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Sep 26, 2023

The 3 Best Hybrid Bikes of 2023

Marin has recalled many of its bikes from the 2021 model year, including our top

Marin has recalled many of its bikes from the 2021 model year, including our top pick, the Fairfax 1. Not all Fairfaxes are affected: check your bike's serial number here to see if yours is included.

If you’re looking for a bike for your daily commute and for your weekend exercise, a fitness hybrid—that is, a road bike with flat handlebars—may be the right choice. Over the past three years, we’ve spent 60 hours sifting through nearly 50 options, test-ridden more than a dozen bikes, and concluded that the Marin Fairfax 1 is the best hybrid for most people. It provides a stable, comfortable ride on city streets, yet it's light and agile—and an excellent value.

Due to the coronavirus situation, some or all of our picks may be sold out. In fact, most of the bikes we mention in the Competition section are also sold out, as are higher-priced versions of our picks—that is, models that have similar frames but use fancier materials or components. (There is a nationwide bike shortage overall that has continued from the early days of the pandemic into 2021.) This made it impossible to test the newest models of most bikes head-to-head, though we were able to spend a few weeks test-riding the latest version of our top pick, which was redesigned for 2022. (Despite being labeled the 2022 model, it is scheduled to arrive at bike shops in July 2021.) Although the frame design has changed and it may not be as sprightly as it had been, the bike performs well and is even a better value than in past years, given what similar bikes now cost.

If you can't find a bike you like locally and can't wait till shops restock, we suggest looking for a used bike—we have advice on how to buy secondhand gear, including bikes, online without being scammed. Sites such as BicycleBlueBook and The Pro's Closet sell used bikes; both require sellers to provide serial numbers for the bikes. (The Pro's Closet specializes in higher-end bikes—that is, those costing at least $1,500 when new—and gives the bikes an inspection and a tune-up before selling them.) One point that we’d like to underline: No matter who or where you’re buying a used bike from, ask the seller for the bike's serial number so that you can see if the bike has been reported stolen. (Bike Index, a nationwide nonprofit registry, maintains a list of stolen bikes.) Don't help bike thieves profit from their misdeeds.

This fun-to-ride and capable commuter bike is equally comfortable on longer weekend outings—and it offers far better value than its competitors.

*At the time of publishing, the price was $500.

Our top pick, the Marin Fairfax 1, ticks most of the boxes on our hybrid-bike checklist: durable-enough components (most, though not all, are made by Shimano), a chrome-moly steel fork that's forgiving on potholes and rough city streets (and higher quality than the high-tensile steel forks used on other bikes at this price), rack and fender mounts, and hill-friendly gearing (including a rear cassette, rather than a cheaper and outdated freewheel cogset). When we first tested this bike, it earned extra credit for its well-designed aluminum frame, which provided more-agile handling and zippier acceleration than the competition. This year, Marin has revamped the frame to make the bike more stable and possibly less sprightly; we couldn't detect a difference when we rode it, but we weren't able to test it head-to-head with the competition. (We plan to do so when we can.) However, given the growing price difference between the Fairfax 1 (it's $500, the same as last year) and similarly equipped bikes from other companies, we believe it's still the best option, despite any possible downsides to the redesign. One more change we should mention: Marin has discontinued the separate Terra Linda line—which was basically the Fairfax with a lower top tube, or what is sometimes called a women's frame—and is instead selling the Marin with a step-through option at the same price. (The Terra Linda had been slightly less expensive.)

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This steel-framed bike provides a vibration-dampening ride and some nice extras—brand-name tires and sturdy pedals. But the trade-off is less maneuverability and a steepish uptick in price.

The Jamis Coda S2 is a very good option if you’re looking for the comfort of a steel frame (steel does a much better job than aluminum at dampening the vibrations caused by rough pavement) without the weight penalty that lower-priced steel frames often impose. (Such frames are often made with heavier high-tensile steel, rather than the chrome-moly that the Coda S2 has in both its frame and fork.) That means you can still carry this bike up stairs and lift it onto bus- or car-mounted bike racks. The Coda S2 even comes with well-rated Vittoria Randonneur tires—that is, tires from a "real" tire company that you can buy in a bike shop, and now in a wider and cushier size—and steel-wrapped resin pedals. (This bike is also available in a women's version, which essentially means smaller sizing and a women's-specific saddle.) The main drawbacks with this model are maneuverability—it's not quite as nimble as the other bikes we tested, which could be a function of its geometry (we’ll get into that in the How we picked and tested section)—and price. In 2018, the Coda Sport (as it used to be called) cost $530; now, the Coda S2, which has very similar components, is running in the $700-plus range.

