Re: [CR]Got Mixte?

(Example: Racing:Roger de Vlaeminck)

Date: Wed, 08 Jun 2005 15:13:05 -0500
From: "John Thompson" <JohnThompson@new.rr.com>
Organization: The Crimson Permanent Assurance
To: Paulie Davis <paulieflt@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [CR]Got Mixte?
References: <p0611040abeccddcf9191@192.168.1.102> <ec7aabfb050608110241a9f06b@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To:
cc: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org

Paulie Davis wrote:
> Say, where did that word *mixte* come from, anyway?
>From the Oxford English Dictionary:

[< French mixte (only attested in dictionaries from 1981 in this spec. sense in collocation vélo mixte), spec. use of mixte MIXED a.2 The bicycle is so called because the design incorporates elements of both traditional men's and women's styles.]

A. adj. Designating a type of bicycle frame in which the crossbar is replaced by two thin tubes extending from the head of the steering column to either side of the rear axle. Of a bicycle: having such a frame.

1972 Amer. Bicyclist Jan. 57/2 (caption) Mel Pinto shows the new Ladies' Super, with Reynolds 531 tubing mixte frame. 1987 Bicycle Action Aug. 20/1 But eventually everybody managed to conquer the goo, even one plucky French lady who had been riding a steel-rimmed mixte bike with sidepull brakes. 1991 Which? Aug. 440/2 Frames for the larger-wheeled bikes come in three basic types: the traditional diamond frame with a high, level cross-bar, the mixte frame with a low, angled cross-bar, and the \u2018step-through\u2019 frame.

B. n. A bicycle with a mixte frame; the frame itself.

1975 Bicycling Aug. 55/2 (advt.) To help to further introduce the Miyata bicycle into the U.S. market, a choice of..the MK-S and the MK-SL (Ladies' mixte)..are [sic] being offered. 1997 Dallas Morning News (Electronic ed.) 26 May, The slanting top tube on a traditional girls' bicycle, or mixte, as it's called in the business.

--
John (john@os2.dhs.org)
Appleton WI USA