Fragment production during the nuclear liquid gas phase transition is studied on the basis of the Statistical Multifragmentation Model (SMM) (Bondorf et al 1995 Phys. Rep. 257 133). By selecting partitions according to the maximum fragment charge we demonstrate 'bimodality' as an essential feature of the phase transition in finite nuclear systems. We show that the variation of entropies of these two events with excitation energy exhibits a bimodality behaviour as well. © 2006 The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.