A belt-drive bike that has an easy-to-use internally geared rear hub means less maintenance and no grease on your work clothes. You have to assemble it yourself though (or pay someone else to).

*At the time of publishing, the price was $1,300.

For commuters, belt-drive systems make a lot of sense: The belts don't wear out as quickly as chains; they don't need to be oiled, so there's less bike grease in your life and on your clothes; and the internally geared rear hubs let you change gears when you’re standing still (like at a traffic light). The downside is cost: Reliable internally geared hubs are expensive, which in turn makes bikes with belt drives pricier than our other picks. The aluminum Priority Continuum Onyx is, however, a bargain for this category, especially considering that it comes with hydraulic disc brakes, the well-respected Gates Carbon Drive belt, and an Enviolo continuous gearing rear hub, plus upgrades such as internal gear cable routing and dynamo-charged front and rear lights. (This bike does not, however, come in a step-through version.)

This fun-to-ride and capable commuter bike is equally comfortable on longer weekend outings—and it offers far better value than its competitors.

*At the time of publishing, the price was $500.

This steel-framed bike provides a vibration-dampening ride and some nice extras—brand-name tires and sturdy pedals. But the trade-off is less maneuverability and a steepish uptick in price.

A belt-drive bike that has an easy-to-use internally geared rear hub means less maintenance and no grease on your work clothes. You have to assemble it yourself though (or pay someone else to).

*At the time of publishing, the price was $1,300.

If you’d like to start regularly riding to work or school, and your ride will last half an hour or more, you’ll probably want what's often called a fitness hybrid bike, or a performance hybrid. That term gets you what is basically a road bike with flat, mountain-bike-style handlebars. A bike like this will be agile enough to maneuver around the potholes you see, tough enough to weather the ones you don't, and speedy enough that you can roll it out on the weekend to get some exercise with the family, or even join a charity ride. But it's not as twitchy, in terms of handling, as an actual drop-bar road bike would be, and, given that you’ll be sitting up rather than hunched over, it’ll be a lot more comfortable to ride. And should you get to the point where you are snagging all the local KOMs or QOMs (translation: you’ve bought a fancy road bike) or shredding the singletrack gnar (translation: you’ve bought a fancy mountain bike), you can still use your trusty hybrid as your townie bike—the one you can load down with groceries (hurray, rack mounts!) or lock up outside without too much fear of theft (hurray, low price!).

Here's what you need to make sure that you and your gear get to work while staying safe, dry, clean, and comfortable.

If you start searching online for "hybrid bikes," by the way, you’ll no doubt discover that the term covers a vast range of options. For super-short commutes—a couple of miles or so—you could get away with one of those cruiser-type "comfort hybrids," where you sit up straight in a big squishy saddle. But for anything longer, that kind of seat will soon become a literal pain in the posterior. Your sit bones, as the yoga teachers call them, need a firm base to support the rest of you. And if you’re never going to use the bike for anything other than commuting, you could get an urban or utility hybrid, which comes outfitted with integrated racks and fenders and lights. But you’ll pay more for accessories that might not suit your particular needs—and you’ll have to get another bike for your fun rides.

For the original 2017 version of this review, I interviewed mechanics and proprietors at shops specializing in commuter bikes all over the country—from Boston and Washington, DC, to New Orleans and Chicago to Minneapolis and San Francisco—who see and repair bikes that are ridden in all kinds of conditions. I also talked to bike manufacturers and component suppliers, spent multiple days surveying every booth at various bike trade shows, and, of course, checked in with everyday riders, including members of San Francisco's local bike coalition.

Over the years since, I’ve continued to test new iterations of our picks, to make sure they’ve retained the features we liked, and I’ve researched and considered new models from other manufacturers, testing those that seemed promising. In 2020, getting our hands on any bikes at all was impossible (as it was for many readers); in spring of 2021, I was able to test the latest version of our top pick, the redesigned Marin Fairfax 1, but I’ve not been able to get hold of our other picks nor of any bikes in the Competition section. Instead, I pored through their current specs and prices, comparing what you’d get for your money. (We’re hoping to resume testing once bikes become available; see What to look forward to for more details.)

Years ago, I myself started riding an eight-speed hybrid from San Francisco's Bernal Heights to my downtown office, and even after I’d switched to a road bike for a longer commute, I kept the sturdy little bike around as my city ride. I also used to work part-time at my local bike shop, where my duties included advising the shop's commuter clientele on fenders, racks, and panniers—and installing them, too.

