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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 6 มี.ค. 2021
- This must surely be the world's cleanest 1989 Muddy Fox Explorer. A classic adventure bike and a legend of the early days of mountain biking in the UK.
Certainly this one has seen some miles, but the meticulousness with which it has been stripped down and cleaned up does its previous owner credit. The process of recommissioning it has been an absolute pleasure.
Thanks to Simon, who goes by @hooprider_ on Instagram, for this project. - กีฬา
Muddy Fox was THE brand back in the day, we used to pour over the catalogues for days!
It really was wasn't it? The brand that made mountain biking cool in the UK.
Ha! I just messasge about doing my Ridgback 603 from 1988 and this video started. My best mate bought a yellow Muddy Fox 3 months later after me with Suntour groupset for 400 quid! I was so jealous at the time as the parts were so black and cool and the saddle had fox pour prints all over it!
Fantastic!!!!! Brought back so many memories of my Explorer which I bought brand new in 1989.
I had one about 87/88, was white with the cracky paint job, was the best bike I ever had. Brought it brand new. Mostly used for work 30 mile round trip, I was in great nic in the 80s 90s. Some low life stole it in the early 90s. Great vids you are making, brings it all back, goodman, and God bless you.
As I always say when I hear such tales, I hope the thief met an extremely unpleasant end. That was a fine bike.
The ones made before 90 were beautiful tanks. My old school mates still have theirs and still use them daily. These were class!
They'll last many decades more too. Beautiful machines.
"Simon is a top shelf bloke"... I think that's how my brothers across the pond say it!
He is indeed a first class lad.
That was a dream for sure. :)
Beautiful bike. I’m building a Scott bike from early 90s with Tange tubing. I have the M700 brake levers Shimano Deerhead XT and they are almost identical to your Dia-Compe ones. Frames were so well built back then.
Those Scotts from the early 90s were amazing. I only saw one back in the day, which a very wealthy boy at our school used to ride. They were indeed well built, it should last a lifetime.
Omg. Not sure what I found more enjoyable the commentary or the final build. The Fox looks fantastic cheers
Thanks, glad you liked it! I think this one was more about the details and the tech than some of my other videos, and I guess there are a few of you out there that are as into that stuff as I am.
Excellent. Watching you open the box was like watching someone excitedly not know which Christmas present to open first.
That's exactly how it felt! Great experience, thanks again to Simon.
Impressed with the decal touching in ... true artist 👍
Beautiful rebuild. Love the work and your narration throughout. Cheers!
Thanks, glad you like it. Sometimes I can't resist making jokes and being sarcastic, but other times I like to just get deep into the science! There's so much special 80s technology on this bike I could talk about it for hours.
Had a 30min break at the fire station and spent it watching your video with child like fascination. Absolutely love retro MTB builds and admire the fact you stick to the scars of time with your rebuilds. Looking forward to my Marin Indian Trail rebuild soon, once I negotiate the price from my friends dad. 🤞🏼
Great video and on point narration!
Thanks, and I love that term "scars of time" - that's a nice way of putting it. I might use that... I've got another project on the go at the moment that has more than its fair share of scars, but as always I'm a respecter of history.
Muddy Fox Rock n Roll
Sir, great bit of work and commentary. Thank you and do carry on!
Wanted one of these soooo badly. Carried a picture of MF Prestige in my wallet which was The Dream
I wanted the blue and white Courier, what a stunning bike. Would still love to get my hands on an early one with full Suntour, but people are selling them for silly money.
@@red_dread make a great "pub bike". I settled for a 2nd hand Roadrunner but it was far to big for me tbh. The Explorer's colour way was so iconic.
Glad to be of some influence on this channel haha.
Hope yours turns out nice too! Please share pics/vid when it's at its best.
@@red_dread I will, but do confess to perhaps contemplating repainting frame to envious green. (And I secretly bought another in crackle black with all stock parts)
stunning!
Amazing bicycle,i love video ciao da Milano Italy
I saw my friend riding this bike out and about yesterday, he has kept it immaculate!
very nice !!!!
