I recently found and fixed up a vintage Frenchie for my friend, that was a 1980 Motobecane Grand Record. Now I am looking for something for his wife. This will be for around-town plus casual, moderate-pace rides of 20-50 miles.

The difficulty is that she is short (needs a 50 cm) and is rather particular about what "looks good".

I ran across a CL ad for a Peugeot "mixte" - probably an early 1980s PH18, white, from the blurry NDS pic can't tell much except that it is complete, has alloy cranks/rims, is about 52 cm (but because of the mixte frame, she'd be able to ride it) and looks cosmetically decent. Not a high-end bike by any means, spec was 28 lb and has the dreaded stem shifters (as did all mixtes, I think?), but to my surprise she thinks it "looks really cute". Price is $140. Allegedly new tires.



Whaddya think? As w/ the Moto, I'd do any needed rehab work for the cost of parts, so the usual bearing regrease + adjust + new pads + new cables will only cost her about $22. Unless something is quite wrong, her all-in cost should be <$200.

What I don't know is, are mixtes worth anything or are they the red-headed stepchildren of bikes? I have always sneered at them, but that's mostly from a misogynistic bias against "ladies" bikes.