On 10/12/2019 1:56 AM, Sir Ridesalot wrote:

We always referred to bicycles with a double sloping top tube that ws attached to both the seat tube and the dropouts as a MIXTE frame. If the bicycle had only one strongly sloping top tube that ended at the seat tube and did not go to the dropouts, we referred to that as a LADY'S frame. Technically speaking Mixte and Lady's frames are NOT the same thing.

Another possibility is a frame that uses a more-or-less standard
diameter tube running from the head tube to a low point on the seat
tube; then extends that to the rear dropouts via two small diameter
tubes. Sort of a blending of the lady and mixte frame.

I suspect that this design would be considerably more rigid than the
classic twin-tube mixte.

My wife rode a twin-tube mixte frame for over ten years. (That bike has
now been passed on to other members of the extended family.) We learned
the hard way that a mixte is nowhere near as rigid as a normal diamond
frame - for example, when carrying loaded rear panniers.

--
- Frank Krygowski