1990 Araya Muddy Fox (Finished!)

Mahoney1978

Retro Guru
Final restoration rejuvenation complete and here she is:

A 1990 Araya Muddy Fox MF26CRM-K, with pretty much full Shimano Deore XT (M730) and a Tange Prestige frame (in Safari Red (pink!)).

I will try not to repeat myself too much and if interested, I would recommend checking out my previous thread on how I found her and its reincarnation (Araya Muddy Fox Resto...).

I wanted a project over Winter in NZ and tried to see if I could get my old Raleigh Dyna Tech over from the UK and smartened up. It wasn’t to be (yet) as the freight costs were beyond what I deemed ‘of good value’. So the next best thing was to scour the local auction sites and see if I could get something worthy of a look. As always I wanted the best I could get (XTR, Titanium Frame blah blah blah) and ideally a Raleigh Dyna Tech. Unfortunately, Dyna Techs seem rarer than hen’s teeth here in NZ, so I thought I’d done pretty well when I found this listed:

Muddy fox mountain bike. This bike is over 10 years old and well used. Shimano XT parts. Bike stand. Near new tyres. Everything works but it is in a worn condition. Usual scratches, surface rust on scratches / bolts etc. Sprockets / gears worn but once again work fine. It has been serviced a couple of times and rides fine. Not sure of the frame size, I'm 182 cm and the bike was a little small for me.

The pictures were poor, but I did my research on Google and in the build thread you will see a link to the old Japanese Muddy Fox catalogues I found. Apart from not speaking a word of Japanese, it didn’t take much to figure out the bike up for sale was a great bike BITD.

I picked her up for $48 (about 25 quid) and the rest is history. Just so that you are aware, my main aim was to re-use as many bits of the bike as possible. Needless to say I scrubbed, sanded, scrubbed again, sanded a little more and polished the bejeebers out of her.

Unfortunately the shifters/brake levers (Deore XT) were in really poor condition and I installed some Deore Thumbies and Levers, the tyres are some old Nokian's I had sitting around and the grips are ESI foam ones (new). Lastly, I must admit I got the LBS to help install the new cables as this is something I’ve never been good at.

I’m not entirely smitten with the frame yet, but I’m really happy that I’ve done my first re-build.

Let me know what you think. :D
 

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jamabikes":21y34cxv said:
super cool. reckon its earlier than 90 though?

I thought that too when I first saw it, but the Araya brochure shows it as a 1990 bike.

See brochure link here

Also, thanks for comments. She's kinda growing on me.... haha
 
That is very very nice and a lugged Fox is on my list of bikes I'm looking for next. I did have a 24" wheel 85 fox for a short time and loved the look of the frame.

Cheers Brian.

Ps if you dyno tech needs rehoming let me know ;)
 
benbonty":2ueswhwl said:
Thats really nice.... NEEDS amberwalls though! :cool:

You are 100% right, it does.... but I don't have any :x

* disclaimer.. will happily accept ALL donations of Amberwall tyres :D
 
MADB":twg75x4j said:
That is very very nice and a lugged Fox is on my list of bikes I'm looking for next. I did have a 24" wheel 85 fox for a short time and loved the look of the frame.

Cheers Brian.

Ps if you dyna tech needs rehoming let me know ;)

Hmmm.... I'm still thinking I'll save up the $$'s and get her sent over to NZ. Too much of an emotional bond (pardon the pun!!) with the old Dyna Tech. However.... if I decide it's just not worth it, Retrobike will be the first place I come to give her a new home.

Cheers :)
 
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