From what I'd heard BITD, mixte frames were designed for the French army because, 1 size fit all, they were faster to dismount and they could carry a lot of extra equipment. I've never seen documentation on that but it makes sense.

Military bikes:

Early model, 1886


French machine gun bike, circa the Maginot Line


Italian Bicycle Corp,1939


Italian Bicycle Corp 1943, notice the happy faces. (mani in alto)

Peloton, Tour De France 1940


Dutch Army Musical Corp. You think you can handle a bike? Check these guys out!




Sorry for hijacking the thread. (not really, I've been waiting for years to out this info)

Mixte frames are less latterly flexible than step through designs plus generally a little lighter.

Bicycles are amazing machines. The average bike can support far more than 10 times it's weight. They're ants of the mechanical world ( ants can support more than 5000 times their body weight).

I put this Flickr album together for another forum years ago. It shows a number of mixte frames:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/282672...57624757110832

We sold Bertin and Gitane mixtes back in the 70's. French mixtes generally came in three frame sizes measured C to T: 50cm, 54cm and 57cm. The 57cm frames were not very common. Most mixtes had longer distances from the seat tube to the head tube (imaginary top tube distance) than standard "diamond" frames.

Funny thing, not many young women bought them back then. They wanted "boys" bikes (even though the stand over height was to high)!

Many of our mixte customers were older men with problems swinging their legs over the seat and top tube. Several times in the past few years I started considering a mixte - I aint too proud!

verktyg