Curious how rare Colnago Lady frames are. I really don't have a clue as to fitting the mixte frames for my wife yet. I can't really ever figure out "what" to measure since these are ridden with upright handlebars. To me the stem and bars build has as much to do with "fit" as anything.

Wandering if I should pull the trigger on this or not. Are Colnago Lady frames really rare, or common enough that I'll be able to find a more appropriate size, whatever that actually is.

Colnago mountain bicycles are rare, in my opinion. In all the years of collecting vintage bicycles, and riding them, I have seen only one Colnago mountain bike and I offered 200,000 Jamaican dollars for it ($200.00 US) plus a restored Peugeot Course road bicycle...





Vintage lady's Colnago mountain bike frames - rare would be the first word that comes to mind.

I question that this is a real Colnago frame? It looks like a frame that was built for touring on maybe a hybrid???

It appears to be made of aluminum???

The tab on the fork looks like a light bracket, something that could be found on a bike in the UK. The big thing that bothers me is what looks like a plate for a kickstand under the chainstays at the BB.

It could be a plate to mount a "U" brake that Shimano made for MTBs for awhile in the late 70's before someone decided having a rear brake mounted under the chain stays on a dirt bike was a bad idea!

A picture of the top of the fork crowns would show it they had engraved Colnago club logos.



From time to time to time the high end Italian builders made women's models: Cinelli, Colnago and so on. Here's a "real" late 70's Colnago drop frame bike:

Steel Vintage Bikes - Colnago Mexico Women Vintage Bicycle from late 1970s

verktyg

Chas.

Randy,

I found my 87 Colnago Master Ibex MTB on eBay about 10 years ago. It was all original with a Shimano Deore XT gruppo and Colnago pantographed bars and stem like on the picture you posted. It's made with Columbus Gilco tubing.

I changed the bars and stem (but still have the originals) and saddle plus I put on streetable tires.



I found a picture of this Colnago Centaur on the Internet. It has a Campy Centaur MTB gruppo.



Pictures of MTBs from the 1988 Colnago catalog.



One comment about my Colnago, It handles like a criterium bike rather than a MTB. It's squirrely both on and off road!


verktyg

Chas.

Yup and, as I prepare for Jamaica, this year, that bicycle will be in my sites! I really like it and plan to do my best to offer fair value to get it.





But I will not offer this in trade, since I plan to bring the Bianchi back to Canada, when my island ride time is over for 2016...

I'm not looking for a mountain bike but a nice women's road Mixte in 700c, preferably.

Looking at that image a little more closely that bottom bracket kickstand plate gives me pause, especially on an aluminum frame. Pins tell made aluminum bikes, as did Merckx. Incursion won the last tour won on Pinarello steel then followed up the next year winning on an aluminum Pinarello. I'd actually prefer aluminum on a mixte than steel.


I wouldn't prefer a fraudulent repainted dime store bike.

That is not a Mixte, in my opinion. The true Mixte top tubes (dual top tubes)...



...flow all the way to the rear drops, according to my way of thinking...



This old Raleigh, to me, represents true Mixte style. Please keep in mind, I state my opinion, only and my opinion, according to Mrs. Me, is not, necessarily, always on the money.

Technically that used to be true. The mixte was two smaller top tubes that usually ran to the drop-outs. However, that distinction ended and a mixte frame, as a term, is more or less interchangeable with a women's frame or step-through now. In fact even that's not true. Most people don't use those terms, they just call everything with out a conventional top tube a mixte. I'm okay with recognizing what a mixte used to be, and using the term mixte to represent what few bikes like these pass-throughs actually exist regardless of their top tube construction.

Its like clipless pedals. Really no one remembers what "clips" were anymore, and in reality clip less pedals are more effectively communicated as clipping in than you ever were clipped in with straps and clips and a cleat on your shoes. Should we now call clip less pedals clip pedals? I think so. You definitely clip in.

Sometimes language evolves, sometimes it doesn't. Meh.

I'd be shocked if that's a Colnago.

Is the frame local?
How much?

I'm leaning with others... Colnago has made a variety of frames, but that one seems a bit beyond what they normally build.

It certainly would look cute though.

What an odd bike, whatever it is. Looks well used, and like the chain's been dropped once in every ring. All set for cantis; square tube stays; steel fork with rack eyes on the dropout but no sign of mid-fork eyelets; a bracket for a light or bottle dyno, maybe?

If it's a forgery, it's a darn clever one. A weird, wild, wacky frame; and extremely cool.

It's too bad you have such an abiding hatred for aluminum bikes; [MENTION=160550]mtnbke[/MENTION]. Y'know, Cannondales and whatnot

You and Randy are both wrong. A mixte need not have two top tubes, but it must have three stays on each side. It has been discussed at length numerous times on this site. You are the first in my recollection to call a step through frame a mixte.

Don't think so. Technically a mixte is a step through with two top tubes that follow through all the way to the rear dropout. I don't think many people would agree that a bike that wasn't a step through, that had a horizontal top tube but for some reason had three stays was a mixte. Anymore the distinctions of what is and is not a mixte or step through have become convoluted. There are so few actual mixte frames being made, and so many people referring to any step through frame as a mixte that its taken on that meaning now.