Even before the pandemic's bike boom, the market for performance hybrids was big, and it's growing. The number of people who are riding to work is increasing: The American Community Survey, which the US Census Bureau conducts annually, tracks the estimated rate of bike commuting nationwide: In 2010, the number of workers who reported commuting by bicycle was 731,286; in 2018, that figure was 821,201, a rise of 12%.

Because it's not a niche market, though, hybrids don't attract the kind of enthusiasts who keep endless threads going on road-bike or mountain-bike forums, debating the merits and flaws of different brands and models. Magazines like Bicycling and Outside and Men's Journal will occasionally cover hybrid bikes or recommend one in the context of a larger bike roundup. Still, we dug up what reviews we could find, looking for praise and dings.

The sweet spot for a starter bike like this used to be $500. Drop much lower, and you were stuck with outmoded or truly poorly made parts that might be hard to replace once they wear out; spend more, and you can get a nicer bike, with lighter components, but that defeats the purpose of a starter bike. However, many of the $500 bikes we looked at a few years back have gone up in price, some by as much as 35% as of the spring of 2021. We did still find some hybrids from reputable manufacturers that cost $500, but almost all of those had one or more deal-breaking problems. In fact, those dealbreakers are now appearing in bikes costing as much as $600.

After seeing what's available now, consulting buying guides both online and in print (our library of more than a dozen bike-repair manuals), and interviewing commuters, bike-shop owners, and mechanics, we settled on what we’d like to see in the ideal basic hybrid-fitness bike.

Fitness-appropriate geometry: When bike people talk about "geometry," they’re talking about the angles at which the tubes that make up the bike's frame meet. Change the degrees of the angles, and you change the way the bike handles on corners and going up and down hills. The more vertical the head tube is—that's the tube connecting the handlebars to the front fork and wheel—the more quickly the bike will turn. Which sounds good, but if the bike is too responsive, it could feel squirrelly and unstable. For efficiency's sake, the design of your hybrid's frame should be closer to that of a road bike than to that of a comfort bike, or a porteur-style retro bike (the ones with swept-back handlebars and, sometimes, a front rack like the ones Parisian newsboys once used). You don't want to sit straight up, especially on a longer weekend ride. Why? You’ll have to fight the wind more if you’re sitting up, and, adds Kevin Womac of downtown Chicago's Boulevard Bikes, "If you lean over, you can use more of your core muscles to pedal, so your legs aren't getting as tired."

Flat handlebars: These are definitely more user-friendly than the drop bars you see on a road bike, and since you will be more upright, your field of vision will be broader—a plus in city traffic.

Safe, strong brakes: On a flat-bar bike like this, you’ll have a choice of traditional V brakes or disc brakes. Although mechanical (or cable-actuated) disc brakes have become common on low-priced hybrids, we don't see them as a necessity as much as a nice thing to have if you live in a place with a lot of rain and snow and hills. As Loren Copsey, co-owner of The Daily Rider in Washington, DC, said, "On these bikes you’re going to get entry-level disc brakes, which are hard to set up and hard to keep adjusted, and lower-quality pads—and they’re not necessarily even more powerful than rim brakes. So you might get more value at that price point with the one that has the V brake and the nicer drivetrain." Also, bikes with disc brakes are almost always heavier than comparable bikes with rim brakes, and a lighter bike is easier to ride uphill, and easier to lift onto a bike rack or carry up a flight of stairs. However, it's hard to find a hybrid now, in 2021, equipped with V brakes that doesn't also come with serious flaws elsewhere on the bike.

Fender and rack mounts: Instead of using a backpack to carry your laptop or groceries, using panniers attached to a rear rack lowers your center of gravity, which is a good thing. Also, no sweaty back. Fenders will keep you (and your riding companions) at least a little drier when you’re riding in the rain—or on wet roads, after the rain has ended.

Puncture-resistant tires: Such tires are heavier and slower than the speedy slicks you’d use on a road bike, but any time that you might lose due to the extra weight is time you’ll probably gain back (and more!) by not having to stop to fix a flat. Unfortunately, fewer entry-level bikes come equipped with this kind of tire.

Gearing appropriate for your terrain: By this we mean, for the most part, that the bike should have gears and not be a single-speed. Not that single speeds don't have their place. In parts of the country that are flat and have vicious winters—hello, Minnesota!—the fewer moving parts in a drivetrain, the better. But most of us have at least a few hills to climb or headwinds to battle, and gears will come in handy. Almost all geared fitness hybrids come with three chainrings in front and seven or eight gears in the back, for a total of 21 or 24 gears, which would give you enough options for pretty much anywhere you’ll be riding. Something we’ve seen more of lately are hybrids with just a single chainring up front and no front derailleur, and a bigger set of gears in the back. (This type of setup has been popular on mountain bikes for years now; a derailleur is, by the way, the mechanism that moves your bike's chain from one gear to another when you trigger the shifter.) Having one fewer shifter to deal with is appealing, but to get the equivalent range of gears without two or three chainrings, you need big—and expensive and heavy—cassettes in the rear. So we eliminated such hybrids.

