Boredom's Muddyfox and Pompino

I bought a Muddy fox courier comp a while back as it looked like a great project bike. It was a good deal I think for €50. I'm in a few minds of what to do with it. I'm thinking of either:

1. putting a new triple groupset (or 1x or keep the old 3x7, still undecided) on it, v brakes, a front or rear rack (would p clips work on a wishbone stay?), basket, mudguards,newer wheels (possibly dynamo),tyres and making it into a nice commuter/light tourer
   
2. The same as above but with friction shifter drop bar ends with v brakes
   
3. The same as 1. but with cantis so I can use drop bar sti levers
   
4. just a rack/cheap mudguards and having it as a cheapo leave anywhere kinda bike.
   
5. Give it a new seatpost and a quick service, sell it for profit and buy the green muddy fox for sale in the classifieds because I might just end up buying all new parts for the one I have already, which would stop me having to try sell an old 3x7 groupset and crappy parts.
   
   

I also thought that v brakes and cantis have different pull ratios but the levers on there atm say v brakes but there's canti arms on which seem to work, so is it relatively ok to mix?

It was listed 3 times on adverts.ie where I bought it from (on 2 different accounts, both with poor reputation), I reckon because it wasn't in dublin it didn't get much interest. Here's the first listing I found. Here's the second. And here's the final one

I tried doing a bit of research on the courier comp, but couldn't find out too much about it, and I've no idea what the difference is between it and the pathfinder tijs has, as they look identical, but I think it's 1989 and was originally specced with suntour.

It's a little rusted and I don't know if it is of a level of concern tbh. I also don't really want it to get worse. Would a few layers of clear coat spray be enough or stupid? I don't want a respray if I can avoid it.

@Tijs 's muddy fox is definitely an inspiration, and depending on how I decide to go with this mine could end up being nearly identical!
@t0-ster 's GT is really nice too. As are this raleigh,this gary fisher, these treks and @Mentats pathfinder (which I think I spotted in Dublin in a slightly different setup and admired for a few minutes, I quite liked the banana left on the saddle and love the paintjob)

I've also a pompino I'll post about in a few days. Not a huge amount to do to that to get it to be my ultimate commuter bike, just adding a rack, rear mudguard, new handlebars, maybe a basket.

Sick!! Cant go wrong.

When it comes to drivetrain, 1x is so much more satisfying in my eyes. Both in terms of maintenance and user experience.

For brakes, V's 100percent. Even good cantis are shitty when it comes to braking power

Shoddy Fox Courier Comp is reet nice and IIRC well manouvreable because CoG is forward over front wheel, but without being "twitchy". Lovely bike. Enjoy!

Welcome to the Muddy Fox family! 🦊

100% agree with t0-ster on V-brakes. Mounted a set of those in combination with swept bars recently and the difference is night and day.

And don't match them with STI levers; different pull like you've said. There are converters, so you could look into that if you really want integrated shifters, but I would also like to try bar end shifters one day.

Definitely following this!

This has got potential

Yeah, but as any fule no the U-brake is the daddy of stoppage.

According to @mankkis it works well with 5700 Shifters, on his poor mans Evasion.

Haha!

..

that was a joke right?

Alright so I bought a dynamo front wheel, seemed like a good deal for €40, came with a second matching tyre and spare tube so I'm fairly happy. I know nothing about dynamos though and I've never replaced a spoke or trued a wheel, but I'm excited to learn!

Ryde Sputnik rim
Shimano DH-3N80 dynamo hub
36 Sapim Leader stainless steel spokes (1 spoke needs replacing)
Pasela Panaracer PT 26x1.75 tyre

I've also started to have a look about groupsets, and theres a 3x10 T6000 deore groupset (that I think is the right type front mech, never realised there was so many swing, clamp and pull options for front mechs) less brakes I could get for €150, or the best priced shimano groupsets I've found are bike-components.de, so I could still go 1x or 2x but they look like they'd be around €250+

Still not sure about maybe buying the rustless muddyfox frame in classifieds. Anyone any thoughts - both on the level of rust on mine and not having to swap everything over and sell spare parts?

1 Attachment

The link to the picture of your rusty frame doesn't work, at least for me.

I wouldn't worry too much. You don't have to deal with thru-axles, head tube sizes, BB standards etc. so it would be easy enough to find a replacement frame if this one is a duff. Your new group set and wheels etc. will transfer over no problem. Old MTBs aren't expensive either even for (what would have been) top-end stuff. Crack on I say!

Lucky for you that spoke is an elbow-out one (I think) which means it's far easier to thread through :)

PS. mini-Vs would work with drop bars, ought to clear a 1.75" tyre I think. But maybe check that.

Ok no clue why that link isn't working, it's formatted properly. Can't seem to hotlink it without it adding a lfgss link in front of it which breaks it a bit. The copy pastable link is imgur.com/a/QjrUpqI

I don't think I wanna go mini-vs as I'm going to go mudguards too and will get bigger tyres once these are worn out.

Try:

[It's a little rusted](https://imgur.com/a/QjrUpqI)

With 'https://' in front.

Result:

It's a little rusted

Got the t6000 3x10 deore groupset for €150, it's in really nice condition so I'm pretty happy. Just missed out on a perfect rear wheel though, so I'll have to keep looking for that.

1 Attachment

Thanks for that btw!

Looks fun! I would go 1x10 - front mechs are a faff and it doesn’t sound like you absolutely need the extra range. A carefully chosen narrow wide on the front will increase both fun and presumably radness.

So I realised I've pretty much got a full bikes worth of parts now so rather than trying to sell a load of small parts I'd be better off trying to find a frame to do up as a full bike.

Got this off eBay for £40 posted to my very helpful uncle up north who brought it down to Dublin yesterday. I think the seller has sold this frame 3 times, the first two times to himself. Looking at his feedback the account who bought it the first two times was the same, and it had the exact same photos and description. The third time there were slightly different pictures and measurements in the description. I think he was trying to raise the price in the end and got it wrong. No one else bid on it this time though. £20 and £20 postage isn't bad. It looks in better condition than the courier comp and has rear pannier eyelets on the seat stay which is handy.

I'm torn now though on

1. Which bike to put the nice parts on.
   
2. What I should do with the second bike, sell it or keep it as a beater commuter that I can lock up anywhere and not really worry about and lend as a light tourer with just a front rack if any of my (tallish) friends want to do a short tour with me.
   

1 Attachment

This one came with a seriously scratched seat post, the original matching stem without expansion plug or bolt and 2 headsets. The one on it atm needs replacing, the other is a kind of ugly black plastic one.

Have I seen your Muddyfox around grand canal dock? Pics of the current muddyfox set up?

Obviously keep for pub bike/lender/etc

edit: that was @SkipTown I think

Yeah definitely not me. My other one still looks like the photo in the first post. I haven't done anything to it yet.

Ah amazing, buzzing to see this around town!