Why a mixte?

I haven't blogged for a while. I've been thinking about the next steps for Furry Blue. The mixte bikes are a success in my mind as far as how they look and ride. The one issue has been the rear brakes: I planned on canti brakes and found my leg was brushing against the brake arms so we switched to "v-brakes."

I had the smaller mixte at Menlo Velo for over a month, and the larger size for a couple of weeks, and I think less than 5 people took a test ride. I'm not getting a sense of a strong local demand for a handmade mixte; another possible conclusion is that Menlo Velo's customers aren't the right bunch to be interested in such a bike.

I didn't conceive of Furry Blue as strictly a maker of mixte bikes, so let me review how/why our first bike was a mixte. I have problems from time to time with wrist pain, so the mixte story starts with my search for the perfect handlebars.

I put the Albatross bars on my road bike and overall liked them, but the position was a bit too upright for me without switching stems and so I started thinking about a custom frame that might have a slightly longer top tube so I wouldn't need a really long stem.

Also somewhat relatedly, because of the position I like (semi-upright), and my proportions/height, I am kind of on the border for a properly designed 700C frame for drop bars. I like to be positioned a bit behind the pedals and with my desired reach to the bars a "normal" road bike will have more toe overlap than I like. Having a custom frame with a slightly longer top tube for the swept bars yet enough standover clearance for me seemed like the way to go.

Another idea I had was to explore commissioning a small run of hand made "versatile road bikes" (not a hybrid, not a touring bike, but able to take on medium width tires say 25 - 35 mm) because I felt the bike makers weren't making what I wanted. When I met with my favorite local bikeshop, the owner said he would like to see someone make a nice road mixte.

So, the idea of a bike designed for swept back bars and with a little extra standover clearance got merged with the local bikeshop's idea for a mixte.

Essentially the same bike could also be made as a non-mixte - perhaps a compact style frame, they are simpler to manufacture and might appeal to more people.