A close relative to the road bike guide on this site, this explainer is meant to guide you through the process of researching your first hybrid bike purchase. It assumes little to no knowledge of the bike market or bike mechanics, and tends toward the ‘overview’ side more than the ‘in-depth analysis’ side of things.

In early 2020, I published the road bike guide as a means of writing down the information I use to answer friends’ questions about what they might want to look for in a road bike. Since then, most of these questions from friends have veered into hybrid territory. Since the hybrid market is a little more diverse than the road market tends to be, I conducted a survey of 285 hybrid models across 19 manufacturers to find out what the trends were so I could speak to them with slightly more confidence. If you’re interested in the underlying research, the data itself and information about how I gathered it can be found in the hybrid market spreadsheet explainer.

Am I in the right place?

As with the road guide, we’ll start with the question of whether you might have a different bike type in mind. Hybrids go by many names - city, commuter, fitness, and about a half-dozen others - but generally they’re the kind of bike you picture when someone says “do you want to go on a bike ride to the park with me?”

Hybrids are popular for a good reason, and it’s moderately silly to say you should consider starting out with a heavy-duty downhill mountain bike. But going forward, I’m not going to be covering cargo bikes or electric bikes, so now’s probably a good time to consider whether you might like one of those. The main concepts below should still apply if you do, but you’ll want to look for cargo- or electric-specific options if that’s where your heart lies.

We also won’t talk about anything with drop bars here (the kind of handlebars you’d usually find on a road bike), so if you’re interested in things that apply to that sphere you might want to read parts of the road bike guide, specifically the Geometry section.

Now that I’m done persuading you not to read this explainer, we can consider why you might want to stick around. Like I said above, hybrids go by many names, and that’s because they can serve many purposes. My hybrid is a commuter and an errand-runner, and served me well on many a trip to the grocery store when I was in college. Some people are more trail-focused with theirs, and ride the less technical local mountain bike paths. Others start their journey into road biking on a hybrid, going progressively longer distances and exploring the land around them. A hybrid’s a solid foundation for a love of cycling, and while I’ll touch on various decisions you might want to make for a specific ride type, keep in mind that a good, solid hybrid will be far more than a one-trick pony.

And the obligatory plug here for your local bike shop. While there are definitely some shops that suck for any of a variety of reasons, most are awesome and full of people who love bikes and want to help you find a bike you love. They’ll usually be happy to talk about component choices and can often pull tester components like saddles for you to try out. If you’re researching bikes, please check if there’s a local bike shop you can support through your purchase.

Overview

I mentioned in the preamble to this that the hybrid market is diverse. In the road bike arena, most models are equipped with a single line of components, where hybrids tend to mix and match. Road bikes also tend to stick with either Shimano or SRAM as their component manufacturers, which means comparing across brands is easier than with hybrids that also throw in microSHIFT and Suntour. All of this diversity can be overwhelming, but it also presents the opportunity for more models to exist competitively in the space. Therefore, as long as you know a little bit about what you’re looking for, you’re actually reasonably well-off in terms of choice.

So in this explainer we’ll go through all of the decision points you might consider when choosing a hybrid for the first time. We’ll go in a vague order from foundational all the way to accessories, and explore what the various components mean and how to differentiate between them. Feel free to skip around, I think this might still be useful piecemeal.

Our topics will be as follows:

• Frame materials
• Suspension
• Sizing
• Drivetrains and groupsets
• Budget
• Wheels and tires
• Saddles, carrying bags, and accessories
• Brands and bike shop choice
• Use cases
• Other resources

One of the best ways to get a feel for what kind of bike you’ll want is to ride some bikes. If you happen to have a local bike shop you like nearby, they might let you spin around the block on some of their models. Or if a friend has a bike, perhaps you can take it out for an afternoon. While I genuinely hope the information here saves you some stress down the road, there’s simply no substitute for feeling something out yourself.

Frame materials

The material out of which a bike is made determines not only how heavy it is, but how it feels handling on the road or trail. In the hybrid market these days, the choice for frame materials is steel, aluminum, and carbon, with aluminum being by far the most popular offering.

