1989 Muddy Fox Pathfinder

[CTK]

So cool to have all the extras.

 

[Once A Hero]

Love this bike, and with the accessories - including the wheel disc!
It's not an '89 though - it's one up from my Adventurer in the 1990 line up

 

[Vindiu]

Yes, that's a 1990 XC-T groupset. Too late, but with SunTour Accushift Plus (1990-1991) there are two ways to keep the old components and get the index to work:

1 - Keep the Accushift cogs and use exclusively a SunTour Accushift Plus chain. any other chain will not be picked up by the cogs upon downshifting. Accushift Plus was about the flaring at the outer liks of the chain, the cog teeth just have a bit of a chamfering on the inborard face to clutch on that flaring.
2- If an AP chain can't be used, get a shimano compatible rear hub and use a 7S HG cassette. It will be a bit off in the two smaller cogs (SunTour had a 3,3 mm spacer between the 2nd and 3rd) but it will shift fine nonetheless.

Of course the shifters have to be 7 S SunTour. AP was a bigger pull ratio (tallest in the industry) that made the lateral movement or teh rear mech very fast but was very sensitive to any misallignment or cable rub.

Hope that helps

 

[Scott-S]

just as an update to this bike, this thing rips
with a longer chain i fixed a lot of the problems i had with the highest gear clicking, there was just too few links on the old chain
the wheel disc hardware i replaced with license plate screws, its just more plastic nuts and bolts but theyre doable with fingers instead of tools which destroy them
ended up not going with cantis, i like linear pulls, nor did i paint the bars, the carbon weave looks weird but i rarely ride this bike because it doesnt fit me
its a fun ride, its faster than anything else i have, in the future i want to replace the tires with something a little thinner
View attachment 886733

a lot of people have asked me about it, because as mentioned we dont have these in the US, so i run into other bike people who have no idea what it is but recognize the type of bike it is

The paint job is awesome as is but the accessories just set it apart right into a different league.
An incredible bike and sadly a journey and a half for you, I wish you many happy and safe miles on it

 

[KayOs]

The bike is a real eye-catcher. The paintjob is simply awesome. Is the wheeldisc loud when riding and how is it in crosswinds?

Your parcel services are really the worst, I would have gone out and burnt down their headquarters at night by now. It hurts just reading about it.

 

[fennec]

Just as a follow up, as this thread has gotten some recent attention
This is going back to stock. I found someone who could unbend the bars and I got some new shifters for the original drivetrain
Stand by as I wait for a 24mm crank puller to remove the M560’s

Is the wheeldisc loud when riding and how is it in crosswinds?

It’s fairly quiet unless you start hitting bumps. But even on light gravel or rough pavement you don’t hear it much. But when it is audible it is very, very audible.
Crosswinds aren’t too bad actually, it’s definitely there but far less than I expected.

 

[KayOs]

Just as a follow up, as this thread has gotten some recent attention
This is going back to stock. I found someone who could unbend the bars and I got some new shifters for the original drivetrain
Stand by as I wait for a 24mm crank puller to remove the M560’s

View attachment 896513


It’s fairly quiet unless you start hitting bumps. But even on light gravel or rough pavement you don’t hear it much. But when it is audible it is very, very audible.
Crosswinds aren’t too bad actually, it’s definitely there but far less than I expected.

Thanks, I have only tested such discs on a 20" bike so far and it was quite loud from time to time.
But it always looks great. I also like the tires.
I guess they are great on dry and hard packed surfaces but not so much on mud, right?

 

[fennec]

Alright so back to stock
The shifters I found are a problem, they’re suntour X-press shifters in the American 3x7 orientation. This bike being immensely British is 7x3, so I got around that by just crossing the cables on the downtube stretch.


Problem there is, the 3x shifter is for a top pull derailleur which makes for some janky cable setup.
And then aforementioned janky cable setup really only kinda works, and both shifters have destroyed clutch plates in them anyway so it doesn’t matter, they both shift awfully.

I need to find outright different shifters because these are just thrashed, I could not get them working right at all even rebuilding them. And I learned in research for these parts that such a thing is extremely common and chances are I just need to get used to my upshifts skipping a few gears.
And the 3x just straight doesn’t work. It has no ratcheting points, it might as well be a friction shifter even if it was set up with a top pull derailleur.

Side note, the BB is still my favorite original part


Even if I’m bad at setting it up.

Gonna be honest, this is probably gonna be put together and then shelved for a while. I don’t have the time or money to sink into this bike anymore, and I’m honestly just kind of tired of messing with it. I started replacing parts when I got this to work around the issues of worn out 35 year old parts, but I’m now using those original parts and having to fix problems with them and I’m just not about that right now.

If I ever find good shifters I might try again. But as of right now the brake pads aren’t even set up right because I don’t have a deep enough 10mm socket and I don’t even care that much to go get a deeper socket.