Drop bars or not, most all look attractive like that Nishiki, now if I could build it in any way and for riding it around town, perhaps I'd drop the FD too and put in a nice chain guard.

And the ski slope lateral bars.



Even some Rene Singers had the one bar to the seat tube and then, the laterals formed, just like most Schwinn Mixtes I've seen.

The mixte still inspires frame builders, like those at Cycles Victoire in Clemont-Ferrand:

I definitely think mixtes can be collectible. As others have noted, there is a demand for mixtes, especially around college towns, and high-end ones are not too common.

Some day I'll finish building this for my daughter. Double-butted 531 tubes & Campagnolo dropouts, and it came well equipped with a smattering of Campagnolo NR, Stongliight, and other high-end vintage parts. Still needs paint and it's been put on the shelf since I got her another beater bike in the meantime. Good thing I bought it while she was too small for it, 'cause it'll fit it by the time I'm finally finished.

Go into any used bike store and you'll find nothing but mixtes. They are slow sellers, and plentiful. There definitely is still something of a chauvinistic attitude towards them. And women cyclists on average are still less plentiful than men, and they too sometimes choose a "men's" bike too. Most men still refuse to ride a mixte even today.

It's too bad, because mixtes are often a great deal. I've eyed a few cool looking ones in the past but never got around to buying one because of budget.

Hmm, not around here! Mixtes go pretty fast in our bike shops. I see a few here and there but they sell out! I see men with them often! One of my friends is a daily rider and he rides a blue mite - and wears a suit a lot of the time.

That being said, I have seen quite a few men sporting mixtes. It isn't 50/50, but it might be 70/30 women/men around here.

I ride this turquoise mixte minivelo. I am a man.

i get admiring looks, and nothing but positive comments from men and women

Where is here? I've owned a few mixtes, mostly that I rescued from thrift stores and garage sales, and gave to friends or sold for cost +beer.

Anyhow, yeah the whole idea of mixte was that it was unisex, but somehow that was forgotten. I'm too big to ride them as my correct frame size is a 25", and they are almost always small. So I have no choice. I did have one that was a 23" frame equivalent. Great bike, with jubilee derailleurs, stronglight, campy, etc. High end mixtes were rare, but they did make them during the bike boom. The mixte style with the double overlapping middle stays is especially stiff and responsive. In some respects mixte is a superior design to a standard "men's" diamond frame in standard gauge tubing.

Bay Area! And maybe you can find a nice buena vista to ride. Goes to 62cm!

Frame: Buena Vista Frame Set | SOMA Fabrications
Bike: Buena Vista (Complete Bicycle) | SOMA Fabrications

This frame is smaller and maxes out at 56cm:
Starling (Frame/Fork) ? New Albion Cycles

Public also does a decent mixte that can work for taller riders, I think their sizing might be a bit optimistic for the top end, but....:
Shop PUBLIC M7 Mixte Commuter Bike from PUBLIC Bikes
They work like a fashion company and change colors every couple of months...

I like your bike a lot! Nice bags too!

Thanks! It is still a work in progress. Just ordered a Condorina bar, Gran Cru cranset and other bits for it...

To echo fellow bay area resident, jade408, that is not my experience. Not only have I found mixte bikes easier to sell than comparable men's frames, but I'd rather deal with a female buyer. Less BS and flakiness, but that's not really the point here.

From a fivethirtyeight.com post asking "How many Americans don't know how to ride a bike?":
"I expected a gap between male and female non-riders, and there was one: 60 percent of women and 42 percent of men said they never ride a bike even though they know how — I’ve looked at the various reasons for that in the past. So based on that previous research, I expected a similarly big gender gap in the percentage of Americans who don’t know how to ride a bike. But as it turns out, there’s barely any difference between the share of women who say they can’t ride a bike (6 percent) and men who say the same (5 percent)."

So, yes, perhaps there are more male riders. However, the disparity may not be as great as you think. More importantly, the ratio of mixte frames vs. traditional diamond frames produced is far below the ratio of female to male riders. As a result, even conceding the premise that most males won't buy a mixte, there is a greater ratio of (largely female) buyers looking for mixtes vs the ratio of mixte bikes on the market as a whole.

