn't matter what bike you have!" I have no doubt that Bradley Wiggins and the like would beat me easily if I were on the road bike and they were on the hybrid. But cycling doesn't have to be a competition you can just cycle for the fun and fitness!
Did my first end-to-end on a hybrid (10 days, but I was unavoidably delayed). Also my 2nd (a more leisurely 3 weeks). That said, my current distance bike has road geometry and I wouldn't go back. Not so much that I'm a stickler for geometry (that's another hybrid discussion); it's probably more important that it fits me so fine.
Well i have taken some of your advice and dropped my bars down slightly by moving the spacers, fitted spd's and bought some tri bars which i couldn't fit when they came due to my stem being huge so new stem and bars needed. But i did my daily commute this morning in full Lycra too and shed a massive time off my ride in. Saying that hardly any wind and traffic very light. Looking forward to see if i have such good results on ride home.
I think next big thing will be change tyres but not sure what size i can use. My rims look a lot thinner than current tyres fitted.
As a "newbie" this thread has been enlightening, I bought a Boardman Hybrid MX Sport not expecting to cover more the 10 miles per outing,but after a month I'm now covering 30+ miles per trip. I'm keen to extend my range which I now suspect will require the purchase of something better suited to the task the question is which bike to buy. I understand the concept of rigidity reduces ride comfort and this has led me to consider the Trek Domain with the decoupling thingy (I'm all about the tech) is my thought process sound? I can probably get away with spending up to £1500 before the Mrs demands a change of car, any advice would be greatly appreciated.
I heartily recommend the Specialized Roubaix Sport Triple! As I said above the furthest I have gone is only 71.5 Km, but had it not been cold and dark I could have gone on for double that easily. My only criticism of the bike is that the "sport" saddle is awfully hard, I got around that with a gel cover though! I have done 333.4 Km in the week that I have had it. It was 1400 quid on buy now twelve months interest free credit!
The man maketh the bike to be honest.
Bikes in the same price bracket are often much of a muchness. If they're made from the same material then the difference between a £1500 Specialized and a £1500 Trek is illusory. All the components will be made the same two companies (SRAM and Shimano, Campagnolo don't really start until you're north of £1500), the finishing kits will be similar, it's just the frames that will be different looking. But that's superficial, a lot of the frames will be made, to the manufacturers spec, in the same factory in the far east. So a frame manufacturer in China could be building frames for Giant, Specialized, Focus, Trek etc, etc.
Buy a road bike, get the miles in, you'll be grand.
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