Wow,
What a nice bike. I like the old MTB's and the feeling to ride them.
I got one Muddy Fox Courier Comp from 1986. But the sad thing is, the frame doesn't fit with my siize.
I sell it on eBay marketplace.
So stay well and enjoy your NEW classic member.
Best regards from germany
Thanks. An old MTB is a unique and special experience, as long as you don't want to go too fast.
Nice build ,that bike looks awesome .
Nicely done sir. Another great build. "...although your rage does amuse me." Hilarious.
I do love to bait the internet "experts". They are generally an easily provoked bunch.
@@red_dread Agreed. Wait... does this mean I am not an expert? ;) Looking forward to your next challenge.
A Muddy Fox is the next addition to my own collection.
Nearly impossible to come across in the Irish Market.
I hope you're planning to document some of this collection somewhere? I'd love to see videos of them! And let me know which Muddy Fox you end up getting.
@@red_dread my collection is no where as lovely...or as desirable as yours.
A 95 M-Trax 1000 chromo.
93ish Saracen Super Edition.
Mid 00 Cannondale F700 Super.
98 Trek 6000
A Giant boulder team Edition frame that has been frankenbiked.
And a not very special but truly loved Scott Montana ( Think it's early 00 ) which had no more than 20 kilometres on it when I found it a year ago.
Wow. Just... wow.
My fave of all the videos to date, those Suntour shifters bought back memories 👌
Thanks, I always love getting feedback like this. Sometimes I can't resist making jokes and being sarcastic, other times I find myself getting carried away and talking for ages about tiny historical and technical details! If you prefer the latter style, you might also like my Dyna Tech restoration from last year. And yes, those Suntour shifters are stunning. The friction action on the LH one is so nice and something different if you're used to Shimano like I am.
I had the same bike but with a very unusual handle bar so you could lean forward of sit up all moulded from the same cast. Had same peddles but I got the black frame, it cost 450 more than the yellow, mine was their ATB downhill version, dad kept it mint till he passed and when I got room to have it my mum passed away and Sue Barnard sold it on eBay for £20. So depressed as I had it custome built in Newcastle in the only shop that sold them. I nearly went for the yellow frame but the black was sturdier and better for jumps.
Thank you for the video very cool high-quality vintage bicycle on Shimano components with a chrome-molybdenum frame that's cool I live in Ukraine and here such bicycles are very rare And if there are people who don't appreciate it, they buy low-quality Chinese
Sorry to hear this kind of bike is so hard to find where you are. I hope you manage to find one, it will last forever if looked after - as you can see from this example!
@@red_dread Thanks for responding to my comment. I have a good bike on shimano deore lx, xt. I collected it myself. I love. I also have a Raleigh bike.th-cam.com/video/5WVzDGPvx2s/w-d-xo.html
th-cam.com/video/-ub8dX5-EQ4/w-d-xo.html
Lovely
Amazing, literally done the same on a courier comp!
Great to keep history alive!
Amazing work. Great work to budget. Can't wait to see it back for a resto on this channel in another 30yrs ;)
This one is going to a good friend of mine so I will be watching him to make sure it remains immaculate for the next 60 years!
Yes!!!!! I needed this!!!!
Me too - really therapeutic to work on a project like this. Addictive too.
I had a matching pair of Muddy Fox Courier Comps with the red crackle paint back in the day. They were so lovely some git stole them from my garage!
Damn, I hope that one I did recently wasn't one of yours from a past life? Also hope the thief comes to an unpleasant end.
Superb Oliver 👏
Something about those Muddy Foxes that just looks right.
They really set the standard back in the day. You could cross continents on this thing, I still think this is as good an adventure bike as anything being built today.
Damn I’m heartbroken, my mum was jealous of my dads relationship with me and his son and she basically kept all my belongings my dad had told me to store at his after he passed. Your bike is the one all my mates had but at 5’8 and a xcountry horse rider I wanted a bit more. My bike came with disk brakes. Only just noticed you’re one has rim brakes as girly riders were considered not able enough at maintenance for disc brakes. Crazy but it was a different time.
