Back to the 80's i shall go.

Spanky22b

Kona Fan
Feedback
View
Whilst digging out the 88 Pine Mountain from hibernation i stumbled across the Muddy Fox Courier lying there at the back of the cave and i started to get all nostalgic looking at the two of them.
It took me back to 1988 being a 13 year old kid again riding BMX's everyday and then these things called Mountain Bikes turned up with loads of gears,big wheels and can go anywhere i wanted some of that 😀
It's mad but i can remember exactly where i was and what bike it was that got me hooked on mountain biking.
And it was walking into Denton Cycles in Newcastle with my mam on a mission to try and get her to buy me a mountain bike for Christmas. Walking into the shop the first thing i saw was a Marin Pine Mountain with Tange Prestige and Shimano Deore and it instantly became my dream bike and still is,it just looked amazing with the silver paint, black forks and the violet flip in the paint. There's three things from that bike what has stayed with me forever,1/ Joe Murray and the bikes he made, 2/ Tange Prestige tubed bikes and 3/ Shimano bike parts.
I asked my mam if i could have it for Christmas, there was a long wait as my mam asked the owner how much it was. And once my mam heard how much it cost,it was an emphatic NO Chris your not getting that for Christmas it's far to expensive. I'm sure it was around £400 and to a 13 year old kid that didn't seem alot of money really considering it had Tange Prestige and Shimano Deore 😂 My mam didn't see it that way though something about having to pay bills and putting food on the table which seemed all trivial to a 13 year old me i just wanted to ride a bike 😂🤣
Deflated but not defeated i had a back up plan there was some more bikes around the corner which had a cool name, what were they, they were Muddy Fox of course.
Even better my mam loved them and the colours of them,that was until she seen the price 😂
Muddy Fox Explorer, nope to expensive what about the Courier then you love the colour of it,sadly nope. Something to do with your sister has to get presents for Christmas aswell you know Chris, in my head i was thinking why don't you just get her less presents then 😂😂
We left the shop and headed for Kawasaki on Westgate Road to look at the motocross bikes and the BMX's upstairs but that was it i was hooked forever with mountain bikes and everything what went with it,Dentons became my go to bike shop from then on, me and my mates going up there on the Metro to look at the bikes every week.

So i'm gonna have a little break from my Konas for a bit and concentrate on my neglected 80's bikes starting with this 1988 Muddy Fox Courier the one my mam loved the colour of but not enough to buy me one 😂🤣
 

Attachments

  • IMG_20250421_170409_edit_468931362636258.webp
    IMG_20250421_170409_edit_468931362636258.webp
    413.3 KB · Views: 23
That's looks better, the purple violet stands out more which has given me an idea.
I wonder if i got the RAL code for that and then gave it to a painters they could do a mix of that and a light silver to replicate the colour of the 88 Pine Mountain 🤔

I always love the little paw prints on the Muddy Foxes of this era, so cool.
And some good old MBUK stickers which was mandatory back then to stick on your bike 😀

Now for the next bit,some polishing i think the paint should come up quite good with a few coats.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_20250422_111840.webp
    IMG_20250422_111840.webp
    85.9 KB · Views: 9
  • IMG_20250422_111827_edit_512184539751012.webp
    IMG_20250422_111827_edit_512184539751012.webp
    590.8 KB · Views: 11
  • IMG_20250422_111821_edit_512171093528619.webp
    IMG_20250422_111821_edit_512171093528619.webp
    541.4 KB · Views: 10
  • IMG_20250422_111800_edit_512153696702059.webp
    IMG_20250422_111800_edit_512153696702059.webp
    740.8 KB · Views: 10
  • IMG_20250422_112802.webp
    IMG_20250422_112802.webp
    262.8 KB · Views: 9
Last edited:
I was in the same boat as you in '88. Had the MF catalogue and tried to figure out with saving and selling how I might just be able to scrape enough together for the Courier. It never happened! To rub salt in the wound a lad who was in the same year as me with better off parents liked to show off his brother's new Explorer, the smug bastard.

Looking forward to your project here. Are you going original componentry? Hard find if so.
 
There was always one at school like that, he was actually a friend at school but was a rich kid it was around 88/89 and he got a Honda CR500 for Christmas he could barely get on the thing lol

Won't be going original parts i'm going to upgrade it with good old Shimano,i've got a groupset somewhere in the cave.
 
Starting to take shape,Shimano Deore headset fitted and the stem, bars and seatpost picked. I'm loving the all black look it really makes the frame and forks stand out which is what i'm aiming for by making it the centre piece.
Some eagle eyed will be thinking there not the original forks and that's alot of spacers, well there off my 88 Saracen Blizzard and are 10 mm to long. So without cutting them i've just added spacers until i can sort the other forks out.

The Explosif in the background has come to investigate what's going on, it's thinking that's not a Kona what you upto 😁🤣
 

Attachments

  • IMG_20250422_135540.webp
    IMG_20250422_135540.webp
    445.2 KB · Views: 17
  • IMG_20250422_135507.webp
    IMG_20250422_135507.webp
    380.5 KB · Views: 18
  • IMG_20250422_135447.webp
    IMG_20250422_135447.webp
    161 KB · Views: 15
  • IMG_20250422_135443.webp
    IMG_20250422_135443.webp
    91.9 KB · Views: 19
Think i'll go Mountain LX, my bike cave is mad one minute you find things you forgot you had like those Deore ll Araya wheels and the next thing it hides things like the Mountain LX chainset i had in my hands only two weeks ago 😂
 

Attachments

  • IMG_20250423_085039.webp
    IMG_20250423_085039.webp
    307.3 KB · Views: 2
🥳 Found them and some Mountain LX shifters which ain't broke,they always seem to snap the locating pins.
And also the cave just unearthed what seems at first glance some nos Exage Mountain mechs, front certainly looks brand new and i can't see marks off Allen keys on the rear mech,when i got them i've no idea 🤷‍♂️😀
 

Attachments

  • IMG_20250423_093938.webp
    IMG_20250423_093938.webp
    390.4 KB · Views: 0
  • IMG_20250423_093109_edit_561373829292464.webp
    IMG_20250423_093109_edit_561373829292464.webp
    311.1 KB · Views: 0
  • IMG_20250423_093050_edit_561359454891425.webp
    IMG_20250423_093050_edit_561359454891425.webp
    523.4 KB · Views: 0
  • IMG_20250423_093029_edit_561348397761218.webp
    IMG_20250423_093029_edit_561348397761218.webp
    457.6 KB · Views: 0
  • IMG_20250423_093021_edit_561335897313824.webp
    IMG_20250423_093021_edit_561335897313824.webp
    522.6 KB · Views: 0
  • IMG_20250423_092658_edit_561074264852406.webp
    IMG_20250423_092658_edit_561074264852406.webp
    355.2 KB · Views: 0
  • IMG_20250423_094012_edit_561881297415303.webp
    IMG_20250423_094012_edit_561881297415303.webp
    433.3 KB · Views: 0
Back
Top