ChillDilettante

Any suggestions for someone looking for a vintage mixte with cruiser handlebars (preferably with a chrome looking fork), not a Schwinn, that isn't heavy as hell?

I've got a classic Raleigh with a Sturmy Archer hub, that's great, except it's a bear to carry (which I have to a bit).

I've seen some nice looking motobecanes and Peugeots online, but not sure about weight.

Ideas?

ofajen

I picked up an old Lotus mixte for one my kids. Admittedly it’s a smaller frame than mine, but it is by far the lightest bike in the house. It’s really surprising. I fixed it up with Albatross style touring bars. It’s running 700x28s at the moment but could easily handle up to 35s.

I assume it was originally a drop bar bike but had already been switched to a flat bar when I got it. First I put on Kalloy bars with 35 degree sweep and now it has Sunlite Elson Roadster touring bars with at least 60 degree sweep. The same touring bars I have on my vintage MTB.

Otto

3speedslow

Depending where you are, Dawes of England in the 80’s made nice mixte frames and large ones too.

sheddle

Motobecane made a Grand Jubilee mixte in 531, though they're a bit hard to find.


I think the Puch Vent Noir mixte came in 531 *and* a full vintage Dura-Ace group, but that's also hard to find, and generally expensive.

Piff 

What about the motobecane Grand Touring? Those pop up fairly often in Mixte form, are they Vitus 172?

daverup 

Centurion Lemans Mixte of early 80's are Champion 5 tubing. Not super light, but not boat anchors either.
Fairly easy to make what you want with mods.

Salamandrine 

There were some high quality lightweight French made mixte bikes sold during the bike boom. The more top end ones are fairly rare though. Most were more of a midrange bike, in the context of the times. Better ones might have TA or Stronglight alloy cranks, all alloy parts, jubilee derailleurs, campy hubs, etc. Not easy to find these fancy ones though.

I think that's a good one to look for. Nice quality yet relatively common. IIRC, some were Vitus 172. Depends on the year.

It's going to be much easier to source a Japanese made early 80s type mixte. Something like a Univega Gran Turismo or the equivalent Miyata for example.These tended to be solid high quality bikes. On average they were better than a typical Frenchie bike boom mixte, though not as nice as the unicorn fancy ones. For sure they will be infinitely lighter than a Schwinn, unless we're talking Paramount or something.

fietsbob

The Ms. Mercian uses all Reynolds 531 tube..

polymorphself 

You’re gonna wanna look for ones with 531 or Vitus tubing (or equivalent) as mentioned above. Those will already be light frames and will certainly come with alloy components. Short of that, steel wheels and components will hold you back more than the frame (unless it’s a schwinn, you can never overcome that weight), and any old mixte frame and fork will be light enough If you want to build it up yourself with alloy wheels, cranks, stem etc. as I did here...

Piff 

Some of the old bikes are so pretty they're worth the Weight. It ain't a mixte, but it's an eye catcher. I've been watching this bike for a while...get rid of the crappy plastic simplex and convert it into a 3 speed coaster hub ​​​​​​
https://sandiego.craigslist.org/csd/...151301211.html

Wildwood 

AD Puch's other mixte (other than the top-end R531 VentNoir) was the Michelle.
Guaranteed Puch 2500 frame and fork and hi-tensile strength.

their largest frame size. Around 1981.

steelbikeguy

if you don't mind the price, Mr. Weigle has built them. This one was displayed at the 2018 Classic Rendezvous event...



Steve in Peoria

polymorphself 

Amazing.

steelbikeguy

the catalog page on the Miss Mercian...
certainly an attractive bike, and about as good as a steel mixte can be (not withstanding the Weigle's extra wonderfulness, of course)



Steve in Peoria

polymorphself 

What does one of these cost?

steelbikeguy

hard to say.
The catalog was from the mid 80's, and I have vague recollections of their frames running $500 or $600 when ordered from the local shop that sold them.
The Mercian website, sadly, does not list the Miss Mercian.
Frames - Mercian
I suppose they could figure out how to build them again, if one really wanted one.

Steve in Peoria
(and if you did buy a Mercian, you really must get the barber pole seat tube!)

jiangshi

I saw a nice Merckx for sale a few weeks ago.

zukahn1 

The weight on most vintage mixes will be close to the same heavy very few curb much under 30 lbs. The lightest ones I have found were early 80's Shogun top end models and Moto Grand Jubilees and those still curbed well over 25lbs. stock. As said you can get one of the nicer vintage frames and build it up with all lightweight modern components and get weight down to something like 23lbs curbed but this is a pretty expensive way to go figure $200 for the bike $200-300 for the parts and a tone of labor so your looking at $600-700 build for a just ok mid level vintage bike. There are a lot of nice low step through height smaller frames bikes that are a lot nicer for less money just something to think about.

dedhed

https://milwaukee.craigslist.org/bik...146348358.html

https://milwaukee.craigslist.org/bik...139671116.html

https://madison.craigslist.org/bik/d...149840642.html

gear64

That is one attractive mixte!

Wildwood 

This garage queen with drilled DuraAce cranks. Pay-up, but at least a month at the asking.

https://skagit.craigslist.org/bik/d/...137042642.html

sheddle

That one really is a case where a grand might be a fair price. High end Mixtes are just a niche market.

Doug Fattic 

I'm sending out these lugs to one of my former framebuilding class students. They can still be bought. He is going to use fairly light tubing as he is making it for his wife who doesn't need something stronger. A mixte will weigh a bit more than a standard frame because of the extra pair of seat stays. In other words a single top tube weighs less than twin laterials going all the way back to the dropouts. However almost every production frame will weigh more (and probably a lot more) than a custom mixte because a company has to assume some fatty might be the purchaser and they have to build it so it won't break even if an obese person rides it. And just to be clear it isn't just about the weight but also the feel of the bicycle with better, lighter tubing.

There is one more part of this discussion that should be understood. A mixte frame designed for upright handlebars (like for example a "North Road" model) is going to have a different design than one designed for drop bars. As a frame builder I would not even consider swapping bars on a frame designed for the other type. Your seat position would be all wrong. Bicycles designed for upright handlebars should have much slacker seat angles (and probably head angles as well).

I haven't had a student make a mixte frame in one of my framebuilding classes but there is no reason one couldn't just like many builders would be happy to make a custom one for a customer that wants one.

ChillDilettante

Thanks! Wow. So many fantastic points I hadn't considered. Some makes I've never even heard of. Might be tough to find in Northern California? Worth looking though. Thanks everyone.

3speedslow

If you really want to make your head spin, look at the folder-mini velo market offerings!