Muddy Fox Rock'n'roll pro project

[HughF]

Hope everyone is having a good start to the year... I had this frame in my watch list for about 6 months, finally decided to grab it from the seller...



I don't know why I bought it really, other than I like steel framed machines, I needed another project, and I liked the styling/geometry/linkage design. I have a soft spot for modern flex-stay designs (despite not owning either a Swarf or a Project12 frame).

It showed up yesterday. Shock is dead, shock hardware is all bent and the rocker mount on the seat tube has cracked welds. It's a good job I have a tig welding shop, although I'll fillet braze these repairs to add some reinforcement to the pivot area, the welds all being underfilled.

The plan is:

1x10 drivetrain
Rockshock 120mm front forks from a Charge Duster 11 (I have them in stock)
EXA Form rear shock (the only thing I could find that was 150mm eye-eye) - I bought both air and coil versions
Convert the rear to disk with a braze on
TSDZ2 mid drive motor (probably) - I enjoy the one on my Genesis iOiD so much, a non e-bike is a bit boring now

I went on an aliexpress binge last night and bought a £50 10 speed groupset, Carbon 740mm bars, carbon stem, ztto headset with sealed races. Just got to fix the frame, and find some wheels and brakes.

Going to strip it and spray it gloss white to match the forks.

 

[HughF]

Does anyone know what date this is, roughly? I’ve tried researching as much as I can but it’s hard to find details on these later muddy fox designs

 

[HughF]

Yep, that’s defo cracked….



Will dress the braze tomorrow. I ran out of the fast freeze rods so ended up with these which flow a bit too easily. Ah well, it’s on there now.

 

[Magpiegifts]

I seen this on eBay for a long time as well.
Hope you get it back up and running again

 

[HughF]

I seen this on eBay for a long time as well.
Hope you get it back up and running again

Yeah I hope so too. The rocker is all twisted too so there’s some more work needed there to get it right. Needle roller bearings for the rear triangle pivot though, quite nice.

 

[A_Venables]

I saw these in the shops all those years ago, would have been around 95-96. Attached pic is a slightly later Rock n Roll Ultimate I have, although it’s in bits at the moment and is actually pretty heavy. I’m currently building up a Alu Ultimate. I’m sure when I saw these, think they had LX/XT and Rockshox forks, something like a Quadra 5/IndyC/XC.

 

[HughF]

I saw these in the shops all those years ago, would have been around 95-96. Attached pic is a slightly later Rock n Roll Ultimate I have, although it’s in bits at the moment and is actually pretty heavy. I’m currently building up a Alu Ultimate. I’m sure when I saw these, think they had LX/XT and Rockshox forks, something like a Quadra 5/IndyC/XC.

Was this design of rear triangle and rear suspension the later design, when compared to mine?

 

[A_Venables]

Was this design of rear triangle and rear suspension the later design, when compared to mine?

Yes, this would have been the later, think from about 97 onwards, but can remember the two designs running side by side in the line up - the design of the Pro was lower down the range and the Ultimate was higher up. There was also another design where you could alter where the shock was fixed to alter the head tube angle and possibly the travel, was used more for DH also. Some had nice specs.

 

[HughF]

Very interesting, thanks.... The build quality is interesting - the welds are a bit rough and are all underfilled and/or undercut, yet the engineering seems quite good, nice needle roller sleeves in the rear pivot for example.

 

[Antwack]

I had a steel Rock 'n' Roll in the early nineties. Black with green decals. Mine had elastomers on the rear and RST forks. Good memories!