Hybrid Shmybrid

The White Pine Trail (now the "Fred Meijer White Pine Trail") literature describes it as being perfect for "hybrid" bikes.

What do they mean by that? Simply that tires should be at least 35mm? Surely it doesn't matter what kind of handlebars you have. On a converted rail bed, it doesn't even matter what gears you have, since it's all flat.

So why not just say "35mm or wider tires"? Why the "hybrid" label (which makes people with non-"hybrids" feel like they can't ride it)? Because we love labels, and because we deal in extremes. "Road" bikes have teeny tiny skinny little 21mm tires, and "mountain" bikes have big fat knobby 50mm tires. Therefore, a bike with 35mm tires must be called something else. Hence the term "hybrid". OK, a hybrid has 700c wheels. (Unless it has 650B wheels, which most--other than Rivendell's--don't.)

It makes "hybrids" seem like oddball bikes, not quite this and not quite that, unable to make up their minds what they're good for. Bikes for amateurs.

But if you hang out around Grant Peterson (or his site or catalogs) long enough, you realize that a bike that can only take 21 or 23mm tires is ridiculous. A decent, useful bike should be able to take 35mm tires, as all hybrids do.

But doesn't hybrid also mean not-quite-straight handlebars? Well, sure, but any bike can have any handlebars, so that's a largely meaningless distinction. A bike is a frame and components. The components are completely interchangeable. (Well, mostly interchangeable, depending on how the frame is set up and what braze-ons it has.)

What else does hybrid mean? Maybe a slightly longer frame, or maybe not. It's never discussed as a feature (even though longer frames are more comfortable to ride). Probably nice low gears, but all bikes should have nice low gears. That's swap-outable, too.

It should be easy to turn any bike into a "hybrid" by putting on 35 or 37mm tires and upright handlebars, perhaps a 24 tooth small chain wheel. Put on 28mm tires and drop bars, and it becomes a "road" bike. Of course, there's no reason not to have drop bars on a hybrid. (Or, to be complete, upright bars on a "road" bike.)

But I get annoyed by labels. Either your frame will take 35mm tires or it won't. Either it has beefy tubes, or it doesn't. Either it has long chain stays, or it doesn't. Either it's big enough (allowing sanely high handlebars), or it isn't. Seems like those are the differences, the unchangeables, in a bike. Everything else is details.

OK, OK. Overall frame geometry differs, but that's not necessarily a hybrid vs. road thing. The package of components on a "hybrid" is usually pretty useful. So the idea is right: a bike that is comfortable to ride and usable under a variety of conditions. I have trouble with that being considered the exception, a "hybrid" of two "real" bikes that are, in fact, of only limited usefulness.

Enough. No one cared in the first place. But my next bike is going to be a mixte (low top bar) with Albatross (swept back upright) bars and 37mm tires. Hybrid? Hoo-boy, you betcha.