What is a Mixte?
#1
Senior Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: omicron persei 8
Posts: 785
Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 0 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 3 Times
in
3 Posts
What is a Mixte?
Does a Mixte have to have the split top tube, or is the name based on the "Style" of frame.
Raleigh
Schwinn
Raleigh
Schwinn
#2
Forum Moderator
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Kalamazoo MI
Posts: 20,650
Bikes: Fuji SL2.1 Carbon Di2 Cannondale Synapse Alloy 4 Trek Checkpoint ALR-5 Viscount Aerospace Pro Colnago Classic Rabobank Schwinn Waterford PMount Raleigh C50 Cromoly Hybrid Legnano Tipo Roma Pista
Mentioned: 58 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 3090 Post(s)
Liked 6,593 Times
in
3,781 Posts
Depends on who you ask. Sheldon said that a "true" mixte has the two top tubes running from the head tube, past the seat tube, and run all the way to the drop outs.
https://www.sheldonbrown.com/gloss_m.html#mixte
That Schwinn is often called a "Faux Mixte". Doesn't make it a bad bike, just a different interpretation of the Mixte style.
https://www.sheldonbrown.com/gloss_m.html#mixte
That Schwinn is often called a "Faux Mixte". Doesn't make it a bad bike, just a different interpretation of the Mixte style.
#3
Senior Member
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada - burrrrr!
Posts: 11,674
Bikes: 1958 Rabeneick 120D, 1968 Legnano Gran Premio, 196? Torpado Professional, 2000 Marinoni Piuma
Mentioned: 210 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 1372 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 1,751 Times
in
938 Posts
This is an opinion and in my mind the Mixte must have the double top tube to be called a Mixte. Anything else isn't.
#4
French threaded
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Portland, OR.
Posts: 1,199
Bikes: many
Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 1 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 4 Times
in
4 Posts
A quick hunt through old threads will show that the general concensus defines the mixte by having the third set of rear stays as both the above examples do. In addition to the two stated styles motobecane using a splitting top tube that in mid span went from a single large diameter tube two two smaller stay before adjoining the seattube.
I won't even try to explain the trevor flying gate.
I won't even try to explain the trevor flying gate.
#5
Senior Member
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Pinole, CA, USA
Posts: 17,392
Mentioned: 24 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 443 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 27 Times
in
25 Posts
Depends on who you ask. Sheldon said that a "true" mixte has the two top tubes running from the head tube, past the seat tube, and run all the way to the drop outs.
https://www.sheldonbrown.com/gloss_m.html#mixte
That Schwinn is often called a "Faux Mixte". Doesn't make it a bad bike, just a different interpretation of the Mixte style.
https://www.sheldonbrown.com/gloss_m.html#mixte
That Schwinn is often called a "Faux Mixte". Doesn't make it a bad bike, just a different interpretation of the Mixte style.
#6
Senior Member
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Ann Arbor, MI
Posts: 16,874
Bikes: 1980 Masi, 1984 Mondonico, 1984 Trek 610, 1980 Woodrup Giro, 2005 Mondonico Futura Leggera ELOS, 1967 PX10E, 1971 Peugeot UO-8
Mentioned: 49 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 1856 Post(s)
Liked 664 Times
in
506 Posts
Always a popular discussion.
Do you really need to know? This will just come down again to argument over opinions.
#7
Light Makes Right
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Green Mountain, Colorado
Posts: 1,520
Bikes: Gianni Motta Criterium, Dean Hardtail
Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 0 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 0 Times
in
0 Posts
I was just thinking back to the discussion a couple months back about compact geometry. People kept crowing about "smaller triangles" being orders of magnitude stiffer. So here's my question. When you have roadies constantly in search of ultimate stiffness and carbon construction bringing the weight of a bike down well under UCI regs - why are modern race bikes not all mixtes? Not only are the triangles WAY smaller than even a compact frame, there's an extra one......
#8
Senior Member
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Ann Arbor, MI
Posts: 16,874
Bikes: 1980 Masi, 1984 Mondonico, 1984 Trek 610, 1980 Woodrup Giro, 2005 Mondonico Futura Leggera ELOS, 1967 PX10E, 1971 Peugeot UO-8
Mentioned: 49 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 1856 Post(s)
Liked 664 Times
in
506 Posts
I was just thinking back to the discussion a couple months back about compact geometry. People kept crowing about "smaller triangles" being orders of magnitude stiffer. So here's my question. When you have roadies constantly in search of ultimate stiffness and carbon construction bringing the weight of a bike down well under UCI regs - why are modern race bikes not all mixtes? Not only are the triangles WAY smaller than even a compact frame, there's an extra one......
