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Univega Sportour Mixte by Eat More Plants1, on Flickr

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Univega Sportour Mixte by Eat More Plants1, on Flickr

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Univega Sportour Mixte by Eat More Plants1, on Flickr

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Univega Sportour Mixte by Eat More Plants1, on Flickr

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Univega Sportour Mixte by Eat More Plants1, on Flickr

The blue Sport Tour in the above post looks like the sweetest of rides! Well done on the restoration!!!

I'm in the middle of building up my second Univega mixte. I have to agree on the underlying quality! (I have an '82 Viva Sport and am working on an '83 Gran Tourismo.) The bottom bracket grease on the Viva Sport was like tan-colored gravel and the bearings were un-salvageable. On the other hand, the 7 speed free-hub with the Shimano 600 derailleur and indexed shifters worked flawlessly - until the 35 year old plastic housing on the shift levers crumbled away. I'm back to Suntour Superbe friction shifters on the center downtube braze-on and all's well again :)

Thanks, i checked allot. Miss is around 1988 BUT non of the ones i seen are Mixte :foo:

Why thank you, it was a real pleasure. I've gone down the rabbit hole with so many bikes with bad this, stuck this or that, rusted here and there, missing whatever, I feel like this was the universe giving back. Although my wife's Univega mixte, which is an older, lower-end model, was just as easy to work on (although it needed a more thorough going-through) and is also a sublime ride (at her request I've upgraded to a full indexed system since this pic).

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DSC_3895 by Eat More Plants1, on Flickr

Univega Contrast
 

2017 Chapman

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02 Chapman by iabisdb, on Flickr

Another project underway.
1984 (or earlier) JC Penney Echelon mixte. Looks like it was made by Huffy. The components were stripped at the local bike coop. The frame & fork were headed for the scrap metal bin. My plans are to make it into a single speed beach cruiser. Coaster brake, alloy rims, widest tires I can fit.

A couple quick notes. An unusual seat post and fixing bolt The seat post is C-shaped aluminum with a slot machined out the entire length. A nut rides inside the slot and the bolt sticks out the backside of the seat tube. A steel plug was added at the top to keep the seat clamp from collapsing the post. . Pretty weak front end. Look at the last photos to see the holes in the mixte tubes just behind the head tube. Made in the USA, kinda rare for a mixte. Welded on kickstand bracket. Aero down tube. Several bike and part companies jumped on the aero wagon in prep for the 1984 Olympics and Huffy got in on that with the Aerowind 10 speed bike. 2 or 3 serial numbers? The big stores like Sears would have numbers that indicated the supplier, a model number and a serial number. My guess is the number on the head tube is the serial number and the numbers on the left rear dropout are a supplier code and a model number. These would be used to properly identify the bike so correct spare parts could be sent out to uninformed consumers who could not mentally handle non-oem replacement parts. The bottom bracket shell has 4 holes punched for the seat tube, downtube and chain stays. No mitering needed. Just cut the tubes to approximate length and brass braze in to place. No fillet brazing, just enough to hold the tubes in place. Oh, tubes is being kind. This sort of mass market bike is made from sheet metal folded over to look like tubes. Most carbon-steel frame tubes are made using that method even on name brand bikes.

Took a bunch of before photos.
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more detail photos at flickr
https://www.flickr.com/photos/rickpa...57702513643834

Captivante Berceau
 

Wow, that Captivante is special! I've owned a lot of mixtes - mostly French - but have never seen one as interesting as this. I'm a little envious.

weeks later, done with the rebuild.
single speed coaster brake rear hub laced in to 26x1.5 aluminum mtb rims. 26x1.5 knobbs with hardly any room to spare. A smooth tread tire would fit better and ride better but I don't haven spares at the moment. I painted the sprocket with some left over copper/gold paint. . The purple crank, purple sprocket guard, and purple handle bars are from a donor bike. The splash painted stem was from another donor bike. After the first test ride, I changed the 16t for a 18t cog. That should suit some pre-teen better. The bike is going to the local Marine Corps Toys for Tots annual Christmas giveaway in a couple weeks. The bike rides like a cruiser, long and low with a relaxed front end.

