Ahh! The Pacific Northwest! Fresh ocean breeze, the scent of virgin forest, Jeanette McDonald, Nelson Eddy, red coated RCMP! With such heady stimuli, I too,would probably lose contact with reality. C'mon Brandon-- Grab any cataloge going back 100 years and you will find men's and ladies frames being described accordingly Start looking at the '60s and later catalogues and we find references to ladies mixte style frames. I don't know an exact time was going to say frame but didn't want to make the pun, but I suspect the twin top down tubes have been around since the twenties. As long as I can remember that has been referred to as a "mixte" frame. Why call it a men's frame? Don't you think a woman can throw her leg over a top tube like any man? Why not change the whole bike industry nomenclature and descriptive language while we're at it Are we supposed to be politicaly correct now? No more ladies, men's, mixte. Hi top tube, low top tube, and medium height downtube. Maybe we can get the famous Italian / German / French frame police squad out. The clandestine Interframe Department will go around and secretly measure all frames, and frame builders violating the set measurement rules will be fined. They will have their flux confiscated and replaced with acid reflux for one month. Then they can be fluxed again. Build what you like, call it what you like, but I'm not going to try to change the industry's general understanding of terms. Next we'll be calling a tricycle a three wheel bicycle. Ted Ernst Palos Verdes Estates, CA
>I would have to disagree 100% with both of you. Since the word means mixed
>it can mean any things. Some people would say it means mixed tubing
>meaning twin-lateral tubes, but it can also mean a mixed design. The
>Automoto frame is 99% the same tubing and parts as the standard frame, thus
>it is a mixed design frame. Until someone can come up with a legitimate
>and factual historical document that says a mixte frame has only
>twin-laterals I think using the term mixte to describe a step-through
>design is just fine.
> best,
> Brandon"monkeyman"Ives
> Loves and builds mixte
> frames in Vancouver, B.C.
>
> On Monday, Oct 31, 2005, at 16:02 US/Pacific, Fred Rafael Rednor wrote:
>
>>> I would like to suggest that this frame is
>>> not a mixte. It seems to be a standard
>>> ladies frame design. A mixte as I learned
>>> it was a "semi" ladies frame...
>>
>> I have to agree with Ted, 100%. Consider what "mixte" means:
>> i.e. "mixed" or "mixture" - or as Ted describes it, a "semi"
>> ladies frame...
>> Cheers,
>> Fred Rednor - Arlington, Virginia (USA)