With Mid South approaching, we were browsing our content from last year’s event when we realized we never posted this gallery. D’oh. At any rate, it’s never too late to share the stoke that District Bicycles brings to Stillwater. Let’s check out Jerod and his Muddy Fox Pathfinder below!
I love it when people repurpose older, 80s and 90s era mountain bikes for all-rounder and basket bike purposes. While at the Mid South, I bumped into Jerod from Tennesee. He runs Cycleast Chatanooga and he brought with him a Muddy Fox which he has converted to a gravel/basket/adventure/touring bike. Back in the day, these were considered mountain bikes but nowadays, they’re kind of a jack-of-all-trades bike when remixed like this!
There are a few things you have to overcome when retro-fitting a vintage bike with modern components, especially if you’re a taller rider and are limited by the relatively small offerings of larger, 23″ or 24″ frames. Yet, Jerod has made this smaller frame work for him perfectly through the addition of a high-rise vintage Salsa stem (with a 100 Tacos sticker) paired with Sim Works’ Mow Mow riser bars and a longer, Kalloy seatpost to maximize leg extension. Yet, it was Jarod’s cargo solutions that did it for me!
On the back, he’s sporting an Erlen rear bag support for his rear Carradice bag, supported by a Hobopieces Restuvus bag loop clamp. Up front, he’s running an Old Man Mountain rack and Wald basket combo to house his velcro flap basket bag. These bag mods transform the fabled Muddy Fox into a proper commuter, S24O, tourer, or even a steed for a gravel ride or race.
White Industries cranks, with a Microshift Advent and a 11-42t cassette make up the drivetrain, offering plenty of gearing for the rolling hills of Oklahoma. Velocity Blunt rims, laced to Deore hubs, wrapped in 26″ Gravel King tires keep the Muddy Fox rolling and purple Paul touring cantis (remember when we made those with Paul!??!) provide the stopping power.
You don’t need a fancy gravel bike to do gravel rides, and vintage bikes from the 90s make great all-rounder basket bikes. Sometimes they take a little bit of clever parts speccing to get the fit and function dialed. Thanks to Jarod for letting me document this unique bike, and sorry for the late post, homie!
Although we’ll have some contributors at this Mid South, I won’t be there this year but I want to wish everyone going the best of luck!
Specs:
Frame: Muddy Fox Pathfinder
Tires: Gravelking
Bars: Sim Works Mow Mow
Stem: Vintage Salsa
Wheels: Velocity Cliffhanger to Deore Hubs
Shifters: Microshift Advent X
Headset: Chris King 2-Nut
Rear Cargo: Carradace Bag, Hobopieces Restuvus, Erlen rear bag support
Front Cargo: Wald + unknown Basket bag on Old Man Mountain rack
Saddle: Specialized
Crank: White Industries
Derailleur: Microshift Advent X
Brake Calipers: Paul Touring Cantis
Brake Levers: Velo Orange
Pedals: Time ATAC Link
Basket: Wald 137