A sturdy yet reasonably lightweight frame: You do want to be able to carry your bike up steps or down into the subway, or be able to lift it onto a bus or a bike rack. But you also want something that can withstand being knocked around a little. So you’ll probably be looking at an aluminum frame. Aluminum's a third of the weight of steel, and it doesn't cost nearly as much as carbon (though the ride can be stiff and a bit jarring). Steel provides a cushier ride, but a good-quality, lightweight steel frame will not be cheap. Almost all of the bikes we looked at, though, do have steel-bladed forks; the slight increase in weight that they add is worth the vibration dampening they provide. (Of these forks, we preferred those made from chrome-moly, a type of steel that's stronger than high-tensile steel, which you tend to see in very cheap bikes.)

Decent-quality components: Here, it's a matter of finding the right balance of price, quality, and durability. Usually, most of the front and rear derailleurs on these bikes—and shifters and brake levers, too—are made by Shimano, and although they’re not top of the line (or even middle), they’ll work just fine and will last at least a few commuting seasons. In these pandemic times, manufacturers are scrambling for components and often having to use those from less well known companies such as ProWheel and microSHIFT. By all accounts, according to the many rider forums we’ve dug through, these off-brand components are functional enough. "If you’re not racing, a slightly heavier derailleur isn't going to make a big difference. I don't think somebody's going to notice performance issues right off the bat, and when the derailleur needs to be replaced, the cost will be fairly minimal—$20 to $30," said Womac. "Yes, cheaper derailleurs do look uglier, but that's just aesthetics." One thing we would avoid, though, are bikes that come with old-fashioned freewheel cogsets on the rear wheel, instead of the more modern cassettes. A common complaint on the few hybrid user threads we’d found was being stuck with a wheel whose hub was compatible only with freewheel cogs, which are becoming hard to find, especially high-level ones. What you really don't want to buy is a bike with a freewheel and disc brakes—and we’re seeing more and more of them. If that rear wheel gets stolen or irreparably damaged, good luck replacing it, said Copsey: "You just can't find those two things on an off-the-shelf wheel."

Wide rims: The wider the rims on the wheels, the wider the tire you can use, and the lower the air pressure you need, which gives you a more comfortable ride. "A big fat tire is the poor man's suspension," said Michael Ferrand, owner of Bicycle Michael's, in New Orleans. The norm for these bikes’ rims is 32 mm—you’ll want at least that. (One welcome trend of 2021 is the number of hybrids being sold with wider tires: Instead of the usual 35s, they’re coming with 38 mm tires and even 40 mm.) Speaking of suspension, none of our experts would recommend getting a $500 bike with front suspension, no matter how bad the roads are in your city. These models are often called dual-sport hybrids. As Emily Thibodeau, owner of Hub Bicycle (now closed), in Cambridge, Massachusetts, put it, "At this price point, the shocks you’d get are really heavy and can't be adjusted—it's like having a glorified pogo stick on the front of your bike."

When we first compiled this guide, in 2017, we started with a master list of 45 bikes and filtered it down to 16 using the above requirements. For our next update, in 2019, we started with those 16 bikes, checking to see which aspects and components had changed and which had remained the same. When necessary, we called in models that had undergone any substantial changes. For the 2019 update, we confirmed that our current picks hadn't changed (apart from, sometimes, the available colors), and we considered which new bikes we might test. With testing in 2020 and 2021 postponed, for the most part, by persistent, widespread bike shortages, we dove deep into the latest specs for all the bikes we’d ever looked at, as well as those of our picks, and of any new bikes on the scene.

Next came the test-riding stage. The highlight was what I like to call the Supermarket Slalom: riding up and down a steep little driveway leading to my local Safeway, while weaving in and out of the soft-hit poles that separate the cars from the pedestrians, to test the bikes’ handling. (I promise: No pedestrians were harmed, or startled, in the course of researching this story.) San Francisco even obliged with a few rainstorms, which made the abundant broken glass in the parking lot even more appealing to tires and made the pedestrian walkway's plastic surface even more slippery—and allowed me to vet all of the bikes’ brakes for wet-weather performance.

