fennec
Retro Guru
This is the one I was waiting to show up, UPS lost this multiple times, it’s been a month. Literally never again with UPS.
The eBay seller from Scotland went way out of their way to raise hell with eBay and UPS and I cannot state how much I apprentices that. This was a fairly expensive thing to get to the United States, and I had to have it. We just don’t have these here.
I know muddy Fox is sadly one of those brands that’s been eaten by some huge corporation so now they’re a shadow of their former selves. Kinda like Schwinn for us in the states. RIP Schwinn.
But having this in the US is just all kinds of fun, I like weird bikes, and this is pretty weird for us.
So it did make it, but not in one piece.
Here’s the quick assembly to see what I was working with.
Not pictured are the matching accessories, a top tube cover and saddle bag to match the bike. Also the original grips, tires and the included pedals. Cool stuff for when it’s all together again. Though probably not the original tires..
UPS had their way with the box, it came with a very bent derailleur
Which is pretty bad, but I think I got it good enough using a big wrench, and just prying it slowly with some heat from a propane torch
I don’t know if I lucked out here or not, but it shifted all 7 smooth as butter. I know this won’t last forever, but this isn’t going to be a daily rider.
I stripped the whole thing down, every component off, the entire frame is going to get a rust treatment to prevent internal rust, and then a whole clean, paint touch up (just black rust converter on spots really) and polish.
Got all the parts set aside, I think I can do some work to rehydrate the saddle leather. The seatpost is just going to be three and a half business days of sanding, the bars I might refinish but they’re not special, they’re just heavy black steel bars. I might replace them with carbon bars for the memes.
Everything else just needs a good clean really.
This has a 125mm bottom bracket so I think I’m just gonna use the original one. The races are in great shape and I don’t see any need to replace it with a cartridge one.
Fun fact, removing fork crown races is easy with a masonry hammer, tapping at opposite sides lightly, takes only a few taps.
Going to replace the headset with a sealed bearing one I have lying around, nos tange stuff, ordered the wrong size for that 1-1/8” marin, so I have the 1” one sitting on a shelf.
I’ll post updates in this thread as more stuff is done.
First thing is just the rust treatment and clean up of the frame and fork, then I’ll do the headset and rebuild the BB.
I’m gonna put V brakes and new shifters on this like I did the Marin. I know it’s sacrilege, I just don’t like cantis and modern shifters are just better in my eyes, rather than trying to revive the old ones.
I don’t throw away the era parts, if I ever feel like trying, all the original stuff will be in a box.
The eBay seller from Scotland went way out of their way to raise hell with eBay and UPS and I cannot state how much I apprentices that. This was a fairly expensive thing to get to the United States, and I had to have it. We just don’t have these here.
I know muddy Fox is sadly one of those brands that’s been eaten by some huge corporation so now they’re a shadow of their former selves. Kinda like Schwinn for us in the states. RIP Schwinn.
But having this in the US is just all kinds of fun, I like weird bikes, and this is pretty weird for us.
So it did make it, but not in one piece.
Here’s the quick assembly to see what I was working with.
Not pictured are the matching accessories, a top tube cover and saddle bag to match the bike. Also the original grips, tires and the included pedals. Cool stuff for when it’s all together again. Though probably not the original tires..
UPS had their way with the box, it came with a very bent derailleur
Which is pretty bad, but I think I got it good enough using a big wrench, and just prying it slowly with some heat from a propane torch
I don’t know if I lucked out here or not, but it shifted all 7 smooth as butter. I know this won’t last forever, but this isn’t going to be a daily rider.
I stripped the whole thing down, every component off, the entire frame is going to get a rust treatment to prevent internal rust, and then a whole clean, paint touch up (just black rust converter on spots really) and polish.
Got all the parts set aside, I think I can do some work to rehydrate the saddle leather. The seatpost is just going to be three and a half business days of sanding, the bars I might refinish but they’re not special, they’re just heavy black steel bars. I might replace them with carbon bars for the memes.
Everything else just needs a good clean really.
This has a 125mm bottom bracket so I think I’m just gonna use the original one. The races are in great shape and I don’t see any need to replace it with a cartridge one.
Fun fact, removing fork crown races is easy with a masonry hammer, tapping at opposite sides lightly, takes only a few taps.
Going to replace the headset with a sealed bearing one I have lying around, nos tange stuff, ordered the wrong size for that 1-1/8” marin, so I have the 1” one sitting on a shelf.
I’ll post updates in this thread as more stuff is done.
First thing is just the rust treatment and clean up of the frame and fork, then I’ll do the headset and rebuild the BB.
I’m gonna put V brakes and new shifters on this like I did the Marin. I know it’s sacrilege, I just don’t like cantis and modern shifters are just better in my eyes, rather than trying to revive the old ones.
I don’t throw away the era parts, if I ever feel like trying, all the original stuff will be in a box.