I'm working on an emmelle cheetah as I watch this.... Christ I wish it was Muddy Fox!!
I used to sell those in a budget bike shop in the 90s! Plastic brakes, soft steel cranks, nasty. But delighted to hear you're keeping one alive, respect to that.
@@red_dread I cycled it into work to return it to it's owner this morning.
Felt like it was made of vibranium...could have run over a family of ant eaters and wouldn't have felt a thing.
Had the same gear combo, same as everything but the frame, those brakes were the biz back then. My mates were envious. I paid £550 but it was valued at £12k I got it cheap as I was in the first 50 customers to buy a MF in Newcastle in 89.
nice job
i just built up a 1990ish gary fisher wahoo frame was built in California love it.
Have you shared your Fisher online anywhere? I'd love to see it.
You would struggle to get any new bike for that money, far nicer bike, a lovely quality build, and why I love old 80s/ 90s MTBs
I know, right? Any new bike for that price would be landfill at best. And this thing is absolutely solid. It'll last another 30 years, easily, and will still be beautiful.
got a explorer that im restoring ,bought it in 90 i think second hand for£80 ,they was a expensive bike back then and ranked 1 of the best
I love those Explorers. Will you be sharing your restoration on social media anywhere? I'd love to see it.
@@red_dread good idea that , any idea where the best place to get a match on the paint ? going to get it shot blasted and painted professionally ,unfortunately ive had to cut the handle bar stem off because it was stuck in the fork tube and no matter what i did it woudnt budge ,found some 1 on FB that does repro decals
@@paulwortley9546 Sorry I've never commissioned anyone to do blasting or painting, however my local alloy wheel repair place has a shot blasting machine he says we can experiment with. I plan to test some cranks in there, not sure if an entire frame would fit. I hear there's a paint place called "Bristol" something, they did my mate Dan's Fat Chance Yo Eddy and the work is flawless.
NOS is the best! 🚲
Personally I prefer something that's been used and requires a bit of a clean-up or rebuild. But every now and again a NOS find is very exciting.
That was a joy to watch. I’ve just bought an identical muddy fox which has all the same parts but is black with a white crackle finish and is badged as a courier which made it impossible to identify. Cost me €30 😊
That's a stunning bargain - you can't go wrong at that price! Are you planning to show yours on TH-cam or Instagram? I'd love to see it.
@@red_dread probably put some pics up on Instagram soon as I’m heading of along the pyrenees next week on it. Everything cleaned and greased and it rides so smoothly. Have to change the tyres though as they’re the originals and a bit flaky on the sides!
What a beauty 👏👍👏👍
I'm impressed with your hand painting skills. Nice work. That headset press is familiar too. You can find a nearly identical press in my garage.
Cheers Lance - I learned apply the One Metre Rule when filming painting, so it looks better than life on video. But actually this one turned out nice, thankfully it was straight lines and I had a plastic scraper blade to iron out mistakes. I can't remember where I got the idea for that headset press, maybe it was from you? The idea of keeping the rod long enough to touch the ground was by accident - I couldn't find a big enough grinder wheel to cut it down, but then I realised it acts as a stabiliser leg and allows you to be more precise when lining up. Better than the real thing.
It's always interesting to see how these brands have faired over the years, I don't think this would have been a cheap brand in its day, but like Raleigh, mongoose and some of the other brands that were expensive when I was a kid, they have ended up as budget brands at the lower end of the market, which is quite sad really.
There's a reference to this in my previous Muddy Fox video, which in turn links to a great film about the history of UK mountain biking where I learned all about it. Muddy Fox fell victim to the Recession in the early 90s, and the brand has been "resurrected" by some dreadful bargain bin supermarket. Sad indeed.
