When I was growing up, buying a bicycle was easy. All bikes were pretty much the same, after all. Sure, there were BMX bikes and other specialized bicycles, but in general most bikes were just, well, bikes. There was no such thing as a hybrid bike, a mountain bike, or a road bike – at least not as far as any of us were aware of. Nowadays, however, everything is so specialized. You are supposed to get a road bicycle for going around town, and a mountain bicycle if you want to go on some serious trails. Fortunately, there is a solution – something that is much like the bikes that we all grew up with. This solution is the hybrid bicycle.
From the name, you would expect hybrid bicycles to be extremely specialized. This is not the case. There is no such thing as a specialized hybrid bicycle. The hybrid, instead, is basically a descendant of the normal bike that we had a generation ago. You see, road bikes have light frames and thin tires. This lets them go very fast on streets, but it doesn't allow them to go off road at all. Mountain bikes, on the other hand, have big fat tires and fat, reinforced frames. Unfortunately, for normal street riding they are slow and cumbersome. A hybrid bicycle is the best compromise you can get. Although some serious biking enthusiasts insist on specializing, this is nonsense. If you use your bike for just wandering around your area, you don't really need a road bike or a mountain bike. With a hybrid bicycle, you can ride on the streets and do some light off-road riding. Perfect for that trip to the supermarket with a shortcut through the park!
Of course, just because a hybrid bicycle is a compromise, all around bike, it doesn't mean that it is necessarily cheap and low quality. As a matter of fact, hybrid bikes come in all levels. There are beginner ones that are best described as humble, straightforward bikes that will get you from here to there. There are also high-tech ones with lighter frames, stronger forks, better components, and a longer lifespan. A lot of people think that, since the bike represents an investment in transportation, they should buy the most expensive one available. This attitude is complete nonsense. If all you want to do is cruise around the neighborhood, there is no need to spend more than two-hundred bucks.
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