I was talking about this last week and I suddenly found a drawing of it in an old sketchbook. This is a Mixte frame which basically has two top tubes that run diagonally down to the centre hub of the back wheel. Some ladies bikes have a single tube running down to the seat tube (where the seat pillar is inserted into the frame). I’m hoping I’ve got the terms right but its been a while since I used them and I may be wrong.

I was and still am in love with this bike. I could cycle really fast on it. I once came off on a lane in Cornwall. I was chasing my boyfriend (now hubby) and a friend, they had cycled off fast and left me behind. They had seen a pile of washed away gravel in the road and were trying to get back to warn me. I came round a corner too fast, hurtled onto the gravel, tried to brake, and ended up flying through the air over the handlebars. My hubby said I did a somersault! I was very badly bruised. Then wehe we got to the ferry to go back across the Tamar the ferryman would only let two of us on the ferry. We turned round and cycled several very painful miles to get to the Tamar Bridge and back to my friends house in Plymouth, Devon….