Frankenorange
Orange 🍊 Fan
The marketing term 'Hybrid' is sensible and accurate for what alot of them are. A hybrid mix of mtb/atb and cross bikes. I guess the word is too sensible which is why it got dropped. Hybrid doesn't evoke images of teens sending it down gnarrly black runs.
Now the same bikes are called 'gravel' and alot of people who turned their noses up at hybrids and mocked them as being for pensioners to potter up and down canal paths, or take on french vineyard tours with a whole handlebar mounted array of satnav devices, are shelling out good money for the modern equivalent.
Apart from the awful bso shite that came out of catalogues alot of them were good and did a job well. The mass produced aluminium frames weren't too shabby and if you replaced the heavy basic equipment, they were often fitted with, you had a very decent bike.
There must be a whole ton of barely used hybrids languishing in the more well-to-do housing estates, around the uk, and could be had for little or no money. Apart from the commuters alot of hybrid purchases were not made by people who were ever going to pile on the miles.
Now the same bikes are called 'gravel' and alot of people who turned their noses up at hybrids and mocked them as being for pensioners to potter up and down canal paths, or take on french vineyard tours with a whole handlebar mounted array of satnav devices, are shelling out good money for the modern equivalent.
Apart from the awful bso shite that came out of catalogues alot of them were good and did a job well. The mass produced aluminium frames weren't too shabby and if you replaced the heavy basic equipment, they were often fitted with, you had a very decent bike.
There must be a whole ton of barely used hybrids languishing in the more well-to-do housing estates, around the uk, and could be had for little or no money. Apart from the commuters alot of hybrid purchases were not made by people who were ever going to pile on the miles.