Beautiful bike, a real work of art. I’ve just acquired a lovely 1989 Muddy Fox Roadrunner. Do you know which pedals this bike should have. The ones fitted look like quite cheap plastic ones 🤔 Love your bikes btw
I seem to recall that cheap plastic pedals was a common cost-saving spec on all but the really high end bikes, those might actually be the original ones the bike came with. Most of us would have upgraded to quality bear trap type pedals from either Shimano, Suntour, VP, MKS or Sakae, and then a year or so later we'd have all gone SPD!
It was such a shame that Suntour went bust. The Suntour Cyclone mk2, the Superb Pro gruppo were beautifully made. Superior front mechs and hubs in particular compared to Shimano plus their attention to detail was way ahead.
RIP.
Great video again.
It's a tale as old as time. Suntour products were stunning, but Shimano was simply dominant. Who knows what political or corporate reasons there were behind the scenes?
@@red_dread A lot of it was down to advertising and marketing too.
Suntour as you know used Sugino, Dia Compe, Miche and occasionally Cunningham for their gruppos, therefore didn't have the fianancial clout that Shimano had, but I could be wrong. Maybe someone on Shimano's board was a member of the illuminati 😋😄
Thinking about it, Shimano were making fishing reels at the time and their multipliers were rather good apparantly, so says my mate who bought one.
Personally I preferred my Abu 6500C.
Beautiful, even without bright pink accents
If it were mine I'd have put a neon pink suede Avocet on it!
There is a 22 inch black framed Muddy Fox Explorer on Facebook Marketplace at the moment and has been reduced to £55. Way too big for 5 foot 6 inch me, or I would have bought it. It's in Wrexham, North East Wales. Quite decent in appearance, with a bit of paint scuffed off. I can't speak for the parts like shifters and derailleurs, as that is not something that I'm knowledgeable about.
That could be a great bargain for someone - I just looked and couldn't find it so hopefully it's gone to a good home, maybe even someone who's seen this channel? I'd love to see it if it's out there.
If I remember my frame was alu according to dad but I’m sure the guy sold me the carbon one which was imported from the muddy fox other owners home country. It was a brand that was international for the time. Such a shame they sold when American bikes started making people want squishy forks. I much prefer something like this to today’s bikes. I had same peddles but with cages to help pull up in a similar way to clips today. I hated them and my dad removed them those peddles stick into skate shoes and you don’t need clips.
Hey man, discovered your vids as I embark on another Mid 90s frankenbike. Amazing work, keep doing them. Do you have an IG account? Cheers
Thanks, there's plenty more to come! I don't put much if any retrobike stuff on Insta I'm afraid - I think most of my family and friends wouldn't be interested. TH-cam is my outlet so I focus fully on that.
What a beautiful bike! Thanks for the fun video! What do you personally think of the Marin Bear Valley SE?
I do love Marins - it's just a matter of time before I do one on this channel. I grew up envious of friends that had Palisades or Eldridges, the Bear Valley was even higher up the range and therefore completely out of reach to me as a kid.
@@red_dread can't wait! Hahaha
i have rebuilt a a Raleigh mustang and maverick to mint condition
Very nice. I can't believe the bargains you are finding. Everyone says it's impossible to buy bikes in this Covid era. I am guessing you left the spoke protector on to be factory correct?
It is possible if you are the world's leading expert. Let me know if you want anything sourcing. Yes, that Suntour spoke protector was nicer than that one you had - it even had a lovely pressed alloy inner that doubled as a spacer behind the freewheel, so I'd have been mad to bin it.
Just starting the exact same build. Do I fit Onza or Ritchey bar ends like we did back in the day? FYI, the bike will just be for easy riding and ogling at..
Good question - if it had been me I'd have gone for Onza back in the day, although my first experience with bar ends ended up being the all-in-one Scott AT3 bar (couldn't afford an alloy bar and Onza bar ends at the time). As you may have seen though, I currently don't have a single bike with any bar ends on! Might need to remedy that - possibly some X-Lite or ti-stix for the Dyna-Tech, or something American like Control Tech for the S-Works.
Awesome build!! What brand and size are those tires?!?
