Always try to be self sufficient .....

Here . Some additional retro MTB twaddle . I scanned in some old magazines and stuff last week . Early stuff .

The earliest of the earliest is this . In 1987 , cut and paste was a fighting style .
There was an almost total absence of MTB literature . I would buy the odd bike mag but they were literally 95% biased toward roadie with maybe touring thrown in . There was a point when Bicycle Action magazine started to include a section devoted to off-road , called MBUK . A few pages at the back .

So , info was hard to come by . I guess I must have followed up on an ad , and joined the national Mountain Bike Club . It was run by MTB pioneers , Jeremy Torr , and Max Glaskin . It was a very low key ' fanzine' style affair . Just a single sheet of A4 , with the absolute smallest of print , xeroxed by the million . Well , tens . At least . A few issues in came this . Guidelines on how to put on an MTB event . Have a gander .

 

Kinda funny , eh ? Remember kids , all bikes should have tyres at least 1.5" wide . 

Ok , that's it for now . 

I am the Muddy Fox Courier . 

The Inner Workings of the Human Mind...

Here's a little story to be going on with ...

I am the Muddyfox Courier


 

The story begins , like all good stories , with a 32mm spanner ...

The last time I undid this nut , or to be precise , an identical one on another courier , I was filled with trepidation . What would I find under this nut ? What strange delights ?

See , back in 1987 we were waiting for our Muddyfox Couriers . Alan and I . We waited . And waited . And then waited some more . I had a full page flyer ad for the courier  , that I pawed over for some time . It's difficult to relate these days , but they were simpler times . Of all the different wild and exciting new features listed in the bike specification , one item in particular perplexed Alan and I .
It said , " Check out the MORI Permalock self adjusting headset ... "
SELF ?
ADJUSTING ?

What ? You adjust it yourself ? Right ?
As a kid gowing up , fettling BMXs on a daily basis , headsets were a source of constant jiggery pokery . A small variety of headset locknut devices were available , that kinda worked , but what with the tall handlebar leverage scenario , coupled with my penchant for front brake antics , they'd be forever coming loose. It's difficult to convey just how exciting a self adjusting headset was going to be . With the time I would save I could catch up on betamax recordings of Miami Vice . Well , if it worked . I was skeptical , to say the least .

It's funny how a simple thing can take you back in time . As I picked up the spanner tonight , I was transported back to that first time that I unscrewed the top nut on a Mori Permalock self adjusting headset , to reveal it's secret  .




It's quite elegant really , and super simple . The top nut ' locks down ' against the second one in a fairly standard manner , but where the second nut is usually the top bearing  race, here the race is seperate . It's tightened down to eliminate any play , then a coiled ' watchspring ' clicks into a recess , locating into the vertical slot in the threads, and the other end after winding tension in it , it locks into place. As it applies clockwise force to the screwed race , should any play occur , it should , in theory , take up the slack . It's a pretty passive system , and to be honest , I've never actually witnessed it in action , but I still think it's quite a cool thing .


  

Here , a pic of it with no tension wound in .

 

 

So , the obvious question is this . Why the hell am I typing this shit up at the wrong side of midnight on a schoolnight?

And why am I completely disassembling the Muddy Fox ?

 

Words and pictures to follow .

urgggh me 'ead .....