Mark showed the bike he put together for Jane to ride on the 3 Speed Tour of Lake Pepin. It isn't 100% authentic period English bits. But he did build the mixte frame, about 25 years ago, from British Reynolds 531 tubing. The hub is the newer Sun Race version of the classic Sturmey Archer AW design (SA is now out of business in England), and unfortunately is a steel shell rather than alloy. He says it does work remarkable well and now has seals, no oiler hole and light grease inside. No more oil drooling down the spokes and coating the rim.

He kept a front derailleur, to shift between two chainrings on the front, to help her climb some of the steeper hills on the tour route. And, added about 1/3 of an old Huret Duopar derailleur to act as a chain tensioner.

Mark's comments; The original plan was for her to ride her 1970 Moulton Mk III. However, nice as it is, that bike is somewhat porky at 38 lbs. The Mixte is 10 lbs lighter.

For the ride. I removed the front derailleur, and just manually moved the chain to the small ring at the bottom of the 2.5 mile Bay City Hill. (Which she climbed with only one rest stop. Some people walked.) She mentioned that she hadn't used 3rd gear on the large ring all day, so we just left it on the small ring for the rest of the ride. So she was truly riding a "3 Speed". The bike wasn't very "British" but no one seemed to mind the slowest rider having a bit of a "Mechanical Advantage". She was able to stay with the group by leaving most of the many rest stops a bit earlier than the main group.

However, due to bottom, elbow and shoulder pains, she's made it clear that if she's to ride next year, she will have her own "3 Speed Recumbent"