Here are two things to remember when you’re shopping. First, you should try to test-ride any bike you’re considering buying—how a bike feels to you and how your body feels while riding it are intensely personal. And that raises the question of women-specific design (aka WSD). Though most companies do offer step-through or low-rise versions of each bike (we’ll point out when our picks do), more than a few are now offering parallel models (or even complete brands of bikes) designed for smaller riders with proportionally shorter arms, narrower shoulders, longer legs, and smaller hands. Usually, these riders are women, which means that these models and brands have tended to come in what the companies believe are female-friendly colors (and sometimes, sadly, with components that are not quite as good). Still, no matter what gender you identify as, if your body resembles the description above, you’d be smart to try WSD models too—you might just find a bike that fits you perfectly. Conversely, if you’re a tall person of any gender who has broad shoulders, WSD bikes might not be for you. The second thing to bear in mind is that bikes don't often change that much—or at all—from one model year to the next. If the bike you like isn't available anymore but the dealer says that next year's model will be available soon, ask if it's a "carry-forward" model. If it is, nothing will be changing.

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This fun-to-ride and capable commuter bike is equally comfortable on longer weekend outings—and it offers far better value than its competitors.

*At the time of publishing, the price was $500.

After a redesign for 2022, the Marin Fairfax 1 remains at the top of our list for many reasons: the two most important being value for money and how it feels to ride. When I initially got on the bike, the first year we tested it, and pedaled off down the street, the bike felt quick—not in a nervous, edgy way, but in a sprightly way. Accelerating felt easy. When I measured the bike's chainstays (the parts of the frame that connect the rear wheel to the bottom bracket), they were shorter, 432 mm, than those on any other bike we tested. As a rule, the shorter the chainstay, the quicker the bike accelerates and the easier it climbs—at least until the front wheel starts lifting off the ground. Also, the Fairfax chainstays are flattened (a design meant to increase stiffness; that is, more of your pedaling power makes it to the rear wheel), and the seat stays (the parts of the frame that connect the rear wheel to the seat tube) join the seat tube at a relatively low point, tightening the rear triangle, which also increases the bike's responsiveness.

In the 2022 model we tested this year, the flat design of the chainstays hasn't changed, nor has the low point at which the seat stays join the frame, but the chainstays are now longer at 440 mm. (We tested a step-through version, which is the bike shown in the photos above and below.) The new Fairfax doesn't seem sluggish to me, but it’d only be fair to suspend final judgement on the ride quality until I can test it against other bikes. What is fair, though, is assessing how much value you get for your money. At a time when prices for similarly equipped hybrids from the big companies (Cannondale, Fuji, Giant, Specialized, Trek) hover around $650, the Fairfax still costs only $500.

In 2019, this bike started coming with mechanical disc brakes. As we said earlier, we believe that disc brakes (whether the cheaper, less effective, but easier-to-maintain cable-actuated mechanical versions, or the pricier, somewhat fussier hydraulic ones) are overkill on hybrids, unless you ride a lot in bad weather. They also tend to add weight and cost to a bike. In this case, the bike gained 3.79 pounds and Marin downgraded the quality of the rear derailleur a level in Shimano's range from an Acera to the Tourney; downgraded the quality of the tires (more about that below); and went from eight cogs in the rear to seven (multiply them by the three chainrings up front, for a total of 21 gears in all).

Going from 24 gears to 21 is less of a problem than you might think, as long as the distance between the highest and lowest gears doesn't decrease. The cassette on the old Fairfax had eight gears ranging from 11 to 32 teeth; the cassette on the newer one has seven gears ranging from 11 to 34 teeth, so the gearing range increased. That’d be a good thing—especially if you’re facing a steep hill and will be needing that extra-easy big gear in the back—except that the bigger jumps between fewer gears might make the shifting feel rough. (This isn't something we noticed with the Fairfax, though.)

Having only seven gears in back is common among the other hybrids we saw in the Fairfax's price range; what makes the Fairfax stand out is that Marin is using a true seven-speed cassette, not a freewheel cogset (see our criteria in the How we picked section). None of the other 21-speed bikes we considered came with a cassette at the time, and this remains the case in 2021. In fact, now we’re seeing bikes costing as much as $600—such as the Trek FX1 Disc—coming with a freewheel cogset. (The Fairfax's front gearing is like that of all the bikes we tested, apart from the belt-drive ones: a Shimano Tourney triple set of chainrings with 48, 38, and 28 teeth.) Otherwise, this model has the same components as its predecessor, and the same sprightly aluminum frame and shock-dampening chrome-moly steel fork.

