15 Years of Mixte Bikes

 

The mixte bicycle has a history that isn't too well documented. As far as we can gleen from our internet research, it first made its debut in the Peugeot bicycle line-up in the 1940's. And they had mixte-type frames built up as city or light touring bicycles for decades (along with Gitane and few other French brands). They were sold only in France for the most part. Mixte style bicycles didn't become a hit in the USA until the 1970's when a gas shortage created a bike boom. Peugeot stopped making their mixtes around 1986, but not before its popularity in the USA led a lot of other bike manufacturers to produce their own mixte style bikes.

In the mid 2000's, Bradley Woehl of American Cyclery in SF (and Soma brand co-founder) mentioned to us there was renewed interest among young urban cyclists for the unusual twin top tube design. People were scouring garage sales and joyfully pulling them out of dumpsters. Custom frame builders were experimenting with mixtes, too. The old design was striking a chord with a new generation. Was it something about those truss-like intersecting the seat tube and converging with the chainstays and seatstay at the rear axle or just its perception as something vintage? Who is to say? Sensing an opportunity, we got down to designing our own Buena Vista mixte updated for modern 130/135mm spaced hubs and  threadless forks. We released it in 2009. 

With our use of oversized chromoly alloy steel  tubes, the frame set has proven to be not only a great foundation for a breezy stylish ride to cruise around town on, but a capable machine for long distance touring. Hope you can have the joy of your own professionally built, custom accessorized Buena Vista mixte. 

To celebrate 15 years of producing our Buena Vista frame set, we want to share 15 memorable images – mostly from the owners who ride them or the bike shops who have built them.

1) Lifestyle shoot from February 2009.
This was the first build we did of a production frame,
a fixed gear with Velocity Deep V wood-look rims.

2) This is what we thought folks would be doing with this type of bike.
Putting baskets on it and visiting the Broadripple Farmer's Market to get
flowers and organic kale. Being just dudes, there was some concern whether 
cycling enthusiasts would take the time and extra money to custom build a bike
– not to race or to tour hundreds of miles – but to just commute or do errands.
Photo: @adventureswithdarby

3) We were wrong. People did enjoy building these up.
Vintage beauties with shiny fenders and leather saddles.
Fast, simple athletic bikes, too.
It brought out rider's desire to express themselves.
This gentleman even painted the straps on his saddle bag to match the mint green panel on the frame. Photo: Manoske Aramaki @masnoko123

4) Blue Lug, a group of bike shops in Japan has built many fun and classy
Soma frames over the years. This one has aero levers on our Soma Sparrow
handle and running 1x drivetrain with a bar end shifter. 
The balanced use of earth tone colors with the graphite frame
has a particular Japanese aesthetic. Photo: @bluelug 

4) Another Japanese bike shop build, this one with drop bars.
Above Bike Store. @abovebike
The Buena Vista geometry is very close to our Double Cross and
endurance road frames. If you want to bring out the sportiness
of the Buena Vista, consider a drop bar build.

5) This was memorable build by American Cyclery. To commemorate the
75th anniversary of the Golden Gate Bridge, a customer wanted
their Buena Vista custom painted "International Orange", the official paint color
of the beloved landmark. Porteur Rack and fenders were also painted.

6) Soma Bicycle Belles: Two sisters and their mom touring in the UK.
All three riding Soma mixtes. The low top tubes offers
an alternative way to mount/dismount so you don't have to 
swing a leg over a bag and rack.

7) So the Buena Vista can make a good light touring
frame, especially if you are older or have
limited hip mobility. So that's what folks will gather
about what looks like a "ladies" bike. A lot of people
tour with cheaper bikes - just ride what you got.
But Nicole B. who has toured up and down the West Coast more
than a couple of times, made it clear to us that the
Buena Vista is a practical touring bike period...no need to
qualify it with "ifs" or "caveats". 

8) @wayamaeba1 inspires us. She has captured
her experiences of a beginning bike traveller
to now showing others the best places to go in Japan and how to do it.
Her ride is a small 42cm BV with 26" wheels and swaps
it to studded tires when the weather gets snowy.


