Re:
I'm liking the 1985 bike pictured - now that is what I call early Muddy Fox.
Its such a shame what happened to the brand and what they stand for these days - they were the business in the early days. Their partnership with Tange and Suntour was a legendary combination. Even in the early '90s they had some appeal, but were falling behind with all the competition from new high performance XC machines hitting the market from hundreds of other top brands. I still have fond memories of the early range, and lusted after the Explorer, Courier and others from their catalogues as a 14 year old back in the day.
I've restored my 19" 1989 Explorer in a powder-coated yellow finish a couple of years ago (pic to follow), I am a little disappointed I didn't colour match it completely in pearl light yellow, but I still love it, I have most of the orginal or period replacement parts on it, and it brings back fond memories of the late '80s - I did miles on it back in the day, (although technically it wasn;t the same bike), but I had to get a period wreck and restore it to 'my bike' spec. when I got into retro-biking a few years ago and I've been pretty pleased with it, I tried a used big 21" frame Explorer first, and geometry actually fitted me comfortably in a way a modern 21" wouldn't today, I found a 19" which was the size I had originally.
I had the pink 1990 "Aluminum Pro" briefly a while ago and that actually rode really nicely for an early Alu bike - and was lightyears ahead of the mid '80s steel bikes. That said the steel bikes were overengineered and built to last - heavy but bomb proof.
Matt