bike sucks, need a new one
maybe something that can go uphill pretty well :sicko-biker:
Depends on what you want and what you're gonna do with it. Mostly commuting on roads? Do you wanna go off road? Do you prefer fixed gear or a gear shifter? You mentioned wanting to go uphill well, there's no beating an electric bike in that regard.
You'll want something lighter with thin tires if you're mostly on roads, heavier with wide tires for off road
For most people and most situations a light-ish mountain bike/hybrid with medium-width road tires is a good bet. I also recommend not caring about shock absorbers aside from making sure they aren't rusted out if you want a bike that has them.
I usually recommend that people find a build-it-yourself shop that uses donated parts, they will either teach you how to do it right there and then you get a bike or they'll sell you a Frankenstein bike that suits your needs, is relatively cheap, and supports this culture of sharing and reuse.
For uphill you either wanna go light or electric.
Why's your bike suck and what would you like to do with it?
The jack of all trades answer is a hybrid without suspension fork. On the used market steel frame 90s mtb also basically do everything reasonably well, allthough you might wanna tinker around with it to suit it more towards what you need, this obviously depends on skill, tools, space and available help.
any recs for affordable but not trash bikes with dutch-style frame?
I mean basically buy your local equivalent.
If you're looking at an upright riding position, step through frame, basically any step-through or mixte frame will get you there if you're willing to swap out the handlebars and maybe the seat. As you get further away from the netherlands the actual dutch style frame gets absolutely bonkers exotic-tax added onto it, which kind of misses the point as to why the dutch ride them. They're cheap, fit their niche and not much can break on them and if it does parts are plentiful. If you take a dutch style bike and put it not near there like half of those stop being true.
If you're in the US (I'm just guessing here because not otherwise stated) I'd argue this would basically be what you end up with, just add fenders, a rack, and lights.
Otherwise the only company that comes to mind that sells not trash step through bikes in the US is Liv (It's Giant, but for women, allthough in a good kind of sense actually). That's mostly due to my lack of knowledge on the US market though.
the bike i have right now is a diamondback sorrento but its just kind of old and the gears are noisy as hell.
what kind of electric bike would you recommend for casual use? (grocery shopping, at most 20-60minutes at a time)
Gears being noisy just sounds like a maintenance issue tbh, if you buy a new bike over that you'll be unhappy with it in 2 years again, when stuff is gonna need servicing. Depends on what "just kind of old" entails otherwise. An old diamonback sorrento (rigid fork or suspension fork?) is a pretty good bike tbh. Could even convert it to e-bike with a pendix drive or a swytch kit.
As for electric? Apparently Rad makes some pretty affordable ones. I dislike the fact that you they're non-interchangeable unisize but depending on your jurisdiction (or willingness to ignore the law) they apparently have the power to make up for what's pretty sure going to be a fucked seat height. Otherwise I'd check what kind of motor is common and serviceable near you as your main concern, that stuff gets tricky to service yourself.
The biggest questions for me would be what you are using it for. Paved Roads only or trails/ dirt roads as well? What kinds of distance, and what kinds of loads
