Start at the beginning - Muddy Fox Courier Comp Greeeeeen

Christmas 1989.

I knew I was getting a new bike. What I was expecting was a Black and Red Crackle painted Muddy Fox Courier Comp, as I had had a wee word with the man in the red suit.
Turns out that guy was colour blind, what was hiding in the garage was just a slightly different hue. I'd missed out on the crackle paintjob but the 1990 version had just been released; I dont have any pictures of an excited young me on Christmas day, but heres a picture of me racing the mean green machine at Golpsie in 1990 (see if you can spot it)



I don't really need to explain here what that bike meant to me, being my first mountain bike. I rode it into the ground, and upgraded every part on it, I remember when I eventually sold it on to upgrade, the only original parts were the frame and forks, bars and seat pin QR. I'd even had it resprayed a really boring blue - sacrilege

I've been searching for one of these bikes for years. I have tried building up an orange Adventurer from the same era, and very recently a blue Pathfinder



but it just wasn't the real deal.

Talking old bikes with a friend, he just casually drops into the conversation " oh I've got another Muddy Fox somewhere. Yeah its one of those green ones, a whassuschops..."

Perhaps sensing the inappropriate excitement level, he agreed to wing it my way in due course and this week...guess what arrived!





It's almost completely original, and almost completely unroadworthy.

It's in full survivor condition, with only the rear tyre having been lost along the way, it has the original grips, saddle, pedals, brake blocks, the lot, and none of it is really salvagable











Not massively important as the intention is to get it as close to the upgraded bike I finished up with, rather than the original spec.
Full strip down has commenced, the paint is staying, as its what makes the bike (see above re the blue respray) Everything is moving so far, although the big spanners had to come out to get the "loose" cup off the BB



The bottom bracket gives up its secrets



So the plans are, a really good scrub up with the T-cut, and then a good rummage in the box. So chuffed with this!!

Re:

a worthy project!

Pulling a chair...

This really makes me smile. I got that same Courier Comp on Christmas 1990 which I too upgraded and raced on, ended up with Kona Track two forks and other nice parts...coming from a Raleigh Montage I'd say it was my first 'proper' MTB. Unfortunately I gave it to a friend and it went in his shed, his folks moved and I have no idea what happened to it after that.

Going to be following this build and look forward to seeing the finished bike

Re:

So i've been sacrificing my sandwich time to get busy on the clean up today.

First things first though, it was a bit of a struggle getting the fixed cup out...




ending up in the vice, but its free now, so let the scrubbing commence



to



top tube stickers are a bit goosed



but this has come up pretty well



There's a good few decent sized paint chips and a couple of bigger rusty patches where the previous owner tried to clamp a rack onto the wishbone stay (see the pic above with the big wrench), just surface but does need something done. trouble is if I try and touch them up it ain't going to match. Anybody any thoughts?

Looks a bit like 90s Kawasaki green

I'd just leave it as is...that tubing would take a long, long time to rust through! The other option is a full professional refurb which will be costly and may not turn out faithful to the original.

Neil G":5l2gxtt6 said:

I'd just leave it as is...that tubing would take a long, long time to rust through! The other option is a full professional refurb which will be costly and may not turn out faithful to the original.

Click to expand...

Argos in Bristol do a cracking job on the paint front, however you would need to find the right RAL code for the green, or identify a part of the frame that's not faded and use colour swatches to match it by eye.

As you've already alluded to if you did have the exact shade as a touch up it would probably stick out like a sore thumb given the aging effect on the original finish, therefore I think you have only two options

A. Leave the paint (Patina) as is but keep well polished
B. Have it completely re-finished

first one may take some living with, and the latter will make a serious dent in your pocket


the joy we all have of living/owning modern antiques with a back story

Thias":ovzr27wi said:

Pulling a chair...

Click to expand...

Indeed





One of my first was a Muddy Fox. Bought off the LBS mechanic. Damn I now wish I'd put the white porcs that were on iti in the loft instead of the dustbin :facepalm:

Retro Spud":3rfoev1f said:

A. Leave the paint (Patina) as is but keep well polished
B. Have it completely re-finished

first one may take some living with, and the latter will make a serious dent in your pocket

Click to expand...

Its gonna have to be option A, cos my pockets are smashed to F#*@ already, the perils of living with N+1

And it really isn't that bad, yes its got some scarring but it is a 27 year old bike (?!) I have also picked up some marks along the way so it suits me fine.

Sorting out the rust in the BB threads




and the first rub down of the very scabby seatpost comes up not too bad



I have got to thank presumably the previous owner R.M. for stamping his intitials on the post for me, and on the cranks and chainring and Im sure some other places I've yet to find...



So its cleaning up pretty nicely so far - I thnk another lunchbreak with the tcut and then Ill be moving onto Autosol