Apart from the changes in the Fairfax's geometry, the most recent redesign did result in two definite improvements. First, the shifter cables are once again routed internally, and now the brake cables are as well—an unexpectedly high-end touch in an entry-level bike. Running the shifter or brake cables inside the frame tubes protects the cables from damage in much the same way that cable housing does, only better. (Grit can work its way in between the cable and the housing and make your bike's shifting slow or ragged.) Second, the frame now has clearance for bigger tires, which means that if you so choose, you can replace the 35 mm tires that come stock on the bike with cushier 38s or even 40s (I checked and they’ll fit).

For those riders who prefer a step-through or low-rise frame, Marin now makes a version of the Fairfax 1 called the Fairfax 1 ST; it's identical to the Fairfax, apart from having a lower top tube. (The old Terra Linda line, which used step-through frames and women-specific saddles and was priced slightly lower than the Fairfax, is no more.)

Who else likes this bike? It's hard to find anyone saying anything bad about the various iterations of the Fairfax in bikeforums.net, and the same goes for the reviews from Bike Radar, The Guardian, and Outside.

Shortening the chainstays on the Fairfax may end up being a flaw in our eyes, although the company says that the reason they tweaked the geometry of the bike was to make it more stable. Again, we’ll need to test this bike against its peers to decide. Also, in 2019, Marin went with a private-label tire with no claim of flat protection for the Fairfax 1, instead of with the previous Schwalbe Road Cruisers, which came from one of the most respected tire makers in the business and did have a protective layer of Kevlar fiber. The 2022 Fairfax 1 still comes with the private-label tire.

This steel-framed bike provides a vibration-dampening ride and some nice extras—brand-name tires and sturdy pedals. But the trade-off is less maneuverability and a steepish uptick in price.

In the years since we first tested the Jamis Coda S2 (formerly called the Coda Sport), the bike's specs haven't changed in any substantive way, though the price has steadily marched upward, from $520 in 2017 to $530 to $580 to $700 this year. The 2021 version currently available is very similar to the 2017 that we tested; the only difference is the color, which is now either a pale green or black. This model still has the same Shimano Tourney front derailleur and triple crankset (with 48, 38, and 28 teeth), Acera rear derailleur and eight-cog, 11-32-tooth cassette, and Tektro V brakes, as well as steel-wrapped resin pedals, and it once again comes with Vittoria Randonneur tires after last year's detour into Kenda Kwick tires. Now, however, the Randonneurs are 40mm instead of the old 32s, which should make the ride even smoother. The heart of the Coda S2 is still relatively lightweight (27 pounds for the 19-inch size) steel frame, which quiets the road chatter you might otherwise feel while riding on rough pavement. (Jamis does make a "women's" version of the Coda S2; the only differences, though, are that it comes in one smaller size, different colors, and with a slightly wider saddle.)

Along with steel's silky ride feel, another advantage it offers is that if it bends, it can be bent back. So if the hanger that attaches the rear derailleur to the frame gets bent—as can happen if the bike is in a crash or even, say, jostled roughly on a train—it can be straightened again without risk that it will snap. With aluminum, sometimes such an operation is successful and sometimes … not. This is why modern bikes with aluminum frames—like all of the aluminum hybrids we tested—use replaceable derailleur hangers, which can be swapped out if they get bent. These aren't expensive parts to replace, but they come in a bewildering array of sizes and shapes. So it can be a minor pain, even for a professional mechanic, to identify the hanger that's on your bike and then to find a new one.

In terms of acceleration, the Coda has relatively short chainstays—435 mm for the smaller three sizes, and 440 mm for the two larger—which makes this bike a bit sprightlier than the run-of-the-mill steel bike.

If you plan on commuting during foul weather or spend a lot of time riding on dirt roads, you might want to consider a bike with disc brakes, which maintain their stopping power in the rain (they also don't get clogged up with mud or slush the way rim brakes can). But if your daily routine takes you on rough pavement or potholed city streets, the Coda S1 could be the bike for you.

A belt-drive bike that has an easy-to-use internally geared rear hub means less maintenance and no grease on your work clothes. You have to assemble it yourself though (or pay someone else to).

*At the time of publishing, the price was $1,300.

Although the aluminum-framed Priority Continuum Onyx retails (as of this writing) at $1,300—a little over two and a half times the cost of the Marin Fairfax—it's actually inexpensive for a belt-drive hybrid. The Continuum comes with hydraulic disc brakes, an aluminum fork, a Gates Carbon Drive belt (Gates being the most well-made option from a quality manufacturer; the Shimano of belt drives), and, most intriguingly, an Enviolo continuous internally geared rear hub drive (instead of the cassette-and-derailleur system on the regular fitness hybrids we researched). But both the previous and current versions of this bike are also available only through the Priority website, which means diving into the problematic world of online bike shopping.

