Tested - .243 Racing's Assorted Goodies Debbie

Naughty! Back in mid December we were having one hell of a bunch of nice weather, and both I and Savoie were out of bikes waiting for our .243 racing gear to arrive so we could ride. Bleed was the day that it finally came!
Back in mid December we were having one hell of a bunch of nice weather, and both I and Savoie were out of bikes waiting for our .243 racing gear to arrive so we could ride. Blessed was the day that it finally came! Savoie picked up his frame, I got all my parts and we both built our bikes ASAP. I was on mine that weekend and Savoie was on his the following week so the following is what both of our initial impressions have been after 3 months of riding, sometime next year about this time we will have the follow up review to let all you know how this stuff holds up in the long run.



Now before I start going on and on about how much I love this gear, I’m gonna give you guys a bit of backround information on the company .243 as we know it. .243 racing started in early 2001, in the depths of some of the hardest riding as we know it, Vancouver BC. The actual name .243 came from the owners passion for target shooting where the .243 Winchester is his favorite caliber for it’s balance of velocity, trajectory and power, which is exactly how he likes to describe his bikes. The pronunciation is actually point two forty three racing. Now here’s the best part of all, .243 racing will donate 2-5% of it’s total gross sales in each region to nonprofit organizations which maintain trails within that region, so all you Albertans who want kickass parts and some more trails to ride then get out there and buy some .243 stuff.



Now to start it off, here’s my impressions on all the parts.

.243 Bar and stem combo

The first thing I noticed about this combo…it’s TALL, with 80mm of rise (approximately 3 inches) for the bars alone they are tall, combine this with one hell of a beefy block of CNC for a stem and you’ve got a tall setup. This season I rode a few types of bars, from Titec’s Hellbent DH, Roox Torque bars to Ameoba bars and after throwing these on my bike, there’s no comparison, these things are amazing. These bars will give you a run for your money when it comes to riding them hard and crashing a lot, they are made from straight guage 4130 chromoly. These bars went straight onto my new Minuteman and since then I’ve been learning all those damned street moves (Grinds, x-ups, barspins) and let me tell you, the bike takes a pounding from all this, especially the bars I’ve found, they are constantly hitting the ground hard on all my botched attempts. The bars come stock at a fairly generous and wide 680mm width (about 27 inches). I then cut mine down around 1 inch on either side to make it easier for barspins and x-ups.

The stem, well simply put, there’s no fancy gimmicks here, just a BIG block of CNC aluminum. It’s not going anywhere and it’s not about to break any time soon. Sure it might be big and bulky but it’s simple and it’s sure as hell not gonna break. All the bolts on the stem are nice big 6mm allen key bolts, no stripping here. It’s got a good solid 4 bolts holding the bar on in the front and 2 big pinch bolts onto the steer tube.

Retail price $131.99

The bar end caps

These things have taken one hell of a beating. I’m really happy that I have these on my bars because otherwise the ends of my bars would be beat to crap. I’ve been learning barspins and lots of other street style tricks, therefore my bike is constantly being dropped and thrown to the ground, inflicting a LOT of damage on the bars. Although with these caps I have also had my share of problems. The caps themselves have actually fallen off a few times, luckily both times it was while I had been riding in a specific area all day so I found the cap right away, but that’s also probably partly my fault for not checking to make sure the screws were tight. Also after repeated abuse my bars have actually started to push through the metal on the end of the cap causing the end to bulge. I’ve been told by Eric at .243 that only me and one other person have done this, the other person being .243 racing’s sponsored rider Sato, but because of this problem Eric is looking into beefier prototypes that should solve this problem. Now that’s listening to what the customers want and correcting problems before they really get out there.

Retail price $23.99

The tires

I’ll put this simply, I LOVE these tires, ask anyone I ride with, the only tire I’ve been recommending is these. I absolutely love them, I picked up a 24” and a 26” tire, both with a width of 2.6”. For now the tires only come in a width of 2.6”, in both 24” and 26”, but Eric has plans for tires in a 3.0” size down the road, but there is no exact date set as to when they will be released. I only got the tires in October so I didn’t get to spend a lot of time riding trails on them, but in the limited amount of time that I did get on them I rode in Kamloops, Kananaskis, Calgary area. In those places I rode in all kinds of conditions, from dry and dusty (Kamloops) to covered in 2 feet of snow and slushy (COP in Calgary) and no matter what the condition the tires have hooked up perfect, I’ve yet to wash out in a corner or loose control because of my tires. The tires are made by Duro, and designed by Eric Fox himself. They have a tread pattern that is similar to those of Nokian Gazzaloddi’s, BUT they are a softer compound and stick to everything I’ve ridden, from snow covered roots, to muddy side hills, to snow, to urban, to the soft dusty conditions of Kamloops they’ve excelled everywhere.