Steel - decent at reducing road vibrations. Heavier than aluminum or carbon, and usually less expensive.

Aluminum - in the middle in terms of weight, vibration reduction, and cost. Many models mix a carbon fork with an aluminum frame for shock absorption while keeping the price down. On the other hand, at the low end you see steel forks with aluminum frames, which reduces cost even more while maintaining some of the relative lightness of an aluminum frame.

Carbon - top of the line. Excellent vibration reduction, light as a feather, but extremely expensive (a cost premium of very roughly $500 US over an aluminum frame).

[Note: we’re playing fast and loose with ‘frame’ here. Technically, the frame is all of the tubing except the seatpost holding your saddle and the front bit that goes from your handlebars to the center of your front wheel (the fork). So the frame proper is just the two triangles. All of the above things together, plus the headset that holds your handlebars to the rest of it, is the ‘frameset.’]

If you’re looking at a used carbon bike, take it to a mechanic to get checked out. Tiny cracks in carbon are sometimes difficult to spot. I’ve heard word that newer carbon is less prone to catastrophic failures when it’s damaged, but I’m still wary (possibly to my detriment). I will try to be impartial with these sections as much as possible, but it doesn’t typically seem like carbon’s worth it in a hybrid unless you’re specifically looking to limit weight at all costs. If so, perhaps maybe look into carbon road bikes, as well, and replace the drop handlebars with flat bars if you’d like.

Suspension

One very interesting choice you get to make when buying a hybrid is whether you would like a model with front suspension or without. Front suspension is the chunky-looking fork you see on the front of most mountain bikes, and it helps deaden any residual vibration in the road or trail.

Suspension forks don’t necessarily come at a super high premium - you see a large concentration of models in the $500-650 US price bracket, which is reasonable in this market. And for certain styles of riding, like trails and poorly-paved roads, the extra smoothness is usually appreciated. However, the significant reduction in the bumpiness of the ride comes at the price of weight. A bike with front suspension will weigh noticeably more than a similar bike without, which is extra weight you’ll have to lug up hills or lift onto a bike rack.

Sizing

Much of the market uses a small-medium-large sizing chart rather than the road-standard centimeter top tube measurement. This is usually accompanied by a rough height guide, so a person who is 5’3” like me would typically be sorted into an extra-small or a small depending on the manufacturer. While you’re unlikely to change from being a small in one brand to an extra-large in another, it’s important to reference the size charts of whatever line you’re considering.

Here’s the size chart from Liv for reference:

For people who are between sizes or on the cusp, going with the size larger will stretch you out a little more, giving you a more aerodynamic experience but feeling like driving a U-Haul instead of a normal car (albeit to a much, much smaller extent). On the other hand, going a size smaller puts you in a more upright position, which is sometimes more comfortable but sacrifices speed in certain situations. However, that assumes you fit what the manufacturer thinks is the ‘standard’ geometry. Some people (like me) are proportioned in a way that makes a smaller frame more comfortable, while others find themselves on frames significantly larger than those recommended based on their height.

This is one of the main areas where visiting a physical store or riding someone else’s bike will help you decide what feels most comfortable to you. I always tell people that if I consulted the size chart on Cannondale’s website when buying my road bike I’d be on a 51 instead of a 44, and that has a clear parallel in hybrid-land.

We should also take this opportunity to talk about women’s-specific frames. While manufacturers as a very broad statement are phasing out women’s-specific branding, you’ll still find a few holdouts who market certain models as designed for women. There are many options for low-entry-height models, and it looks like those are thankfully here to stay, but unnecessary gendering seems to be on its way out. Hopefully this leads to more people feeling comfortable buying the bike that best suits their physical needs rather than the one that is marketed toward them. If you are looking for a bike with an easier step height, one that doesn’t take as much balance to mount and is more forgiving if you need to stand over it, look for words like low-entry, mid-step, or step-through.

