My wife is expressing the desire for a new bike, and I would love to just transfer parts from her existing Electra Townie to a better frame. She wants something a little sportier than what she currently has while remaining in a step-through frame.

So I'm in search of a mixte frameset with horizontal dropouts (to keep her existing IGH hub) and disc brake tabs (to keep her existing brakes). Anyone know if such a frame exists? Thanks!

Does an IGH really insist that the dropouts be horizontal? I'll bet it will be easier to find a torque arm to let an IGH work with 'standard' dropouts than to find the frame you are looking for. That said, the sweetest, most awesome mixte I've ever seen is made by Vanilla Bikes of Portland, Oregon but I suspect you have to be a recent Powerball winner to consider buying one.

H

And you'd have to find something else to ride for five years according to their website. Sweet bikes though.

That Vanilla does, indeed, look pretty awesome. Five year wait... OUCH!

I'll keep an eye out for a mixte frame with disc tabs and vertical dropouts just in case.

You could buy a C&V mixtie with horizontal dropouts and have disc tabs added. People do it to Surly Crosschecks.

Many European city/trekking bikes come with IGH and disk brakes, so they would fit the bill. I don't know how you feel about ordering the frame online, without being able to test it. Instead of a "full" mixte design, would a steeply dropping top tube do? Roseversand for example has some options, here's one:

https://www.roseversand.com/article/e...axi/aid:506255

Actually, if the steep slope top tube is OK, I think I've seen a few Kona frames with IGH and disks. Those would be available for you locally.

--J

[edit] Or, if a sloping top tube is still too high, how about a folder? Dahon Ios XL? [/edit]

Sloping top tube might still be too high for her, but thanks for the suggestion.

I'm no stranger to folders as I own a Bike Friday Tikit. A larger wheeled folder is definitely an option. I guess I was hoping to find something that I could just transfer her existing components to, without buying an entire new bike. That might not be an option from what I've seen thus far.

IGH & Drum braked hubs is more do able.. with existing big wheel bikes.

I have a 406 wheel 160 disc brake bike friday pocket Llama
the front brake (Avid mountain BB 7) grabs rather suddenly,
I've been put off the saddle a few times when the bike stops and I don't.
but that is at low speeds .. so mostly I end up on my feet.

The Soma Buena Vista is I think, the only stock mixte frame. It has horizontal droputs but no disk mount. You can have this brazed on by a frame-builder but check that the mixte design is compatible. The normal seatstay location interferes with racka nd fender mounts. The chainstay position may be restricted by the extra mixte stays.

This shouldn't be happening. Good to hear that you have not been injured.
If the bike has a horizontal bar, it might be worth trying some MTB-style brake levers that allow you to dial in the brake responsiveness and modulation, such as the Avid "speed dial" series.

How would a bike with long horizontal drops work with traditional disk brake mount...? Line it up ahead of time with a frame builder -- get something like the Soma Buena Vista and have a builder weld in some Paragon d/o's -- vertical dropout with disk tabs, but the whole assembly moves, so the disk follows the wheel.

Those Paragon dropouts are pretty cool. Thanks for the tip.

Define 'grabs suddenly'. Does the brake come on if you just look at the lever,or when applying the brake does it suddenly lock up? In the first case you should be able to back off the pads or use your lever's barrel adjuster to put some slack in the cable. If it's the second case,then something is def wrong. As it's a folder the first thing I would check would be the cables to make sure they're working smoothly and nothing's getting bound up with the fold/unfold. Next I'd check the caliper to make sure it's on straight. I bought a bike new from a shop once that had the front caliper on crooked. Then I'd check to make sure the rotor wasn't warped. You can simply bend a warped rotor back into shape with an adjustable wrench(or buy Park Tool's 'tuning fork' tool) and just flexing it. Also check the actuator arm on the outside of the caliper;when you release the brake it should snap all the way back to the stop. If it doesn't,loosen the cable,let the arm go back to the stop,then tighten and adjust the cable.

I also just thought of something;do you have a road(caliper/canti) or MTB(V/disc) lever? A road lever on a MTB BB7 might cause this issue as well.

This is more of a note to myself than anything. Other than the Soma Buena Vista, Origin8 makes the Mixer... the only other production mixte frame Ive been able to find.