Mixte frame revelation/realisation!

[averagebiker]

So what makes it a ladies bike instead of a mixte then

 

[averagebiker]

I have checked with Sheldon and his website says I have a ladies bike not a mixte. I trust Sheldon and stand corrected.
I any case to me they are the same it's just mine is not so elegantly formed
It will serve me well.

 

[Mickeyspinn]

Well um see it's kinda a manly thing..
You that know more steel is bigger better stronger right like all good man stuff?

Well a mixte has two parallel top tubes and they go all the way down to the rear dropout! Giving you six rear stays instead of four cos well more is more manly right? therefore it's kinda mixte up and hence it well erm it just couldn't be a ladies bike solely... Um does that explain?



Just wear a kilt and it'll all be fine

 

[averagebiker]

Well um see it's kinda a manly thing..
You that know more steel is bigger better stronger right like all good man stuff?

Well a mixte has two parallel top tubes and they go all the way down to the rear dropout! Giving you six rear stays instead of four cos well more is more manly right? therefore it's kinda mixte up and hence it well erm it just couldn't be a ladies bike solely... Um does that explain?



Just wear a kilt and it'll all be fine

I think I prefer my big butch single dropped cross bar to those namby pamby thin, twin thingies anyway

 

[Mickeyspinn]

Namby Pamby... Twin thingies ..!!. cheek!
Watch it I've got a handbag you know
And I'm not scared to swing it!

 

[bagpuss]

Oops wrong thread.....

 

[non-fixie]

I do not know where the idea of the mixte being designed as a "unisex" frame came from. Without exception they were marketed as women's bikes BITD. AFIK the mixte frame was a (rather successful) attempt to make stiff, sporty frames available to women. Which is a good thing.

 

[dirttorpedo]

I do not know where the idea of the mixte being designed as a "unisex" frame came from. Without exception they were marketed as women's bikes BITD. AFIK the mixte frame was a (rather successful) attempt to make stiff, sporty frames available to women. Which is a good thing.


View attachment 623333

I recall it being that was as well, but I grew up in Canada. There is definitely a move to promote the mixte and low kicker style frame as unisex now. Rivendell had a men's mixte many years ago and now I see velo orange selling a low kicker polyvalent.

 

[non-fixie]

There is definitely a move to promote the mixte and low kicker style frame as unisex now.

I know. And I don't like it. Women and men have different preferences and body characteristics.

So even if you believe, for some reason, that we should all be riding step-through frames, then those for women and men should be different. "Unisex" is a compromise that is not going to make many cyclists happy.

 

[Chopper the ex Copper]

I do not know where the idea of the mixte being designed as a "unisex" frame came from. Without exception they were marketed as women's bikes BITD. AFIK the mixte frame was a (rather successful) attempt to make stiff, sporty frames available to women. Which is a good thing.


View attachment 623333

The mixte frame appeared in the years following WW1. Youll have to go back a lot further than that example to discover its origins and marketing.

Indeed, the very word mixte harks back to its origin as a mixed sex frame.

What happened in the years leading up to WW2 and beyond where it did indeed become feminised as ladies frame has nothing to do with its origins.

What it became was not what it was intended as at birth.

And now things have gone full circle, and boutique mixed frames are again being sold as suitable for both, again, with renewed marketing emphasis on the reasoning behind the origin of the name mixte.

Considering most people buy off the shelf frames anyway and very few give any genuine thought to detail fit, there is no reason why a mixte frame is any more or less suitable for anyone provided it is sized correctly. There are plenty of blokes out there on sub optimal fit mens frames that seem happy enough with their lot, just as plenty of fellers drive Fiat 500s.