Drivetrains and groupsets

Your drivetrain will be the componentry that directly affects the energy transfer between your feet and the wheels. The larger term “groupset” covers that plus all of the rest of the components, the majority of which are as follows:

Brakes - typically either rim brakes that squeeze the rim of your wheel to brake, or disc brakes, which pinch a disc at the center of your wheel. Disc brakes tend to offer greater stopping power and excel in wet conditions, but for riders who don’t descend steep hills or live in super wet climates I wouldn’t worry too much about going rim (which is cheaper). Hydraulic disc in particular may need some upkeep occasionally, I believe, but I don’t ride disc so I would consult other resources on this if that’s a concern
Shifters - the things you press or turn to change gears
Front derailleur - if you have more than one gear in the front next to your pedals, this is what physically moves the chain to change gears in the front
Bottom bracket - attaches your crank arms (that you turn using the pedals) to the bike frame
Crankset - the full set of front gears, including the crank arms and chainrings (the actual gears that spin). In the UK, a “chainset.”
Rear derailleur - the part that physically moves the chain to change gears at the back
Chain - goes between the front and back chainrings/cassette, makes the physical connection that lets you convert your energy into the bike moving forward. The part that wears out the fastest (arguably except brake pads), but also easy to replace, even by yourself, using only a single inexpensive tool
Cassette - the stack of gears on the rear wheel. The more of these there are, the more choice you get in your gearing, which will mean less situations where you’re stuck in a gear that feels slightly too easy or slightly too hard

A note on gearing: I’ll be talking about bikes with number-by-number systems, so 1x7, 3x9, etc. The first number is the number of gears in the front, the second is the number in the back. The raw number of gears isn’t the end-all-be-all of how useful those gears are going to be, but typically a 1x system below $600 or so will not get you a great range. That means you might be stuck without an easy enough gear to get up the hill with your groceries, or without one hard enough to prevent ‘spinning out’ on descents (not such a big problem, you can coast, it’s just the principle of the thing at this point).

Groupsets are usually referred to by just the line name or by the manufacturer and line. Some common players you might see are:

Shimano Tourney
Shimano Altus
microSHIFT Advent
Shimano Acera
Shimano Alivio
Shimano Deore

This is by far not an exhaustive list, and at the higher end you’ll also see SRAM coming in as a competitor to Shimano, as well as quite a few more lines showing up. However, the groupsets in that list make up 81% of the 285 models I surveyed in my market research, so these are the ones I’d expect to keep cropping up in your search. Generally, that’s the oder of their perceived rank (microSHIFT may move up one spot for certain people, inter-manufacturer groupset ranking is extremely subjective and a good way to get kicked out of parties), with Tourney being the favorite for lower-end and Deore higher-end systems. I’d suggest you use this list less as a hard and fast rule of what is best and more as a way to compare two models you might be looking at next to each other.

In a hybrid, components are more likely to come from different lines. If you’re looking at a bike from a reputable brand (we’ll cover some below in Brands), you can trust that the components they’ve chosen will interoperate. Most manufacturers tend to upgrade the rear derailleur first, it seems, which makes sense given that you feel stickiness or lag in a rear derailleur more than you’d typically feel a bump in casette quality. If you see a Shimano Acera rear derailleur and a Tourney front derailleur, it’s not necessarily that the manufacturer is trying to screw you out of money - they might well be trying to bump up the feel of your system without raising the cost too much. That being said, some red flags would be a mix between Shimano and SRAM or a system that advertises a certain groupset in its marketing and then contains only one component from that groupset and the rest from a groupset 2 or 3 ‘tiers’ down.

There’s less of a culture of upgrading individual components in the hybrid space, but if you’re friends with your mechanic or feel like doing some DIY then you’ll probably find a compatible brake or maybe even cassette upgrade down the line. The more parts you switch out the more other parts you’ll need to change for compatibility reasons.

