Hi all,
I'm looking for manufacturer currently making mixte frames with split top tubes using modern components. I've always found the Centurion here (Show us your mixte (mhendricks' new happy place)) so classy looking, but I want the modern derailleurs, hubs, etc. Does anyone know of manufacturers making new mixte frames today?

My wife just bought a Liv BeLiv. About as close to a modern.mixte as I can think of.

Thank you both for the speedy responses!

Marc Muller custom built a Single Top Tube Elite Mixte for wife back in 1980 when Schwinn had the "anything you want" custom build available. I just preferred the single top tube.

from below link ".....When Ed Schwinn took over the company in 1979, one of the first things he did was to shut down Paramount production. If it couldn’t be a world-class bike then don’t make one until it could.

Marc was put in charge of re-building Paramount – almost from scratch. He started out by retooling the department including a new brazing fixture and alignment table. In June of ’80, the company decided it needed the Paramount back but that they would have to move out of the Chicago factory. Marc’s first bikes were built for Eric Heiden and the 7/11 team in 1980.That year, Schwinn brought back the Paramount as a super-custom bike – “anything you want” for the then outrageous sum of $3,000. These became known as the “Elite” Paramounts........"

Paramounts in Waterford 1980-1994

Mixte specifically refers to a frame with 2 thin tubes running from upper end of head tube, to rear dropout.

braced to seat tube as it passes by ..

Low standover frames are larger round single tubes, butting into the middle of the seat tube..

some add 2 small diameter midstays from middle of seat tube to rear dropout..

transferring forces the length of the frame..

..

There are plenty of classic/vintage mixte bikes out there, most are mild steel, even a few high end made with Reynolds 531 or Columbus steel. They are typically slow to sell & therefore low cost.

Buy one, have the dropouts spacing cold set to fit modern wheels, then build up with new components, what ever you like. Final cost can be lower than buying a new frame, but you are only saving frame cost. A truly low cost build will require finding lightly used, bargain components. Don

Im gonna remember this advice. I'm closing in on 60 and have been thinking of mixtes more and more often. Yet I love my old steel frame bike.

Built up, changed parts, a 531 miss Mercian, I found ..at a shop.. for a friend,

the use of the 1/2" thin wall mixte tubes resulted in a very noodly frame.

pulling on the end of the bars torqued the head tube, and the front wheel moved sideways..

The nicest affordable modern true mixte frame I've seen available in larger sizes is the Soma.

Find something like this with know common threading and put a new drivetrain on it.

https://chicago.craigslist.org/nwc/b...662505563.html

BobbyG,
Mixte frames are not quite as easy mount/dismount as the step thru style. Step thru is more popular with us Geezers. Watch for a 60's-70's Schwinn Super Sport. Straight gauge chrome moly frame and BB conversion kit available to get rid of steel crank. Ignore the high priced ones, they always come down.


I have a 531 Grand Jubile Mixte that's not like that, no more flexy than my men's SL frames, but I am small, so they're small frames. Don