I know. The fact that the "Colnago" was advertised as being aluminum really had me going. I didn't even notice the kickstand plate or the headlight bracket. On an aluminum bike, I can't see either. I'm half tempted to just buy it anyway. It won't cost me a dime as Paypal/eBay will refund my money for it being a fraudulent "Colnago." Curious to see what it really is.

I keep waffling on this. I actually think it might be a Colnago now. Looking at that fork crown, how do you explain the cloverleaf but also the wierdo light mount? Do those seat stays & chain stays look like anything Colnago?

The dropout says Italy something, but not Campagnolo. I don't know, could it really be real?

I don't see the clover in the photo you posted. Others?
Nonetheless, fork could have been added later, then painted.
Quality of paint is hard to judge from one photo.

Don't buy if expecting to dispute sale.

According to Sheldon Brown:

Mixte
"A style of lady's frame in which the "top tube" consists of a pair of small diameter tubes running more-or-less straight from the upper head lug, past the seat tube, and on to the rear fork ends. A mixte frame thus has 3 sets of rear stays, instead of the usual two. A variant on the mixte uses a single, full sized top tube running from the upper head tube to the seat tube, but retains the middle set of stays. A lady's type bike that lacks the middle pair of stays is not a mixte."

Like the late Sheldon Brown and our own verktyg, you are highly opinionated. The difference is that you are not also highly informed.

I'm not informed because I've recognized that the term "step-through" for Ladies frames has essentially fallen out of use, and that people are constantly advertising Lady bikes or stepthrus as "mixte" bikes when technically many are not? Recognizing that the use of the term is evolving to represent any women's step-thru makes me not informed? I'd think recognizing that is pretty ahead of the curve, at least compared to those here, including yourself, that aren't aware of how often people on Craigslist are listing women's bicycles as mixte frames, when they are merely stepthrus.

Sheldon Brown was wrong about a lot more stuff than most people have ever bothered to check. He's not "wrong" here though. Its just more simple than that. Here's probably more on the history of mixte than you're interested in:

Mixte - Vintage Frame Design is the New Trend in Stylish City Bikes | Momentum Mag

The article does make the point that they had traditionally been built with two top tubes, or alternatively a single top tube, but with stays that went all the way back to the dropouts. That's certainly true. No one disputes that. However, the article ALSO makes the point that the term mixte, merely implied mixed gender, or not specifically a men's bike. So any step thru that didn't have a traditional "men's" horizontal top tube (or modern sloping top tube) would by default be appropriate for both genders. The hangup that a mixte MUST have stays that go all the way through to the rear dropouts is like saying that a car must necessarily have an internal combustion engine. Mixte frames used the twin top tubes to compensate for a lack of frame stiffness with steel frames and used the lateral tubes all the way to the dropouts much like early tandems. However the term "mixte" goes beyond the specificity of that two-top-tube design and thru to the stays concept.

It simply is about a bike that isn't just a men's, and that aesthetically is indicated by a step thru or "true" mixte frame. You can't control how people misuse words. If so feel free to take up arms in the inflammable vs flammable fight. In the meantime pay attention to how people use the term mixte.

A mixte typically gave a higher stand over clearance than a step thru, and they typically did NOT have a very good ride quality in many peoples mind (too stiff).

I got to agree with the cannondale guy here: don't get all caught up in the mixte issue--that is not the subject of this thread.

if that is a real colnago it would certainly be an interesting find. they have made them in the past- the real question for me would be. even if it is real, that is pretty darn expensive for a banged up frame.

https://www.steel-vintage.com/colnago-mexico-women-vintage-bicycle-from-late-1970s-detail

From discussions with several French bike manufacturers back in the 1970's the "mixte" style frame was developed for the French army some time before WWII, why?

1 size fits all

Step through frame for easy mount and dismount with military field apparel

The dual tubes from the head tube to rear dropouts provides a place to mount weapons and equipment.

...And they were much stronger and more rigid than a conventional drop tube woman's ville style bike.

Makes total sense but I've never seen a picture of one of these bikes or anything to corroborate this claim.

Military bicycles - no mixtes in sight:

French



Italian



British (1914 Raleigh with riffle)



The 1941 Tour de France



For those of you who think that you're hotshot cyclists - The Dutch Bicycle Music Corps




During the 1970's the major French makers built classic mixtes in 3 frame sizes: 50cm, 54cm and 57cm center to top (19", 21 1/2" and 22 1/2' nominal size).

I my experience from test riding them - both new bikes after assembly or customer's bikes in for service - I felt quite a bit of front to rear head tube flex.


verktyg

Chas.

That Colnago seems to have sheet metal screws in the water bottle bolt holes. I'm so confused. Is it or isn't it?

A TON more pics here:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Colnago-Lady...-/271948058247

Seller welched on original deal after initially offering the bike at 155 GBP:
https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/270169/