Budget

Of course, the largest deciding factor is often price. Hybrids tend to be more affordable than more specialised models, but there’s still a wide range of MSRPs on the market. Certain brands come in at certain price points, and we’ll talk about that in the Brands section, but here we’ll go through the more general price tiers:

Below $500 US is the entry-level marketplace. You’ll mostly see models with 1x7 or 3x7 gearing, so either one or three gears in the front and seven in the back. At this stage, a 1x system still puts you at a big disadvantage in terms of gear ratios (less of a chance you’ll have an easy gear for hills). Altus and Tourney are your main groupset choices - the main differentiator here is brake type. You’ll also see a handful of steel frames here.

$500-649 gets you into most manufacturers and gives you a much wider selection (80 models in my sample). These split between Tourney and Altus rear derailleurs, with aluminum frames in almost every model I saw and a large swath of steel forks. You’re much more likely to come across front suspension here - 43% of my sample had suspension forks. Things are more squarely in the mechanical disc market with this bracket, but you’ll still see a decent amount of rim brakes. Still stay away from 1x7 here, but there’s much more choice in that dimension too. 3x8 might be your sweet spot for gear ratio range at this price point.

$650-799 is solidly mid-tier for a hybrid bike these days. Acera is the favorite for rear derailleurs, but it only has 39% market share in my sample, with 23% using Altus. We’re well into aluminum frames, but still with steel or aluminum forks. You only get carbon forks starting at $750, and only in two of the models I saw. A lot of hydraulic disc here, but you might also prioritise 3x9 and get rim brakes.

$800-999 is what I would call the higher end for hybrids. We’ll talk about pricier options, but for me a hybrid doesn’t really make sense priced above $1000. Interestingly, Altus still captures a lot of market share here, with a wide distribution across microSHIFT Advent, Acera, Sora, and Alivio as well. Almost all of these models are aluminum frame and carbon fork, with a preference toward 2x9 gearing. At this point, you might consider 1x for the simplicity or very slightly lower maintenance cost of not having to deal with a front derailleur. It still won’t be quite the same range as a 2x or 3x system, though. I’ll note here that the road industry has shifted from 3x to 2x over the last decade or so, for nerdy reasons that are fun to research if you have the inclination. Lower-end component tiers are still catching up on that side, and 3x is still more than usable in most hybrid applications anyway. Mountain is now seeing mass uptake of 1x systems, which explains why you see a mix of all three in hybrids.

$1000-1499 is somewhat respectably high-end - some improvements and creature comforts, but not expensive enough to be truly ridiculous. You get a resurgence of steel frames, but also entirely hydraulic brakes. 105 makes an appearance in this category as a rear derailleur spec, which is the respectable low-mid-tier road groupset from Shimano. Expect something like a 2x10 or a 1x11 in this price range, with the gearing on both being respectable. There’s enough carbon forks in this category that unless you’re going higher-end steel I’d really expect that carbon fork to make a good difference on an aluminum frame.

$1500 and above surpasses the point of ridiculousness. As a first-time hybrid bike, I would recommend not looking above $1500. However, you do get full carbon frames here, plus a lot more 105 and a SRAM Apex model from BMC, which has a different style of shifting that might be more comfortable to learn now if you plan to transition to mountain biking (SRAM being still I believe the preferred mountain groupset manufacturer).

In every price point you of course also have the ability to look at the used market. I don’t tend to see as much turnover in hybrids as I do with road bikes on secondary markets, but I’d go local first to check. Pinkbike may or may not have what you’re looking for, it tends to focus on mid- to high-end mountain bikes; Craigslist has a wider reach but less consistent pricing and bike knowledge; eBay is not a great choice for reasons of not being able to inspect a bike before it ships, but if you find someone local that could be a great option. College campuses with large cycling populations sometimes sell the bikes they seize for being parked illegally for too long or something. Building your own bike is less popular with hybrids than it is with road bikes, but if you’re up for it there are resources in the ‘outside resources’ section at the bottom.

Wheels and tires

Tire size is perhaps one of the most diverse areas of the hybrid market. From 28mm to 47mm road tires to mountain sizing, there’s a large breadth of options, and they’re moderately customisable after the fact should your riding habits change.

