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Bike Get!
I went bike shopping with Emily, and I walked away with a new bike. I ended up with a fairly fancy Trek performance hybrid, rather than a road bike. I am now biked.
Comments
http://www.trekbikes.com/us/en/bikes/bike_path/fx/75fx/
Lime Lite
My cousin recently bought a Specialized Hardrock and has become almost fanatical about riding the trails here in Austin.
Hardrock
I don't know much about bikes but I do know my cruiser can't hack the trails very well.
Adam and I both have a Fuji Crosstown 3.0.
What I bought was a performance hybrid. It's basically two tiny steps short of a street racing bike. One bike better would have seen the front fork replaced with a carbon fibre one. Two steps better would replace the flat bar with a proper multi-position racing bar. This is a bike with which, were I to seriously compete in a street race, I would have a fighting chance. It has no front suspension because it traded comfort for speed and agility, and is specialized for street biking and street biking alone. The tires are narrow slicks with presta valves. This bike will never see a dirt road, and will never jump anything higher than a curb. Disc brakes would be silly: I'll never have to contend with mud. More gears would also be silly: this bike is aggressively geared assuming massive leg strength and high speed operation: further gearing would only hurt its performance: it doesn't need a climbing gear.
Now, my other bike is a hardtail mountain bike. It has a front suspension, but a stiff rear (much better performance, but has issues with extreme downhills, violent terrain, and dead drops). Wide tires, more gears, etc... It's old as hell, and could use an upgrade. It is entirely unsuitable for city riding: the front suspension slows it down and adds weight, the tires wear quickly, buzz, and slow it further, and so forth.
My plan is to either eventually buy a second bike (a modern hardtail with disc brakes) for off-roading, or rent a dual-suspension rig any time I go mountain biking.
As with all things in my own life of late, I decided that two specialized, optimal devices are better than one that falls short in both directions (in cases like bikes, where the two sides are mutually exclusive). This bike (my new one) is so wickedly fast on the street compared to my previous bike that it was startling. I easily have another 5-10mph added to my peak speed, and the gearing is so different from a mountain bike it took me a few miles to get used to it.
Mountain bikes can't compete with street bikes on streets. Street bikes will kill their riders on mountains. Performance hybrids have 95% of the performance of street bikes, but are much more comfortable and practical (fetching groceries, cruising, etc...). Non-performance hybrids are similar to their cousins, but are typically heavier, cheaper, and geared less aggressively.
So, I'm not sure what you mean by a "normal" bike. A dual suspension is a complete waste for city riding: it saps your pedaling effort and even if you have a lockout or dampener, it still adds surprising weight. A front suspension adds a great deal of versatility, but at the cost of speed on streets. Disc brakes are stupid for non-racers riding non-mountain bikes (unless you just have extra money lying around and want to waste it).