Picked up this Nishiki Sport Mixte for $20 from CL today. I've been looking for well over a year for a mixte to refurb and ride around for fun. This is perfect! The H got it all torn apart today and I'm going to start stripping the paint off and deciding what it's new color will be. Me thinks mustard yellow or orange which will look lovely with a pretty wicker basket.



Now I have to decide what to do about the other mixte, an old Azuki with fancy lugs and nice components, which is being held indefinitely for me. It's a very nice bike but also much more expensive and needs a lot of tlc. Since the mixte will be a fun bike and not my commuter or anything, I might have to pass on the Azuki. Ack! Decisions!



And I'm going to work on them in the new garage workshop my H built as a suprise for me a few weeks ago! My bench mount repair stand came today. And ignore the PBR - it was the neighbors.

Good luck on your project and as always, post lots of pics!

The Nishiki's paint doesn't look too bad except for maybe the seat stays, why do you want to repaint it? Great score by the way, and the H carved out a great space for you!

+1 That paint looks good to me. A bike has its original paint once. Ditto the original decals. Will cost more than the bike is worth to replicate this stuff.

Your Nishiki looks a lot like my Centurion. Mine started as a $20 frameset off C/L as well.

Started like this:



Now it looks like this:

PASS on the Azuki. It has been in a front end collision (no matter how nice the downtube might appear) - note the angle of the top lug socket in comparison to the tubes.

-Kurt

The paint is just OK on the nishiki and you can't really see it in the pics. It has lots of scratches and chips when you get up close and the current color is pretty much last on my list. It is a shame to get rid of the decals as they are all in perfect shape. But I've been wanting a mixte for so long and have a very distinct idea of what I want color-wise...and I'm not finding it, so paint (or powdercoat) it is.

I recently got my commuter, a '92 Bridgestone XO-2, all spiffed up and was looking forward to having an in depth project for the winter. Yipee!

Thanks for the observation on the Azuki!

Believe it or not, yesterday I heard a knock at the front window. Upon investigation(looked to see what was making the noise) I saw a fellow that I used to work with stand there. He then held up a very clean mid seventies candy blue Peugeot Mixte, shouted "here you go" and left the bike leaning against the door.

I rushed to the door but could not open it because the bike was leaning against it. So, I zoomed to the back door and out but he had already pulled away in his pick-up.

I called him at his house later and thanked him for the generous gift. He said that his wife wanted it gone and he could not think of a better place for it to go. Now I have another Peugeot Mixte, one candy blue and one candy red, an orange Jeunet MIxte, a purple Raleigh Grand Prix Mixte, a candy red Sekine Mixte, a turquoise Le Circuit Mixte, and a couple of others that do not come to mind just now. But, as usual, the nicest one I have ever seen in person, so to speak, was an early seventies lime green Jeunet Mixte. See pic.



The funny thing is, I really don't like Mixte frame sets but they are certainly gaining in popularity. However, for the life of me I cannot figure out why? Guess that's why they make two kinds of ice cream.

I bought a Nishiki a couple of weeks ago. It was a (chromoly) frame and a box of parts. I've rebuilt a couple of peugeot mixtes, and dealt with the various french problems, so I'm looking forward to putting together a japanese one. And anyway, I think the crankarms are cool.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! Please don't strip the original paint. Just saying. .. . .

Understood. I spent the better part of three months looking for a bike for my wife with one major stipulation: it can be any color at all, as long as it isn't blue. I had to pass up quite a few nice bikes that I didn't want to repaint, most recently a lovely Carlton.

Great find, I like the bars. It's not so easy to find a nice mixte OR that shape bar either.

Ya, they are exactly the style of bars I wanted and in excellent shape. It came with two front wheels, LOL, neither in good shape so we'll replace those. Jury is out on the rest. The deraileurs look trashed, we'll see. I can use the brakes although I might buy new levers because the one's it came with are pretty rough looking.