What to do with Mixte handlebars?

[Eden]

Yup - my mom had a Paris Sport 10 speed Mixte that she got in the 70's. It was just like my dad's - same color and everything except for the frame shape. Both bikes were sport/tourers with drop handlbars. Too bad I didn't know that they'd be collectors items these days

[xeney]

I was going to say, most mixtes were sold with drop bars and are perfectly comfortable to ride that way. Some came in "touring" models that had flattish bars. I've never seen an old one that had anything like albatross bars -- they are more like the bars you see on old Raleighs and Schwinns.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I wasn't thinking about the 1970-1980's mixtes, I was thinking about the vintage 1940-50's mixtes, like this 1940's Hawthorne: http://www.teamkarim.com/bikes/used/.../071006-14.jpg
or this 1950's Murray: http://www.teamkarim.com/bikes/used/.../013106-18.jpg

By the time the 70's and 80's came along, everyone was jumping on the racing bike bandwagon (we have some pretty amusing cycling magazines from that era), and hybrids hadn't even been invented yet. Drop bars were the thing everyone wanted.

[xeney]

Ah, those aren't mixtes, they are just step-through frames. I think there were Dutch mixtes around then but I am pretty sure they didn't become common until the 70s.

[Eden]

Both of those are step through frames - true mixtes have a top tube that goes all the way back past the seat tube meeting the seat stays at the rear drop out. I suspect Xeney is correct, there were some around before the 70's but, it seems that they became quite popular at that time period as an intermediate step between a heavy "women's" step through frame and a men's racing bike. They allowed a low top tube, for womanly propriety, but were stiffer, stronger and lighter than a traditional step through.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Oh, ok, I'm thinking of the older "step through" bikes then- did they call them "step through bikes" back then?, or just "women's bikes" or what? I thought the term mixte meant a non-horizontal top tube bike that allowed skirt wear or senior riders who couldn't swing their legs over a "regular" top tube.
Sorry, my confusion.

So... does anyone know when "actual" mixtes were invented, then?

[xeney]

A mixte has three rear stays. From Sheldon Brown:

A style of lady's frame in which the "top tube" consists of a pair of small diameter tubes running more-or-less straight from the upper head lug, past the seat tube, and on to the rear fork ends. A mixte frame thus has 3 sets of rear stays, instead of the usual two. A variant on the mixte uses a single, full sized top tube running from the upper head tube to the seat tube, but retains the middle set of stays. A lady's type bike that lacks the middle pair of stays is not a mixte.

Mixte frames are stronger than conventional lady's frames, particularly in resisting the tendency of the seat tube to get pushed backward in the middle when ridden by a heavy rider

In French, "mixte" would be pronounced "MEExt", but normal U.S. bicycle industry pronunciation is "MIX-ty".

I think the other step-through frames are just "ladies' bikes." I have seen photographs of bikes that looked like mixtes from early in the 20th century, but I don't think they were common or necessarily aimed at women then. I saw one in a gallery of old Dutch bikes, as well, but a lot of those bikes had weird, non-diamond frames so I am not sure if they were commonly made (or even how old they were). I have also seen one for sale on eBay that was purported to be custom built from the 50s, and the seller wanted a gajillion dollars for it, but I have no idea if it was legit or not.

[Triskeliongirl]

My impression is that true Mixte's were invented and popular in the 70s/80s for women that couldn't be fit on men's frames but wanted a more serious road bike than the older step through ladies frames. If I recall mine had a shorter top top than the same sized guy's bike, which is why I bought it, yet it was still light for its day (I did carry it up and down several flights of stairs daily in my cambridge apartment). BTW, mine was classified as a 'sport tourer', a univega nuevo sport. I'd kill to get my hands on the frame specs now. I really regretted giving that one away, although it went to a needy person so I shouldn't.

[uforgot]

I have found a total of four mixtes at local flea markets and craigslist. three of them had the original parts on them and all four had drop bars. I've decided to keep the drop bars this time. When I put the upright bars on my Bianchi mixte, it wasn't comfortable at all for me. My Nishiki has the drop bars, original to the bike, and they are perfect except for the width. 38cm. I am going to put 42 cm drops on it this weekend. Other things I have done with it are a brooks saddle, back rack and a kickstand. Man, I'm a dork, but it stands up better in my classroom and doesn't fall over when someone goes to sharpen their pencil.

Oh, and I'm thinking of having it powder coated this summer. Sweetie Green.