Barrettscv 

My daughter is a cycling commuter and a weekend cyclist. She will take a bike tour in Europe this summer and plans to Ride the Katy Trail the next time she visits my wife and I in Edwardsville, Illinois

I decided to build up a vintage Mixte for her to use while touring and riding locally while visiting. I found a 1978ish Nishiki Olympic in good condition. the bike had clearly been idle for many years. It was not ready to ride and I decided to convert almost every component to improve its overall performance.

The heavy 27 inch steel rimmed wheels were replaced with 700c touring wheels from a Miyata 615. The replacement wheels include 36 spokes on the front and 40 spokes at the rear. The Belgium made Elesa alloy rims are 23mm wide and the Japanese Sansin hubs are ideal for touring. I installed 700x32 Continental Touring Plus. The bike could accept a larger tire, including most 700x35 and some 700x38.

The Dia-Compe center pull brakes were replaced with new Tektro long reach caliper brakes. The drop bars were replaced with Trekking bars and the bar-end shifters were replaced by new Shimano 3x7 speed ST-EF65 Shifter brake levers. I sourced the 4 finger version of the which can be used on both V-brakes and road bike brakes. New Shimano Altus front and rear derailleurs were installed.

The standard double crank was replaced with a Shimano Deore LX triple crankset with 46, 36 and 24 chainrings. The 5 speed cogset was replaced with a 13-28 seven speed cogset.

The bike should be ideal for touring and gravel trail. It should earn me a few style points with my daughter, too.

Velocivixen

@Barrettscv - nice build up. Did you have to use spacers are spread the rear triangle? I tried putting a 7 speed in my 6 speed mixte & the chain rubbed on the seat stay or maybe the "top tube" that extends back.

Barrettscv 

Hi,

I was fortunate to be able to fit a seven speed 13-28 freewheel on this frame. The long top-tube that runs diagonal from the rear drop-out to the top of the headtube normally interferes with the chain on the smaller cogs when 6 or more cogs are used. This bike has a curved top-tube, just ahead of the drop-out, that provides just enough space for a seven speed 13-28 freewheel on a 126mm wide rear hub.

Fitting a 130mm hub with an 8 speed 11-32 cassette might work and adding a spacer to the drive side might be needed.

Not all Mixties have the geometry near the rear dropout to allow wider cogsets.

FNS32

Heres a Fuji I built up last winter for my daughter

dr1445

my fuji espree with valite db tubes. i am building it for when i have trouble swinging a leg over a diamond frame. i went with flat bars, triple crank with friction shift, 8 speed cassette with trigger shifter, tiagra hubs with sun cr-18 700c rims, sapim racer spokes and vittoria zafirro 28mm folding tires. right now it is 25.8 pounds on the bathroom scale.

juls

Been away awhile-my AD Inter 101976

warhound

Found a little gem in a sale. Didn't know the frame style is called Mixte until did some research...
It's a Healing 10+2 Turbo from the early 80s. Frame and fork manufactured in New Zealand with mostly Shimano running gear. 27 inch wheel that turn nicely, but probably be hard to find some good tyres for. The first gen Uniglide freehub isn't really free at all and will need some love too.
Not really a classic I guess, but planning to strip the frame and repaint the frame just for the sake of it. Any ideas for a nice rebuild?

browngw 

Saw this one along the road beside a storage barn. After a year or so I finally got in touch with the owner and purchased it for $30. It appears to be a circa 1977 CCM Targa 10 19.5" frame with a "Positron" RD. Someone has tried to convert it to a single cable, it does not work. The frame is straight and will hopefully receive the 27" alloy wheels I bought a while ago.

Velocivixen

I hope you post photos along the way with your progress. I love mixtes and have 2 myself. Yours is a cool old bike.

Drillium Dude 

I have no mixte, just stopped in to say I think it's impressive that this thread is over 8 years old and counting

DD

3speedslow

That is a cool headbadge

Insidious C. 

You don't want one, either. Trust me- the darn things multiply like rabbits!

Abazaba

1974 Peugeot UO 18. Bought it from a 90 year old woman in Montana last year...I was the first person to ride it, 40 years later! Time warp.

brianinc-ville

Amazing! I came out of the factory that year, too. It was a good one.

Abazaba

DorkDisk

Swapped to RF+ 7sp shifters and M735 XT derailleurs for indexing. Will later swap to 7 speed cassette (currently a 5 speed FW)

Velocivixen

Im eager to hear about and hope you post about going 7 speed. My two mixtes have 126 dropout and are 6 speed freewheels. A 7 speed freewheel would fit alright, but would rub the center stay in back without a spacer. My understanding is that 5-speeds usually have a 120 mm dropout. Anyway it's a Univega, so all is good.

DorkDisk

This one is 126mm and might have come with 6 speeds originally. I suspect this freewheel is a modern one since it indexes so well.

Do you think respreading to 130mm and using an 8sp freehub with 7sp cassette will give the lateral movement necessary for clearance?

Thanks for the heads up on potential issues.

Velocivixen

I'm not sure of the answer to your question, so I'd wait for a more experienced frame person to chime in, or even post the question over on the bike mechanics subforum. You can certainly give it a try & report back.

thumpism 

I found this Berseau-style Chiorda mixte in '83 and built it up for my then-girlfriend (now wife of 30 years) as a mountain bike. Custom paint by Marinoni, cruiser fork and drum brakes. Not a terrific mountain bike but a totally cool little two wheeler.

CuttersRidge

Nice, I have a CCM bike, but yours has very nice aesthetics to it, that head badge and frame color is very suave. https://www.vintageccm.com/

Edit On: There is a dedicated CCM website with forums, I have heard of this bike from reading over there.

Teamdarb

1987 300 sport touring Bridgestone

bargainguy

Late 80's/early 90's Univega Via Carisma mixte. I originally picked up this bike with the intention of stripping the barend shifters, replacing them with something else, refurbing the bike and selling the barends separately at a swap.

But once I got the bike rideable, I couldn't bring myself to split up the combo of rando bars and barends. A really sweet ride, much more so than I would have anticipated. Still have this bike, plan to take it to a swap next week if I have room.

Teamdarb

And where would that be?..... Cough cough

bargainguy

That would be the Brazen Dropouts swap meet at the Alliance Center in Madison, WI. Biggest one in the midwest as far as I know.

Swap Info ? Brazen Dropouts