Thanks. They're Schwalbe Cruisers, for a 26" wheel and the carcass width is about 1.5" if I remember correctly. I use Schwalbe on a lot of my bikes, including the really expensive tubeless ones on my modern builds, and I find them to be superb quality. The ones in this video were really good value, I think I got lucky with the last pair from this particular online seller, but it's always worth shopping around.
Could you tell me what is the string between Muddy Fox and Araya? I happen to have an Araya bicycle, model is Muddy Fox CXR, with Araya rim. As far as I know, Muddy Fox is an UK bicycle brand. Kindly enlighten me. Btw I think you found a treasure, any Tange chromoly needs some serious attention.
Hi, yes - Araya built the frames, at least for the early Muddy Foxes. They would have been designed, assembled and finished in the UK because it was indeed a UK company, however it fell victim to the Recession of the early 90s so any more recent bikes using the Muddy Fox (or "Muddyfox") brand are not from the same company. I've seen those modern Far Eastern CX bikes under the Araya brand, I guess they have the licence to use the Muddy Fox brand name in certain territories only. Araya always was and still is a very high quality manufacturer.
Lovely build? Is the frame a130mm or 135mm rear dropout? And I'm guessing its a 73mm BB?
Thanks. Sorry I can't remember the particulars of the frame as it's long gone out of my possession. I never measured such things a dropout widths because growing up with steel frames we'd just bend them to fit whenever necessary! Also I wouldn't have needed to measure the BB shell because the original BB was included when I got it, so I fitted it straight in, no questions asked. I'd certainly guess at 73mm but couldn't be sure.
I think its 68mm BB, 130mm rear and JIS headset...
Please,I need this bike...
Me too - I wish it was mine. It's so beautiful and those Suntour + Dia Compe components feel so exotic if you've grown up with mainly Shimano.
Baffled. I've never Tought Muddy Fox is a quality ride as I I often seen sold brand new for 50 quids in Sports Direct.
Ha ha, the brand went bankrupt (very sadly) in the early 90s and has now been sold to some cheap supermarket operator - so anything you see nowadays being sold as "Muddyfox" (note no space between the 2 words) is NOT the same!
original 'Muddy Fox' brand name is two separate words. new 'Muddyfox' brand name is all one word. they just want the association to the original brand, but there is nothing in common.
Awoseme bike,awosome rebuild,do you have a instagram ?
Thanks - no I very seldom put retrobike stuff on Instagram, I find that most of my family and friends would find that very boring! I stick to TH-cam, that's my main focus for bike stuff.
😊✌
How much is a like new muddy fox explorer 1987 worth not a mark on it no rim wear been used once all it’s life
No idea, sorry - I never sell my builds! I only buy really battered stuff in need of restoration so I've no idea how much mint or complete bikes go for. I did see a nice one on Facebook for £400, is that yours?
@@red_dread yes mate that’s probably the one
I’ve now listed it on eBay with a 3 day listing started at 99p item number 203503533205
Take a look
I love your videos mate you always do a great job of them
And I've just misplaced my 14mm socket.....
That's a 1988. Not a 1989.
88 catalogue yes - but this one didn't leave the shop floor until 89. We have the same problem with cars - the MY (Model Year), first registered date and launch date can be three different years!
@@red_dread understood. It’s a 1988 model regardless of when it was sold.
Hi, Loved this video. I have this same bike which I am just about to get out of storage and tidy up. I have a question.
Did you touch up any of the yellow paint? If so which paint did you use, mine needs a bit more than polishing
Thanks - sorry to say I didn't touch the yellow, and if I had it would have been difficult because it's not a flat colour. It's a unique mix of yellow and gold, with a slightly metallic finish - so you're a braver man than I if you tackle that!
Thanks for getting back to me, I’ll let you know when it’s done. I tour with shows and this bike has been around the world a few times. Now replaced by a Segway mini plus.my other gig bike is a Q-bike Timerider 2.6… where security normally stop us from riding bikes in the venues, they hold the doors open for me… novelty factor