 

9) The view from the saddle. Jakarta, Indonesia
Photo: @hotrodqueen

fff 

10) "I was explaining to my daughter the beautiful symmetry of the split top tubes
and the seattube bisecting the rear brake center pull cable,
when my son taught me a new word - nerdgasm" - downtube42 on Bike Forums
Photo: Blue Lug Kamiuma

11) The time we got into Bicycling Magazine and didn't have to 
schmooze or pester any editor. Hazy on how it happened. I think Bicycling
asked Constance of the Lovely Bicycle blog to do a feature on equipment
for every day city cycling. She borrowed her friend, @bikeyface 's bicycle
for the photo spread. Photos: Bicycling Magazine

12) Forget about the bike. Can we just talk about her look? 
Photo: @sweet.spoken
 

13) In late 2017 we introduced the first production mixte that ran disc brakes
(first that we know of). This was not a just a modernization, but
opened up where you could ride because you were no longer limited to 700x32c tires.
You could go off the beaten path. Gravel grinding. Gravel touring. Bikepacking.
Photo: @naimbag_nga_aldaw Frame bag: Oveja Negra

14) Handsome build but super capable build by Gold Finch Cyclery
of our latest disc mixte. 38mm tires with fenders, no problem.
With the black components and our wide Dream Riser bars, it hardly 
looks vintage anymore. Photo: @goldfinchcyclery Bags: Swift Industries

15) A second image from Ade Putri Paramadita (@hotrodqueen) Even though her
talent as a culinary storyteller has won her notoriety in Indonesia, she is also 
part of the rich Jakarta bike community. More than one artist has been
inspired to draw her with her mixte... Built fixed gear.

Lauterwasser Handlebars Launched

It is with great pleasure we are releasing an updated version of the racing bars that Olympic cyclist and cycling engineer Jack Lauterwasser hand-made in the 1930's. We received a few requests a couple of years ago to reproduce this bar design. We learned the originals were much sought after by collectors. With its unusual design, we knew right away if we wanted to do this right, we would need to find one of the original bars. So we plunked down a few hundred bucks to some stranger on the internet and soon it arrived(complete with an antique bike attached no less....seller would not sell the bar separately).

We tried to keep the design fairly close to the original with modern touches to make the bar more practical. Grip OD was changed to 22.2 to fit MTB grips and the drops were lengthened to accommadate levers. The stem clamp was widened to 25.4mm (Sorry 26.0mm fans - get a shim). There were suggestions to make it narrow like a modern drop bar, but that altered the look too much.

Width is 48cm (same as our sample). Drop is 90mm. This is the first bar we are producing in both aluminum and steel. Steel version will take bar end shifters and is a little stiffer of course.

How do they ride? Well this no upright townie bar. If you compare it to a Nitto Moustache bar, it has more drop, a more forward position, and narrower. It is very comfortable to get out of the seat and mash on the pedals with this bar. Definitely more comfortable than a full-on drop bar. You can also move your hands forward to get into a more aero position when desired. We recommend a short stem to preserve the original look, but do what you want. Handling is very stable on bikes with hybrid/CX geometry.


Threw these on a friend's commuter bike for kicks.



Above: Original versions of the Lauterwasser Below: Original bar on an old Raleigh. Most
old set-ups we've seen is with a tall quill stem with super short extension. This seems to
give the most clean look, but please don't just go by looks. Figure out what works best for
your riding and your bicycle's geometry. Most likely it doesn't quite match a 1930's race bike.
(Picture courtesy of Haight Ashbury)



Now how do you pronounce the name? You don't want show off this fine bar to your buddies and murder the name when you explain it. Lauterwasser is German, so you can pronounce it "lot-ta-vossa"; however Jack Lauterwasser was born in London, England and he pronounced his name like a Cockney would ("lorda-was-suh"). An apt American pronounciation could be "lot-ter-wasser", but the others are more fun to use.

In 1928 Jack won a silver medal in the 160km road race event at the Amsterdam Olympics. He rode to and from Amsterdam. In the same year he also broke the 50 and 100 mile RRA records.

Jack learned how to build wheels in his teens but in 1929, with Olympic and record-breaking success behind him, he set up his own cycle shop in Holloway Road, London, and marketed his own brand of bikes.

His "Lauterweight" brand specialized in racing machines, the lightest of which was 17.5 lbs.
More biographical info on Mr. Lauterwasser here.

Currently available at our online shop and Rene Herse Cycles, but your LBS can get them too.

Classic

IRD just released these classic-inspired Defiant track cranks. They are 6061-T6 aluminum in a 144BCD, they tell us they cold forged them for additional durability and strength. The fluting is gorgeous and they will definitely add class to any build. We got 'em on the store.