Thank you everyone for your answers and the warm welcome.
Originally Posted by
merziac
Being in Germany, you may be in no mans land, there are plenty with drop bars but I bet they did not have so many in Europe as they were a utility bike from the start.
Originally Posted by
gilesa
Here in the UK they are reasonably common, but usually this:
[image]
A Raleigh Wisp, but they were other names with different paint. Not high-end but a decent ride. I think they all had drop bars originally, but many have been changed to have flat bars, including 2 by me. I have seen higher-quality mixtes here, but I think they all had drops.
This actually helped a lot, thank you. I found this exact same model for sale in my country (even if far away) by searching for Raleigh. Lugs, derailleur gears and a nice paintjob are all I am after, and this fits the bill.
If I cannot find anything closer this would be a nice option.
This is a pretty easy conversion if you are so inclined.
[...]
The change would be in riding posture and not so much in bike geometry, going from upright to a road riding posture.
That is good to know. My worries were that, similar to a MTB->Dropbar conversion one would need a much longer or shorter stem; but if this is all, a conversion seems easy enough.
And ofc the first (and only) northroad mixte we tried had 22mm French handlebars & stem, which discouraged any conversion from the get-go.
Originally Posted by
merziac
I would encourage you to go ahead and get a solid one that you can find for a place holder if nothing else, maybe try and steer your SO to the cool factor, history, etc that many have with or without drop bars.
I carefully suggested this and got the answer I expected - so I am still looking for that drop bar mixte
The thread you posted has some very nice bikes. I feel validated however since only 4 out of 70 posts contain that elusive drop bar mixte combination, so I guess it is not just down to my area of the world.