Generally, a smaller tire will get you a faster, more aggressive ride. These tires, at the 28mm mark, are typically meant to be pumped to around 80-100 psi and ridden on paved roads in good conditions.

As you get to the 47mm side of road tires (usually marketed as ‘commuter’ tires), you see tire pressure start to decrease and ride surfaces become more bumpy and less paved. This sacrifices speed and weight, but gives you more flexibility in terrain. Larger road tires also give you more maneuverability in descents, which may or may not be of concern to you.

On the mountain side, you get tire sizes that are measured in inches, from 1.95” (around 49mm) to 2.5”. Mountain tires tend to be more forgiving of terrain, slower, sometimes easier to wear if you take them on paved roads, but significantly more puncture-resistant due to the more knobby profiles. While I’ve definitely ridden my road bike on mountain bike territory, mountain bikes with mountain tires make the experience much more pleasant (in some ways; the adventure on a road bike is pleasant in itself usually)

Stock tires are very much replaceable, and manufacturers should give you a range for what your fork can clear and what your rim can hold. This won’t be the full 28-47 range, but should cover some variation if you want to experiment with a different size down the road. However, you won’t be able to easily swap road and mountain tires.

You also won’t be able to swap wheel sizes easily. The road standard is 700c, which pairs with the 28mm-47mm road tires, but mountain tires only come on mountain wheels, which are 26”, 27.5” (also called 650b), and 29”. Confusingly, 650 has both a ‘b’ and a ‘c’ standard - 650b is the mountain one and 650c is the road one. I would honestly stay away from 650c road tires, they’re a standard that I haven’t seen in real life outside of juniors bikes, so the chance that you’ll run across someone who has a spare tube for your flat would be slim.

Saddles, carrying bags, and accessories

Common wisdom is to save part of your budget for accessories and peripherals. Bikes are meant to be enjoyable with just the bike and no other fancy parts, but if you’d like to consider some fancy parts:

Saddles - your stock saddle will likely be comfortable enough, but if you’d like to upgrade you should really go feel some in person. Very many bike shops have tester programs where you can try out a couple of saddles and see what feels best to you. In any case, you’ll probably have a two-week adaptation period to your stock saddle at first, that’s just your sit bones adjusting.

Bike shoes and pedals - bike shoes and pedals are more efficient than the flat pedals that come with most new bikes. However, they’re by far not necessary. There’s an adjustment period to clipping in and out of the pedals, and the expense is generally only worth it if you really need those gainz going up hills.

Bar grips and gloves - if you’re having hand or shoulder pain that you can reasonably assume is caused by road vibrations, comfortable squishy bar grips might be a good place to start. Gloves are also useful for dampening vibration, just look for the ones with gel pads. Fun side benefit of gloves is that your hands stay warm in the winter and don’t get sunburnt in the summer!

Saddlebags and panniers - saddlebags live under your saddle and are a good way to bring along a spare tube and some basic tools. Panniers install on a rack, typically over your rear wheel, and are great as grocery bags or if you have a lot to lug around. Backpacks are also a good choice, but be careful that yours isn’t so high it hits the back of your helmet.

Bike shorts - these are padded shorts that cushion your sit bones when you ride. If you spend a significant amount of time in the saddle, bike shorts are typically a good investment. You don’t have to go all-in on fancy jerseys and bibs if you don’t want to, and many companies now make bike shorts that are hard to distinguish from regular shorts if you’re into the stealth cycling look.

Cycling computers - a cycling computer (sometimes known by the brand name Garmin even when the specific unit is not a Garmin-brand computer) might be useful if you need to access route maps while riding, or if you have a heart rate monitor or cadence sensor you’d like to pair. A smartphone app like Strava or MapMyRide can give you basic stats like speed and track your route by phone GPS, so that might be a good test of whether you need a cycling computer or whether your phone can handle your use case.

