Most of the bikes pictured above are various styles of "step through" frames not "Mixtes".
We were told by a reliable source back in the 70's that Mixte frames were developed for the French army BITD because one size fit most and they could carry a lot of weight. Never saw a confirmation of this.
Not a Mixte but a French Army Machine Gun Bike:
We sold Gitanes and Bertins in the 70's. Most French mixtes frames were made in 50cm, 54cm, and 57cm sizes. The 57cm frames had what was the equivalent of very long top tubes at least 60cm.
Oddly enough, most of the Mixtes we sold were purchased by older men who couldn't swing their legs over a diamond frame.
We were located a few blocks from a university campus. Most of the young women that needed a smaller frame size like that afforded by a Mixte were highly insulted when we showed them a bike that they could actually ride because they were blinded by the then developing women's movement ideology. They wanted a "boy's" bike, not a "girls" bike!
I put this flicker album together a number of years ago for an online discussion about mixtes:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/282672...57624757110832
In the mid 70's we had Andre Bertin build us 48cm frames with a low standover height that took sewups or 700x20c wheels for just customers who required smaller sized frames. Unlike most small frames that handled like wheelbarrows, these rode and handled like larger sized bikes.
verktyg
