Hi Claudia (uforgot),

Here's in brief the story of my mixte. I have problems from time to time with wrist pain, so the mixte story starts with my search for the perfect handlebars.

I put the Albatross bars on my road bike and overall liked them, but the position was a bit too upright for me without switching stems and so I started thinking about a custom frame that might have a slightly longer top tube so I wouldn't need a really long stem.

Also somewhat relatedly, because of the position I like (semi-upright), and my proportions/height, I am kind of on the border for a properly designed 700C frame for drop bars - I like to be positioned a bit behind the pedals and with my desired reach to the bars a "normal" road bike will have more toe overlap than I like. Having a custom frame with a slightly longer top tube for the swept bars yet enough standover clearance for me seemed like the way to go.

Another idea I had was to explore commissioning a small run of hand made "versatile road bikes" (not a hybrid, not a touring bike, but able to take on medium width tires say 25 - 35 mm) because I felt the bike makers weren't making what I wanted. When I met with my favorite local bikeshop, the owner said he would like to see someone make a nice road mixte.

So, the idea of a bike designed for swept back bars and with a little extra standover clearance got merged with the local bikeshop's idea for a mixte.

With perhaps a few exceptions that differ from my mixte in various details,the mixte has disappeared as a model from current bikes and I thought it would be fun to bring it back in a "new/old" version.

Hope that makes sense.

Cheers,

Michael