leicanthrope

I just picked up this Jeunet mixte on a lark this afternoon, for a price that would be pretty respectable just for the saddle alone. Anyhow, I was wondering if those of you that are experienced with older French bikes could help me out with this a bit. Anyone recognize the model and the vintage of this one? Is this a decent enough bike to bother with the restoration?

southpawboston

Jeunet was a French bike maker in the early 70s that made everything from low end gas pipe 10 speeds to full Reynolds/Campy racing bikes. They were known for having a lot of nice French touches, for example the baby blue/black color theme of your mixte is very characteristic of a French bike. It's also characteristic of Jeunets (and most French bikes) to have poor finish quality such as poorly filed lugs. But this is not necessarily indicative of ride quality, and Jeunets tend to ride nicely. I think your mixte falls in the lower range, probably made with hi-ten tubing and cottered steel crankset. It also looks like the fork may have been replaced, I don't recall if any Jeunets came with all-chrome forks. Value-wise, I don't think it's worth much, but if you like the ride and the appearance, it may be worth upgrading the components and cleaning up the paint a bit. There's something desirable about French mixtes, a certain je ne sais quoi!

My Jeunet had the same color theme as yours, but I made the mistake of stripping it and powder coating it another color. I converted mine from a road bike into a gentleman's city bike. I still love it and commute daily on it, the ride is very comfortable and the handling responsive and snappy, but I should have kept that original baby blue!

Bianchigirll 

Nice find, it looks tall for a Mixte. It is certainly worth fixing up and making a decent rider of it but if your idea of restoring it something like SouthPawBoston did that would be strictly a labor of love. A good overhaul with tires and cable should make this a great rider.

oddjob2

I'm Oddjob2, and I'm a mixte flipper addict! I've got over 12 to recondition currently, most have better paint than the photo above.

If you overhauled it and made it look cute, a Cal or Stanford coed or professor will pay you $250 +/- all day long. Make sure to put a $15 wicker basket on the bars and new whitewall tires ($17/pair @ niagara). Actually, if you parked it with a for sale sign in the basket, outside the local latte lounge in downtown Los Gatos, you could probably get $300 for it!

Motobecane Mirage Before


After - now living a happy life in Manhattan.

PaintItCeleste

I recently did a complete overhaul on a Bianchi mixte, and oddjob, I think I too am becoming something of a junkie when it comes to these frames. I just love 'em! As you'll see, Leicanthrope, there are mixed opinions on the forum here, regarding how you bring C&Vs back to life. I did as southpaw did, completely revamped the bicycle, to my liking, rather than keeping it original. Southpaw, I think your bike there looks fantastic! But I'm very comfortable leaving the "keep it original" camp at times.

marley mission

a labor of love - thin margin for profit on mixtes imo in my area at least
i stay away

edit: btw - i'm talking flip potential
i generally think mixties rock
just dont know if i see them as 'keeper fleet' material for me
mostly because they run too small for me
i still kinda miss my carbolite 80s pug - that think could move

oddjob2

In your case MM, I would agree. You find Klein Jewelry at blue light special pricing. Just hold the $50 and under mixtes, with decent paint, for me to pick up when I'm in NNJ!

marley mission

ok - i'll keep an eye out

rootboy 

Well, as you know, most of us are against painting bikes, but it's hard to turn up a nose at that bike and color. Gorgeous.

T-Mar

I can't give you the exact year, but it idoes appear to be early 1970s, as you state. It is a Jeunet model 611, Dole Stadium.

southpawboston

Upon searching images of Jeunet mixtes, it's becoming clear that some models DID come with an all-chrome fork, so the fork may actually be original, unlike as I first thought.

randyjawa 

I have owned several Jeune bicycles over the years but never have I come across one with an all chrome front fork. That is not to say that they do not exist. The nicest Jeunet Mixte ever to come my way was this green and black beauty shown in "as found" condition. I sold the bike years ago and, as I recall, it fetched a pretty decent price...

leicanthrope

I haven't got a metric tape measure handy, but it looks like it's a 22.5" frame. I'm on the tall side, but have somewhat short legs, so it seems to fit me pretty well.

At the moment, I haven't really got the workspace to pull off a full-on restoration of the type that southpaw took on. A repaint would involve me sitting outside for hours on end while the paint dries, just to make sure that the damn thing doesn't wander off on it's own. I'll probably just content myself with enough of a functional recondition so that it'll be a bit better as a daily rider. I'm not absolutely keeping everything completely original, but I find myself leaning towards at least keeping it all more or less period appropriate. I'd just feel weird slapping something too space-age looking on a bike like this.

leicanthrope

After an exhaustive bout of Google Image searching by year (i.e. 1972 Jeunet, then 1973 Jeunet, etc.), it appears that the solid chrome forks were unique to the 1974 model year. In lieu of any other evidence, that may well be as best of a guess as I'm going to be able to get as to the precise age of the bike.

clasher

Oh yeah nice find for sure. If you got it for a song I'd at least clean it up nicely and service all the bearings. I like working with these old french bikes so I'm gonna suggest this is worthy of a few hours love for sure.