All this is to say that the laws of supply & demand suggest that mixtes in general, and especially high-end mixtes, are indeed collectible. They may not always have the cache of a bike with racing pedigree, but there are plenty of mid- to high-end mixte frames/bikes, especially in the French constructeur market, that command top dollar.

Mixtes make good DUI bikes. I fixed up a Centurion mixte for a friend of mine that lost his driving privileges. I put on some riser mountain bike bars for an upright position. And the seat is low enough so he can put both feet flat on the ground.

gaucho777

That's a very nice frame! Who made it and what is that on the top tube?

I know how it is. I'm hoping to finish the dollhouse I started for my daughter in time for her daughter to use it.

Cool. I'm a Bay Area native/ex-pat.() That's interesting they make a 62. Not much use for a city/commute bike here in LaLa land. Streets too narrow, traffic too heavy, drivers too belligerent. Anyhow I have too many bikes, and just ordered a new mountain-ish frame for fire roads and (occasional) city use.

Buena Vistas look like cool bikes. With those Prestige frame tubes, they're probably lighter and faster than 99.9% of vintage mixtes.

Jitensha studios in Berkeley deserves a mention. They have been building high end mixtes for decades. (as well as rando style bikes long before they were cool)

It wasn't the topic here, but if one bought a modern version of the classic design, Soma and Handsome Bikes. I'm sure there are other companies too.


She Devil by Handsome bikes.

I remember when Velo Orange made a mixte; but it didn't seem to last too long.

I've seen some of these companies' frames even on amazon.

I was surprised to see that Rivendell no longer sells the Betty Foy mixte. They now offer the Clementine L-type. I don't like it at all.

I'm around the Toronto area fwiw. I'd say on a typical day I see about 1 out of every 75 male riders riding a mixte. Usually an older gent, though I've seen maybe 1 or 2 younger men riding a mixte over the past 2 months.

I don't see a ton of mixtes, but they don't linger in shops. When I see one, men are pedaling about 1/3 times!

Of course I don't know who is riding the ones I see parked. . Probably a third have drop bars. Maybe a few more.

I don't see many with front baskets.

They have the Cheviot to replace the Betty Foy. It has less curlicues, different colors and different sizes. But it is still a mixte.

I've been trying to calculate how many riders you see each day, but I got confused ...

Speaking of older gents on mixtes and collectibility: take a good look at this old Batavus mixte:



Looks like a POS, right? It is. But the owner, whom I saw riding in on it on that particular day (and who was the only reason I photographed the poor thing) was the man on the left in this picture:



In this photograph he is congratulating Fausto Coppi on his 1952 Tour de France win. They know each other, as both were on the world championship podium in 1949. Fausto came in third with the pros, and Henk Faanhof was the amateur champion.

Now, is that Batavus mixte, owned by a former world champion, collectible or not?

I guess I really don't know what's collectible, but that sure is a cool story and great picture! Thanks for sharing.

Well, I don't actually count them, but if I walk down a heavy bike traffic street (and I do, regularly), usually up to 20 riders can go by within 10 minutes. For a 30-40 minute walk down that same street, easily over 100 riders pass by me on an average weekday, and even more on weekends.

Obviously this isn't representative of any reliable statistic. I'm just saying that my experiences around here are that mixtes are very easy to find in used bike shops, often sold at considerably cheaper prices, and the majority male bike riding population here don't seem to like riding them.

Drop bar bikes in general aren't too commonly seen in Toronto other than when the spandex warriors come out on weekends. My guess is that road bikes are considered more valuable and aren't used for regular commuting. The vast majority of commutes are hybrid bikes and cruisers. Bike thievery is a major problem here, of course, as I expect it to be for most major cities. Perhaps more people should invest in mixtes for their commute. After all, not even thieves here seem to want them!

Jade408

I missed that one. Thanks!
I'd like to upgrade my wife's bike from a Fuji mixte, but not for that kind of money.

Thanks. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to figure out who built it. I went really slow with the paint removal (dark blue non-original top coat, light blue original paint, then a layer of clay-red primer) but it didn't give any additional clues. I thought perhaps it was French, but the threading is ISO.

The do-dad on the top tube is a quick-release for the rear brake. It's got a bit of chrome on the end of it, which is why I taped it in preparation for painting.

I think that's one of the nicest mixte frames I've seen.

I remember reading on this sight that one or two PX10 mixtes were special ordered and built. I'd like to get my hands on one of those.