One plus of using a carbon belt to turn your bike's gears and wheels is that a belt is far cleaner than a chain, since a belt drive doesn't need to be lubricated, so it doesn't pick up dirt the way chain lube does. (No bike grease on your pant leg!) However, belt-drive hybrids tend to be quite a bit more expensive than traditional hybrids, because using a belt drive requires using an internally geared rear hub, which can cost anywhere from about $100 for a three-speed Sturmey-Archer to $1,500 for a Rohloff 14-speed. (Compare this with $45 for the Shimano eight-speed cassette and hubs that are on most of the bikes we looked at—not that you’ll be able to find any of these easily during the pandemic component drought.)

More-affordable belt-drive bikes have definitely been a trend. What sets the Continuum Onyx apart is the type of internally geared rear hub it has, and how you buy the bike.

Rather than changing gears one by one, with an audible click, you twist the grip shifter of the Continuum Onyx smoothly in one direction to make the pedals easier to turn (and the bike easier to ride up hills), and in the other direction to make the pedals harder to turn (which will make the bike go faster on flat ground). The workings of ordinary internally geared hubs are difficult enough to grasp—picture something like the inside of an old, expensive watch—and when you add in the concept of continuous gearing, with no indexing, it seems like magic. However, the hub does have upper and lower limits in terms of ease and difficulty: According to Enviolo, the range of "gears" is broader than with a Shimano Nexus eight-speed hub, which is what Marin's Presidio 3 belt-drive commuter bike (selling for $1,130) comes with—and the Priority does seem to climb just a little bit better.

The Continuum Onyx that we’ve been testing came with a front headlight that's powered by the front wheel's dynamo hub, so you don't need to replace batteries or plug it in to recharge it, and a removable, rechargeable (by USB) rear light; all the Onyxes now shipping, however, are equipped with a rear light that's permanently attached and wired to the front hub's dynamo as well. The headlight on our test bike was strong enough for city use—I’d supplement it with our commuter headlight pick if I were taking it on dark suburban bike paths, say—but it had a strobe-y effect that I found distracting. Other than that, the Continuum Onyx was sturdy, comfortable, and fun to ride around town.

The downside to buying a Priority bike is that you’re buying a bike online. There are many, many reasons to be wary of doing so, not the least of which is that you can't test-ride the bike ahead of time to make sure you like it and that it fits you. And once the bike arrives, you have to finish putting it together. This was the case when we tested this Continuum Onyx, as well as its predecessor, the first Continuum. (One advantage of an internally geared hub and a belt drive is that at least you don't have to fiddle with derailleurs; you do, however, still need to make sure your brakes are set up correctly and your bike is bolted together properly.) Both bikes we tested—the original Continuum, which we tested four years ago, and the current Continuum Onyx—came from Priority in fine shape, and the hydraulic brakes didn't need to be bled on either of them.

Since our testing, Priority has partnered with a couple of companies to create workarounds. The first is an outfit called Beeline Connect; Priority ships your bike to the closest bike shop to you that works with Beeline, and the shop assembles it for a fee of $130. The second is a company called Velofix, which has a network of locally owned mobile bike-repair operations. For $150, Priority will ship the bike directly to the Velofix in your area, presuming there is one (the Velofix site has a list of franchises; so far, they’re in about half of the states in the US). Then the Velofix folks will assemble your bike, deliver it, and make sure everything's adjusted for you. If neither of those are an option where you live, we recommend that you have a bike shop assemble your bike for you or at least check your work. You should expect to pay the shop its standard service rate and maybe even a "corkage" fee—a small fee for bringing in a bike you bought online instead of purchasing one at the shop. (If there is a fee, pay it, and don't be a jerk about it.) As Michael Ferrard points out, bringing in a bike you’ve bought online for them to put together is like "driving your meat to McDonald's and asking them to fry it up and put some porcini and portobello mushrooms on it."

When we can, we’ll take a look at the REI Co-op Cycles CTY 1.1 (which had been on our list for 2020, but vanished from the REI website for a while), the Diamondback Metric 1, and the latest version of the Fuji Absolute 1.9 (now that Fuji is under new ownership; its former parent company declared bankruptcy).