Lights - this one’s pretty straightforward. Cycling-specific lights exist for both your handlebars and seatpost, but flashlights strapped down well also work. Check your state/local laws, since some require a specific amount, intensity, or color of light if you’re riding past sundown or before dawn.

Sunglasses - even when it’s not sunny out, sunglasses are great for keeping bugs out of your eyes and generally helping protect your eye area.

Non-negotiable: wear a helmet.

You must wear a helmet. There is no excuse not to wear a helmet. Helmet hair, heat, dorkiness, general nonchalance are not good reasons to avoid helmets. Please wear a helmet. Helmets are good.

Genuinely, though, when looking for a helmet stick to a recognisable brand (Bell, Giro, Specialised, Bontrager, Kona, Smith are good places to start but that list is not exhaustive). If you find a MIPS option in your price range then that’s a good bet, since MIPS has been proven to help reduce the severity of some head injuries during crashes.

Brands and bike shop choice

[Full disclosure, these next two paragraphs are copied from the road bike guide]

Your choice of bike will largely be limited by where you buy it. If there is a local bike shop in your area, check it out. If you like it, support them by buying your bike there. They’ll often be able to give you a slight discount off MSRP, and you’ll help support valuable community infrastructure.

Bike shops will often be limited to only a couple of brands of bike, so that’ll narrow down your choices. Otherwise, you can look at buying online. Wiggle and Ribble are two UK bike shops that deliver to the US, and Tommaso does online sales as well.

For my market sample, I looked at:

Liv/Giant - Liv started as the women’s-specific arm of Giant
Specialized - a big-name brand with many options
Cannondale - another big-name brand, the most options of the ones I looked at
Trek - big-name brand, also a big player in the space
Marin - mountain-focused
Jamis - lower-end
Raleigh - lower-end
Fuji - solid lower-end
Bianchi - high-end
Tommaso - online-direct
Felt - niche
BMC - high-end
Diamondback - go-to lower-end
Ribble - UK online-direct
Kona - mountain-focused
Giordano - lower-end
Canyon - high-end
Surly - cargo- and adventure-focused

Use cases

Below are a few models you might look at depending on your use case. I’m not necessarily heavily recommending any of them, but they’re what I found interesting out of my list.

Light city riding, commuting, not too hilly, low maintenance
Marin Kentfield 2 or Kentfield 2 ST - $550 - a 1x system means one less major component (front derailleur) to worry about for maintenance

Grocery store runs or hilly streets
Kona Dew Plus - $750 - very nice low gear ratio for pulling weight or going uphill, plus mounts for a rear rack and hydraulic disc brakes for good stopping power even under load
Liv Alight 3 DD Disc and Giant Escape 3 Disc - $470 for model year 2020 - a lower price point with many of the same plus sides. Rear rack mounts, good low range in gearing

Forays into mountain biking
Marin San Anselmo DS1 - $530 - front suspension, great gear ratio range for the price, hydraulic disc for control and stopping power on descents
Raleigh Route 3 - $830 - also front suspension, excellent gear ratio range, hydraulic disc, step up in terms of front derailleur choice

Sporty bikes for exercising in the city or on paved trails
Marin Terra Linda 2 - $600 - aluminum frame and fork, good component tier for the price, but without a front suspension fork (which saves weight)
Trek FX 4 Disc - $1000 - aluminum frame with carbon fork for vibration dampening, modern 1x system

Commuter bikes for campus
Fuji Absolute 2.1 - $450 - solid, no-frills commuter that wouldn’t be really flashy on a campus bike rack
Jamis Trail XR - $400 - also a robust all-rounder at a low price point

Robust bikes for heavier riders (hat tip to the BikeForums Clydesdale/Athena subforum)
Giant Escape 2 Disc - $580 - claimed weight limit of 300lb, wheel swap for slightly sturdier wheels may be possible
Trek Verve 2 Disc - $660 - claimed weight limit of 300lb, stock 45mm tires, adjustable stem for height manipulation

Other resources

Shimano guide for maintaining disc brakes
REI advice on frame materials
BikeRadar on gearing (broad range of topics)