The only thing that I’ve had any problems with on these tires is that the soft compound wear’s down pretty fast when doing street and skatepark riding. I’ve opted to actually take off my .243 tires for the winter months so as not to wear them down and have replaced them with some cheap tires, but as soon as the trails are dry the .243 tires are going back onto the bike.

Retail price $63.99/tire

Seat and Seatpost

Well over the last year I’ve run a few different 2 bolt seatposts, one of which was a highly over-rated, over-priced Titec post. Was definatly not worth the price that they charge for them, and not to mention it’s a hassle to actually get your seat onto the seatpost whenever you install a seat. Now the .243, it was SIMPLE. So very simple that even a someone like me was able to figure it out nice and quickly, it’s essentially your standard 2 bolt seatpost, but with a much easier way of attaching the seat to the post. The bolt swings in and out of a slot making it much easier to attach, (It all makes sense if you’ve seen the post, and if you haven’t, I can guarantee you that it’s the simplest seatpost I’ve used.

Now the seat, I like it, it’s nice and big and comfy, but at the same time it’s not too big like some other big DH seats out there. It’s small enough so that it doesn’t rub on the inside of your leg as you ride, but it’s big enough so that you can still slide around on it to change your center of gravity while still remaining in the saddle. I love the sparkles on the seat and the maple leaf, it just adds that extra Canadian touch and I love it. Good job Eric. The sides of the seat are also fairly padded for ease when pinching the seat for barspins and no hander tricks (mind you I can’t do either in the air, but I’ve been working on the barspins and I’m thankful that I’ve been using this seat for my knee’s sake).

Retail price on seat $63.99

Retail price on seatpost $43.99

Well those are my thoughts on all the parts, here’s what Jeff thought of his frame.

.243 4130 Frameset

The .243 frame set in a word... "Superlative". This sleek, black, 4130
chromoly hot rod can accommodate any rider or terrain. Whether in the
park, on the street, tearing up the dual course, rippin' through the
snow, on the trails, or sailing through the air, this sled is
equally at home. Since Santa left it under the tree with a
delightful bag of other goodies I've been fortunate enough to ride my .243 almost every day.

After
becoming more familiar with the bike and trying similar hard tails,
the two features which set this frame apart from the rest are for one, the overall construction and geometry .243 offers a 22 inch top tube, well,
actually it's a full 23 1/2" but it's pierced by the seat tube where
the seat stays hook up and a fine weld creates a rigid
platform from which to transfer all the energy from that donair you ate at
lunch. Up front is a huge chunk of 4130 that you can forget about
ovalizing. Put on whatever fork you want, your warranty is safe. Head tube angle changes from 69° with a five inch travel fork ± 1° for every ± 1” of travel. Check out their web site for the complete list of specs. To the rear, 1/4" thick dropouts
held firmly with enough room in between to run some fat 3" rubber. No cut-outs or fancy CNC work, just meat. As it’s set up, the helm is quite a bit shorter than Mikey’s Minuteman, or say a 4 Hun, which I personally find more comfortable on the stunts and technical stuff, but bar spins hurt! (please, no comments about my bars!) When my bike and the minuteman are compared side by side, The head tubes are equal, but, the wheel base on the .243 is almost an inch shorter

The second and most outstanding feature of the .243 is your options
My frame has the horizontal bmx-style drop outs which when mated with a burly 3/8” axle hub like my Planet X Goliathhave proven themselves time and time again. The frame came with a 3 position locking sleeve allowing ¾” of adjustment, but I’ve opted to run a chain tensioner instead. Oh yeah, it does have a derailleur hanger for those of you wondering, and my planet X can accommodate a cassette. However, for those of you who don't want to delve into the BMX
realm, there are a limited number of frames with the mtb
style dropouts. On the other end of the chain stays is your choice of a big
honkin BMX BB, or again for those of you who want to stay away from
BMX, your classic 68mm mtb BB shell. Need to run V brakes, because you can’t afford an 8” Hayes set up? No problem, 24” or 26” wheel, the .243 has got you covered with two position brake posts.


Well all this bike talk has got me stoked for a ride, so I’m going to go for the close here. There’s a lot to be said for a superbly constructed frame. Couple that with the options available from .243 and you can’t beat the value at just under six bills Canadian. I’m looking forward to a long summer of rippin’ on the .243.

With that said, I’m going to ride my bike!

If you're looking into buying some .243 racing gear you can pick it up at the following locations in Alberta.

Cochrane Cycle, 403-932-1716, 104 railway st. west, Cochrane.

Cyclepath South, 403-253-7717, 9176 Macleod trail south, Calgary

Hard core bikes, 780-439-4599, 10008 - 82 (Whyte) ave, Edmonton

This is our initial impressions after 3 months of riding all this stuff, look for what we thought of the gear after a full season of abuse in around a years time.

If you are heading down to the Calgary Outdoor Adventure Show this weekend (March 28-30) make sure to stop by the Pinkbike.com booth as the .243 Rep for Alberta will be there showing off the latest and greatest .243 gear.

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Reviews and Tech Reviews