At the shop where I worked at back in the 70s, the owner had read somewhere that mixtes were developed for military use because they had a strong frame design that could carry a lot of weight, one size fit most and they were easy to get on and off of with military gear.
We occasionally had petite women customers who adamantly didn't want a "girls bike". There were very few sub 50cm "men's" frame bikes available in those days plus the stand over height on most of those smaller frames was still too high for many people.
We used the military explanation in our sales pitch to these petite women but it usually fell on deaf ears. It did work however with older gentlemen who had problems swinging their legs over a top bar.
In the early 70s, Gitane made 3 sizes of mixte frames; 50cm, 54cm and 57cm C-T. The problem with most mixtes is they only came in entry level models. We imported a few better equipped mixtes from Bertin. They had Durifort frames and alloy components.
Chas. Colerich Oakland, CA USA
Stronglight49@aol.com wrote:
> Just a quick comment on Jon Spangler's observations...
>
> The longer "effective" top tube lengths on most Mixte bikes
> seems to be ideally suited to (and likely were intended for)
> flat Porteur-style handlebars and a more upright riding position.
> My own P18-c (which was specified with drop bars) forces
> an extremely long reach for the measured seat tube height
> of the bike.
>
> I think the addition of drop bars fitted onto later models,
> was a concession for Ladies wanting to have a more "sporty"
> looking bike... perhaps this was mostly a marketing decision.
>
> BOB HANSON, ALBUQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO, USA