1988 Muddy Fox Explorer

[Spanky22b]

This is the rarest Explorer Muddy Fox ever did this is the limited edition small size, apparently they only made a couple and all the rest were mahoosive versions
Always wanted one as a kid from Denton Cycles, well always wanted one after my mam wouldn't get me the Marin Pine Mountain they had in the shop at the time, so i would show her the Explorer thinking with it being cheaper she may get me one for Christmas, nope still to expensive
So finally years later i get one and i had an idea to make it better, why not fit Shimano Deore on it and give it an upgrade from the suntour stuff it came with.
So this is it so far in the build process.

 

[raidan73]

Nice! Those must be etched in the memory of everyone of a certain age. Iconic

 

[Augustus]

Lovely. A friend had a 21.5in and we went to Cycle Logical and saw one of these and I tried to talk him into it but his dad made him have the 21.5 so he could grow into it.

 

[Spanky22b]

Nice! Those must be etched in the memory of everyone of a certain age. Iconic

They were certainly etched into my memory might of been the weeks of dragging my mam upto the shop to try and convince her a mountain bike was the best thing to have and bmx's were old hat The Muddy Fox thing must have stuck though because my first mtb was a 1990 Muddy Fox Pathfinder.

 

[Spanky22b]

Lovely. A friend had a 21.5in and we went to Cycle Logical and saw one of these and I tried to talk him into it but his dad made him have the 21.5 so he could grow into it.

Yeah i blame the parents for all the mahoosive ones out there

 

[Spanky22b]

I was sitting looking at the Explorer and thinking it just doesn't look quite right
To me the black lettering is jumping out on the frame and it's to silvery with all those parts so i thought i know i've still got some parts off my 88 Killi Flyer.
It had black MT60 cantilevers and black MT60 brake levers, put them on and straight away in my eyes the bike changes and looks way better.
The Deore U brake has been sold to another retrobike member so i had a spare Exage Mountain U-Brake and with the cantilevers being matt black i've done the u brake the same and looking at the Levers they were the same so there getting resprayed to tidy them up aswell.
I've got the Deore Chainset off the Killi which came with black rings so that will be swapped over aswell once cleaned.
So far so good

 

[Spanky22b]

While i've got the spray can out i might aswell tidy up the stem.

 

[Spanky22b]

Silver or black Yep that's what i thought black works best

 

[Imlach]

Silver or black Yep that's what i thought black works best

Definitely black, a fully black crankset would be nice too.

 

[Spanky22b]

Definitely black, a fully black crankset would be nice too.