The Trek FX 2 Disc, the Trek FX 2 Disc Women's, and the Trek FX 2 Disc Stagger step-through, which all come with hydraulic brakes, now cost a cool $730 each, a $30 increase from earlier in 2021, a $100 increase from 2020, and a $190 increase over 2019. The bikes do still feature Trek's proprietary Blendr stem and DuoTrap S capability. The first lets you fasten Blendr-compatible mounts for lights or bike computers or cameras to the handlebar end of the stem, freeing up valuable real estate on your handlebars. The second means that you can install Bontrager's DuoTrap S speed and cadence sensor into the chainstay—no zip ties! But if you’re that interested in performance metrics, odds are good you’ll soon be graduating from a hybrid to a road bike anyway. (Trek's entry-level FX, the FX 1, is still available in rim-brake and mechanical-disc-brake versions, for $530 and $600, respectively. But both models use a freewheel cogset, not a cassette, which we regard as a dealbreaker.)

In the past, we’ve been critical of the Giant Escape 2 for its aluminum fork, which we could feel transmitting the roughness in the pavement through the handlebars to a much greater extent than with the bikes we tested that had steel forks. After eliminating the rim-brake version of the Escape 2 entirely in 2020 and switching the disc-brake version from a triple chainring in front to a double (which helps the bike shed a little weight but also reduces the number of gearing options; the cassette remains 8-speed), Giant has kept the Escape 2 Disc (with hydraulic disc brakes) largely the same for 2021, apart from giving it wider, 38 mm tires. However, the price has jumped $100, to $680. (The cheaper Escape 3 still comes in both rim-brake and mechanical-disc versions, but those use freewheel cogsets—a dealbreaker, as we said above.)

Making a laudable commitment to women's cycling, Giant launched an entire women-specific brand, called Liv, in 2011. The Liv equivalent to the Escape line is called Alight; the Alight 2 comes only in a hydraulic-disc-brake version, and the Alight 3 comes in rim-brake and mechanical-disc models, also with freewheel cogsets. The same changes in the Escape bikes hold true for the Alight models: bigger tires and higher price tags. Unfortunately, when you look closely at the specs, the Alight bikes fall a little short, despite costing the same as the Escape bikes at each level. The Escape 2 models have internally routed cables, whereas the cables on the Alight are all external. The Escape bikes are equipped with Giant's supposedly vibration-dampening D-Fuse seatposts; the Alight bikes are not.

The 2019 version of the Specialized Sirrus (the name was changed to the Sirrus 1.0), one of our also-great picks from four years ago, went up in price from $430 to $475, despite having suffered cuts in component quality. In 2020, the price remained the same, but the bike had a double chainring in front, in place of the old triple. This reduced the number of gearing options to 14 (as the rear cassette remains a seven-speed), and those gears spanned a narrower range (12 to 32) than the Marin Fairfax 1 covers (11 to 34). For 2021, not much has changed except the price, which has risen to $650.

As for Cannondale, it eliminated the entire lower end of its Quick range of fitness hybrids for 2020: no more Quick 8 or Quick 7. The line starts with the Quick 6, which has V brakes, triple chainrings, and a seven-speed cassette (instead of the nine-speed one it used to have). The price is $650 for the men's and the women's versions; they are identical apart from the range of sizes and colors available, and the fact that the women's version has a step-through frame.

We dismissed Batch Bicycles’ Fitness Bicycle and the Raleigh Cadent 1 because they use a freewheel cogset rather than a cassette. We had been planning to test the steel Roebling, from Brooklyn Bicycle Co., but as of 2021, it comes with a single chainring up front instead of the original triple chainring, which is a dealbreaker. Jamis makes a cheaper version of the Coda S2 called the Coda S3, but its handlebars are very upright and look more suited to a comfort bike—another dealbreaker.

M. Loren Copsey, co-owner of The Daily Rider, Washington, DC, phone interview, September 29, 2016

Kevin Womac, owner of Boulevard Bikes, Chicago, phone interview, September 29, 2016

Michael Ferrand, owner of Bicycle Michael's, New Orleans, phone interview, September 29, 2016

Emily Thibodeau, former owner of Hub Bicycle, Cambridge, Massachusetts, phone interview, September 29, 2016

Gene Oberpriller, owner of One on One Bicycle Studio, Minneapolis, phone interview, September 29, 2019

S.B. Phillips, mechanic, The New Wheel, San Francisco, interview, October 1, 2016

2018 Benchmarking Report on Bicycling and Walking in the United States, The League of American Bicyclists

Smart Mobility Trends: Bike Commuting (Deloitte University Press), May 15, 2015

Christine Ryan

Christine Ryan is a senior editor at Wirecutter overseeing the teams that cover travel, outdoors gear, beds and linens, home decor, and more. (She also edits and writes about cycling equipment, which gives her an excuse to sneak away from her desk and go for a ride.) Previously, she was an editor at European Travel & Life, Gourmet, and Sunset.

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