Muddy Fox Interactive!

[Santercruz]

It's a Muddy Fox Interactive... These were big big news back in the day (96) and were splashed over about every mag that covered any type of bike.

Initially just a concept bike no one thought would make it to the bike stores it did eventually go into limited production, and cost megabucks!! It was the bike of my dreams back then, but unfortunately I was WAY out of my reach.

The frame is stunning.. it was given to a Muddy Fox worker (back when they made bikes that kicked ass) as part of a retirement gift, he then had it on the wall in his front room for a long time, then decided to sell..

A collector in London bought it, then sold it to me when he was down scaling his collection, He bolted some missfit bits to it to sell it as a 'working bike'.. I then went about replacing all the standard bolts with titanium ones as they were tarnished, then generally adding some top kit to it, like:

SRAM X.0 rear mech (Nearly New) on new P991 cassette and new hollowpin chain
XT front mech, (New)
Sram X.9 shifters with (Front used rear new) new Cables
Raceface Turbine Cranks (Not new but as new!!)
USE Alien seatpost, (New)
Specialised saddle (Used)
XTR wheels with Ti carrier and spindle on rear, (Used)
XTR front brake (New)
Avid Ti Rear brake (New)
Avid SL (Ti hardwear) levers (New)
Thompson Elite stem (New)
Raceface bars (New)
Cannondale grips (New)
etc, some modern some retro, but all 1st class stuff.. all in all I think it all gels quite well.
Replaced 80% of steel bolts for race spec Titanium jobbies...

The frame is one size fits all, you can adjust the reach from saddle to bars by adjusting the angle of the seat post. The front suspension is linked to the rear suspension. This basically means the bike will always stay level, on hard braking the whole bike lowers rather that the nose dipping and arse in the air.. very stable.

Some parts acquired through some of the Retrobike family.. may new from various shops.

I love pimping old bikes.. big sorry to all the purists out there, but it's what makes the world go round!

Take it easy guys!

 

[Santercruz]

A few more pics!

 

[longun]

i really like it,maybe not to ride daily etc but on a nice sunny day,with period correct parts.

top bike fella,dont worry what overs think i like it n thats all that matters lol

 

[GrahamJohnWallace]

This suspension system was designed and invented by Dave Smart who also made road bike versions. It is an unusual example of a suspension-bike' designer trying to control the rotational forces that can easily turn a bike into the equivalent of a rocking horse on wheels.

The design is complex but basically sound, and works by interconnecting the front and rear suspensions. The front and rear wheels should rise and fall together. The downside is that the suspension is not independent and the bike could stall when hitting large bumps at low speed.

 

[elPedro666]

Wow - just resurrecting this to say; Wow!

Remember these coming out & I thought they were the bolx. The wheels really suit it too, looks ace

Do you still have it? Pics of it in action?

 

[Santercruz]

Sold it to the bike museum in Holland a while ago now.. Got to be the most unusual bike to date that I've pimped to date.. Loved it!
Have more static pics but not in action..

 

[saltyman]

quite like it too

 

[samc]

shame you sold it - but couldn't go to a better home!

Does anyone know how many were made? Be nice to know how many were still out there in the wild.

 

[Dave2020]

INTEREACTIVE suspension

samc Does anyone know how many were made?

Well, I should know! - but Muddy Fox never told me, because they didn't want to pay any royalties.

For the record, the license agreement covered two designs, but Pacific Cycles were so upset by MF they didn't put the steel frame into production.

MF registered the name 'INTEREACTIVE' without informing my business partner or me. Please note the correct spelling guys.

That's all water under the bridge, but the fundamental design principle isn't. It has nothing whatever to do with the 'rear' suspension being 'prepared' for a bump that the 'front' has just run over. Get real! The basic premise was and is to produce a BICYCLE-SPECIFIC suspension frame that is just as responsive as a rigid frame, regardless of the rider's pedalling technique. My concepts remain the only designs ever to succeed in that objective. A little imagination confirms to anyone that conventional 'independent' suspension can NEVER do that.

A far heavier Tai Huei steel 'Poweractive' frame was ridden a whole season in competition. The rider was so fond of it he only gave it back when a weld broke.

The defective frame shown on this thread is a MF redesign that ruins the basic function of the original, which was beautifully crafted by Harris Performance - the GP motorcycle monocoque frame builders. There were 20 sets of pre-production frame components. I know that for certain, because I designed and paid for everything. MF took charge of these and I never saw them again. I believe they ended up in a London Action Sports shop?

You can see for yourself why the MF design is so bad. The lever ratios from front and rear are a complete mismatch. If the shock has a reasonable response to the forks, it has next to zero compliance to rear wheel impacts!

In the original design the link was under tension and the suspension medium mounted in front of the BB. The load on the spring remained constant, even when the rider shifted position or braked hard - not just zero dive, there was no effect AT ALL. This design has NONE of the compromises of 'independent' suspension, so it has NONE of the myriad of setup permutations.

For those of you who have a blind faith in the peculiar received wisdom that 'independent' is somehow the only way to design suspension, think of it this way - Take two wheels and suspend the mass of frame and rider between them in such a way that their displacement is purely perpendicular. What's wrong with that? In a word - nothing! In stark contrast, conventional bike suspension does everything wrong and nothing right.

Same goes for car suspension, but that's another story!

The Mk. 14 is still on the shelf, waiting for the 'right time'. As the President of Tai Huei said to me 17 years ago - "Yours is an idea before its time, Dave."

Why then am I posting about it on Retrobike? Watch this space.

 

[lewis1641]

great to hear something from the inside.

sounds like your designs are going to get an airing - best of luck with that