Mixte frame revelation/realisation!

[non-fixie]

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

Not to get into a fight over this - I am really just curious - but do you know of any evidence of this?

I know this idea is being repeated over the internet, but the word 'unisex' stems from the 1960's, and AFIK the thinking behind it isn't much older.

 

[Mickeyspinn]

I suppose mixte could mean it's use?
So a sporting ride but also civilised enough to wear a long coat in winter!
I say if you like it ride it! If it's not butch enough ride a butchers bike!
I gues in today's world we all need to identify or pigeon hole... LGBTQ+mixte....maybe I dunno it's a mixte up world eh?
Either way a mixte is unique in its ride...taught rear and supple main triangle ....erm triangle? ...front end then!
love em or hate em they are slowly being cottoned onto

 

[non-fixie]

I say if you like it ride it!

Best advice of the day!

 

[dirttorpedo]

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.

From what I understand the whole women's frame / men's frame concept is a bit outdated as there are women and men who are best suited to each design approach (I'm referring to body proportions and not the step through concept). There is also probably space for a tall person short person frame / bike design approach as well if the industry were truly interested in making bikes that fit a wider proportion of the population.

So I agree with you - there is room for mixte frames that are designed to body proportions more commonly found in males as well as frames designed for body proportions more commonly found in females.

I have no idea what body proportions designers of vintage mixte bikes followed.

 

[dirttorpedo]

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.

One of my cycling friends told me that when he gets older he's getting a mixte because he doesn't want to have to stretch his leg up over a top tube when he's in his 70's. I thought - fair enough.

 

[Chdot]

I like mixte frames.

Its very sad that a unisex design - for t'is what mixte means - is traditionally viewed as a girls bike over here, when that was never the case. In blighty there lingers this sad and slightly sexist notion that anything without a crossbar is a girls bike.

I think they're great, and if I ever found one large enough to accomodate a 6'5" lard-O then I'll snap it up.

The first mixte I can remember seeing was a Raleigh Misty

It was owned by a man

He bought it because he wanted a bike that he could ride with a kilt on

Found this thread because I have a revived interest in mixtes

Just bought one

https://www.retrobike.co.uk/threads/classic-carlton-courette-mixte-1963.488565/

 

[MattiThundrrr]

Mixte was a French design, word translates to "mixed". They were for men and women. Original versions were called Priest Bikes.

""unisex" was rendered as "priesterrijwiel" or "priest's bicycle" since the lowered top tube made it more dignified to ride in a frock"
https://www.audio-talk.co.uk/fiultra/BICYCLE Utopia Kranich A Little History of the Crossframe Mixte.html

 

[bikeworkshop]

Mixte was a French design, word translates to "mixed". They were for men and women. Original versions were called Priest Bikes.
View attachment 913131
""unisex" was rendered as "priesterrijwiel" or "priest's bicycle" since the lowered top tube made it more dignified to ride in a frock"
https://www.audio-talk.co.uk/fiultra/BICYCLE Utopia Kranich A Little History of the Crossframe Mixte.html

"Mixte" is used for unisex hairdresser in France - I assumed it was taken from there.

The twin toptubes running to the rear dropouts should stiffen the frame laterally to allow a heavier rider on a finer tubeset.

As a style I would say the average quality is above the trad "ladies' frame" dropped toptube.
(Not exclusively obvs)

Quite a few larger British manufacturers offered nice 531 mixte tourers.

I don't think @MattiThundrrr 's "priest bike" made it to the UK, but then we burned all the priests in the civil war.

 

[Woz]

going to try and order a "unisex" salad the next time I'm in the bistro.

Like said before, at least in relatively modern times, the mixte frame design was firmly targeted to women wanting a more solid sporty or touring frame set. Looking in the 60s, 70s and 80s catalogues of Motobecane, Gitane and Peugeot is pretty categoric.

 

[MattiThundrrr]

From the Blasphemy Files:

A little snip here, a little chop there...

And tadaaaaa, it's a man's frame!
One thing about all those extra tubes is that there's plenty of room for radical modification.

I'll just show myself to the "Sweaty" thread