Originally Posted by
_ForceD_
I always wonder why the rear brakes on mixte frames are mounted in the traditional location…between the seat stays…with cable routing that necessitates a big loop in the cable, and the use of the reverse caliper. Why not mount the caliper between the two lateral ‘top tubes’ for more functional cable routing that eliminates the big loop in the cable, and use a regular caliper?
Dan
In the basic layout there's nothing there to mount it to. You have to add another bridge (like Wildwood's Daimler), or center pull lugs to the middle stays, for a fancy custom. Older bikes would also usually have center pulls which are a pain for this compared to side pulls. Compare a Rivendell Glourious to a Cheviot for an example. The latter is much improved.
V brakes made this a lot easier as you can flip the noodle and they don't need a center line cable stop. But they're
mostly not contemporary with mixte frames.