Road bike or hybrid bike?

Question

I am buying my first bike as an adult person and I am torn between getting a road bike or a hybrid bike. I will be using the bike primarily for transportation (I am a college student living in a city) but also sometimes just to ride for fun. I am a fan of the handlebars used on road bikes as I find the flat handlebars uncomfortable, but the tires of the hybrid bike make me happy.

Overall I'm not very educated when it comes to bikes so the only difference I can notice between the different bikes are the tires and the handlebars.

Answer 1

The style of bars you referring to are drop bars.

Hybrid / city / multi-use bikes now come with both styles of handle bars.
Not endorsing this bike. It is just an example. MultUseWithDropBars

One thing to consider is a used cyclocross and put touring tires on it. It has drop bars and will take larger tires. You can get great deals on used as many racers upgrade every season or two. And this is the end of cyclocross season. Or a used touring bike but you don't get as good of deals on used touring bike as you don't have racers flooding used market. But if you don't know bikes then you can get burnt used. This is a cyclocross set up with 35mm touring tires that I use for training and crashing around the city.

Answer 2

The style of the bike isn't quite as important as the fit of the bike. An ill-fitting road bike won't be as good as a perfectly fitting hybrid and vice versa.

I'd go to your local bike store and try several bikes in different styles and sizes. One will click with you. If it's a good shop, they should let you ride around the block to test different riding positions, etc.