#10
No I'm Not a Pirate!
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: The middle of somewhere in Indiana
Posts: 696
Mentioned: 1 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 2 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 0 Times
in
0 Posts
Because standard mixtes, with the twin tubes are not stiffer, and really are not even as stiff as a diamond frame. The top tube on a diamond frame, together wth teh down tube, resists the bb twisting with pedal force. The stiffness is proportional to the fourth power of diameter. Each twin tube is about half the diameter of a top tube and hence 1/16 the stiffness. Two of them are 1/8 the stiffness. But you still don't get even that reduced contribution to stiffness because the twin tubes are not TIGged or lugged to the seat post, they're just located with some little links. The "modern" mixte like the Schwinn that was shown has a standard diameter tube attached to the seat tube with either TIG or lugs. That gives you back the stiffness relative to the diamond. And, that dropped down tube gives the front "triangle" a shape that is very similar to MBs and compact road frames. So teh "modern" mixte should be about as good as a compact frame, but the true mixte should not.
It doesn’t take into account that Mixte frames are not only braced between the top tubes, but also braced to the seat tube, but most importantly the top tubes go all the way to the drop outs, where they are tied together by the rear axle.
But to try and infer that Mixte frames are significantly weaker and inherently overly flexible is in my opinion a fallacy. My own riding experience tells me that the Mixte frame I’m riding is no more, or less flexible than the dozens of diamond frames I’ve ridden in my life. Actually the stiffest frame I’ve ridden in some time was a U-frame aluminum bike, with oblong tubing. There was no discernable flex in that frame at all. I wonder why all the new super bikes haven’t adopted that style frame?
#11
Ride heavy metal.
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Teenage Wasteland, USA
Posts: 1,538
Bikes: '74 Raleigh LTD-3, '76 Motobecane Grand Jubile, '83 Fuji TSIII (customized commuter), '10 Mercier Kilo WT (fixed obsession), '83 Bianchi Alloro, '92 Bridgestone MB-1 (project), '83 Specialized Expedition (project), '79 Peugeot UO-8 (sold)
Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 2 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 1 Time
in
1 Post
#12
Retro-Direct Fan
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Boulder, Colorado
Posts: 159
Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 0 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 0 Times
in
0 Posts
I was just thinking back to the discussion a couple months back about compact geometry. People kept crowing about "smaller triangles" being orders of magnitude stiffer. So here's my question. When you have roadies constantly in search of ultimate stiffness and carbon construction bringing the weight of a bike down well under UCI regs - why are modern race bikes not all mixtes? Not only are the triangles WAY smaller than even a compact frame, there's an extra one......
The extra triangle only provides more stiffness to the seat tube, which is irrelevant. And the two-continuous-tubes is really an advantage specific to steel, so moving carbon frame shapes nearer to mixte geometry is really just moving the top tube/seat tube/seat stay junction lower, which some frame builders both advocate and do.
Is there a reason not to go all the way down to a straight mixte-like line, and if so is that reason technical or regulatory? Beats me.
#13
Senior Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: omicron persei 8
Posts: 785
Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 0 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 3 Times
in
3 Posts
Thanks guys, I was not trying to start a debate or anything. I have just been buying every one of them I see for sale so I wanted to know a little more about them.
#14
Bianchi Goddess
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Shady Pines Retirement Fort Wayne, In
Posts: 27,858
Bikes: Too many to list here check my signature.
Mentioned: 192 Post(s)
Tagged: 2 Thread(s)
Quoted: 2930 Post(s)
Liked 2,923 Times
in
1,491 Posts
IMHO a Mixtie should have the twin "toptubes" that become stays
PDXaero just what is that?
PDXaero just what is that?
__________________
“One morning you wake up, the girl is gone, the bikes are gone, all that's left behind is a pair of old tires and a tube of tubular glue, all squeezed out"
Sugar "Kane" Kowalczyk
“One morning you wake up, the girl is gone, the bikes are gone, all that's left behind is a pair of old tires and a tube of tubular glue, all squeezed out"
Sugar "Kane" Kowalczyk
#15
Senior Member
Baines Flying Gate
https://sports.webshots.com/photo/208...55521085SDqfvf
https://sports.webshots.com/photo/208...55521085SDqfvf
#16
Lug Princess
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: Easthaven Isle, ME
Posts: 910
Mentioned: 1 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 4 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 5 Times
in
5 Posts
If you are looking for "sexy bikes" to resell, than regardless of definition the ones with twin lateral stays have the most caché at the moment.
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post
rgvg
Classic & Vintage
5
10-16-18 09:11 AM
macman58
Classic & Vintage
19
05-08-10 07:54 PM