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@#$%! that evil white stuff in the background.

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Just brought this Peugeot mixte back from the Bike Exchange last weekend for some love.

Looks to be late 60's . At first glance the paint is pretty good.


Weight as delivered ie just shy of 30 lbs with the cottered cranks and steel wheels.

With new alu wheels and a new square taper crank I should get the weight down to 28 lbs or less


I currently have the frame stripped and am starting the cleaning process

1 wipe down with simple green

2 wipe down with paint thinner to get the caked on grease off

3 rub paint with white polishing compound

4 treat rusted areas with naval jelly ( I have found that naval jelly does not react with paiont so it is possible to paint the entire frame with it to get all or most of the rust off.

5 any areas that are badly rusted and the navel jelly doesn't get off are scrapped with the edge of a razor blade to cut through the rust crust then treated again.

6 Clean old clear lacquer off chrome forks with acetone

7 If necessary paint bare metal with rustoleum primer ( spray from can onto a flat surface then daub on the bike with a brush )

At this point I will probably lightly sand the frame with 1000 grit wet/dry paper then spray a Rustoleum clear lacquer top coat on everything including the chrome

That's pretty dang cool, I'm a sucker for any bike boom brand pre or early boom specimens. :thumb:

Keep in mind that the seat, even in this state may have value. ;)

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here are a few snaps of the bike after I rehabbed it .
Deep clean
rubbed out paint with white polishing compound,
Sprayed clear coat on frame
replaced steel wheels with alu and new tires
replaced steel crank with square tapered alu
deleted 52 tooth chain ring and front derailleur
replaced seat (new used seat taken apart and all chrome cleaned, seat vinyl cleaned and conditioned)
new used polished Pletcher rack
New used pedals
Al cables and covers replaced.
Mafac brakes replaced with polished side pulls
Weight reduced with all the substitutions from 30 lbs to 27 lbs

Very nice rehab!! You turned a dog into a rose.

Motobecane Nomade Sprint. My wife loved the color, so I cleaned it up for her, put new rubber on it, ​​and swapped out the simplex derailleurs for some Suntour stuff I had around. If she still likes it next winter I will look into alloy rims and stem/bars.

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My Apollo Mixte! My favourite cafe cruiser. https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...df79174973.jpg

I built this Fuji Gran Tourer up for my little sister:
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In addition to going thru all the bearings and replacing worn out parts I redid the paint and decals as well as switched it over to indexed shifting to make it easier for her to ride.

Nice! I would love to find a Fuji Mixte.

Thanks. We decided to keep the drop bar style (even though I changed to some nicer aluminum bars) on this bike because that gives a person a number of handlebar positions instead of the one you get with upright bars, which a lot of folks are using on mixte bikes to now. This will be better for my sister because she thought she might eventually want to take this on some longer rides.

As you might guess, I have a thing for mixte frame bikes -
This one I picked up yesterday, for $60, makes a total of 5 of these things I have now.

This one is a real time capsule - An Araya-built "Made For" Puch Pathfinder.
It's a time capsule, because the woman I bought it from said it was only ridden once, and I believe it.
She said she bought it for her sister-in-law, in 1986, who only tried it out one time, and then left it at the woman's house,
and never looked back.
It's been stored in a climate-controlled garage, this whole time.
She was selling it because she was moving away, because of the hurricane destruction - I've heard lot of that story, lately.

Anyway, it's perfectly clean - Not even dirt or rust on the chain.
It's by far the most pristine bike I've ever bought, and at my price point, pretty unique that way
The tires are still good, the brake pads still soft, and the paint with only minor scuffs, from moving it around -
A beautiful "Chromo Velato" burgundy.
Suntour AR drivetrain, Sugino crankset, Dia Compe brakes, Araya 27" rims.
The frame is Araya "Hi-Ten" butted tube, according to the sticker.

It came from a shop in Tallahassee, and she said she had the purchase paperwork (somewhere) from 1986, but I think the bike is really about a 1980 +/-, from what I've been able to gather -
No serial # database for these, unfortunately, but '79 - '83 is when the Araya Puchs were built, I believe.
If anyone has better info, I'd love to hear.