>>1758390Bike industry did dig itself 2 large successive holes with what 'normal' bikes are.
In the 70s, the bike boom, 'normal' bikes were extremely heavy gaspipe steel rimmed can't brake 'road bikes' with totally retarded faux-race ergonomics from stem shifters and suicide levers. So most boomers grew up loathing drop bar road bikes and wanting something that actually worked and was comfier.
These boomers made the 'normal' bike a hardtail mountainbike which is incredibly inefficient for the riding they did on them, and so established the idea that riding a bicycle to actually get anywhere was not viable.
We actually haven't had a next 'normal' bike, because successive generations want their mainstream popular fashionable bicycle mainstay to also somehow be counter-culture, so the closest thing to a 'normal' bike we've had for young people has been the fixie wave, and then the backlash grabel wave when the same generation decided they wanted comfy and utility and then ordered up too much of it. Much the same as the BSO shitter (no utility, fashioned on racing) - mountain bike arc of boomer cycling. It's history repeating.
What should a normal bike be amongst this?
Both endurance road bikes and hybrids are kind of good I guess. Disc brakes are just inventing new ways to keep bikes from getting lighter, road bikes are actually just too expensive, and the ride quality of your average hybrid with puncture protected tires and an aluminium or hiten fork is atrocious.
