.243 Racing?

NigelFinnighan

Rocky Mountain Fan
I picked this bike up today- I don't know much about it, as it's well after my time so, I thought I'd through it out there for the experts. From what I understand, these are Canadian built- are these all custom built? or does he just custom build now? Is there a following for these frames? I read mixed reviews.

This appears to be an 04-07 .243 Racing Free Ride frame- that someone used for downhill - 13" seat tube- 21.5" top tube.
IMG_2201.jpeg
 
Hi, long time lurker on here but signed up as I have one of these as well! Apologies for the extended reply.

Yes, they’re Canadian, I think from BC. They weren’t custom built but were produced in very limited numbers, hand-welded from 4130 double butted chromo. They were pretty expensive new, from what I remember about double the price of a DMR steel frame. Not many sold for that reason. I don’t know whether they had a UK importer, mine came directly from the builder. I think he stopped making frames in about 2007, and I’ve not been able to find contact details for him which is a shame, I’d love to get in touch.

They did 4 models. The early (which has a solid gusset, of which mine is), the SL, the FR and the DH. You’re right, yours is the FR but has the vertical dropout. Mine and others had horizontal dropouts but with a very effective integrated tensioner and hanger system. For a QR frame, the back end is almost as stiff as a modern through axle. The FR and the DH were both rated for dual crown forks and pretty much whatever travel you wanted. I never heard of a single broken frame. The early ones were black, with clear and white the other colour options. The very last were available in a lovely blue.

There’s not much of a modern following for them unfortunately, I don’t know any still going. Mine has been in my family for a long time.
 
My brother bought it second hand from a chap in Surrey in about 2005, I think it was about a year old. He used it regularly until 2010. It sat pretty much unused until 2020 when I bought it from him and restored and rebuilt it. Currently set up single speed, but will put gears and a longer fork on it soon, possibly with a mullet 27.5/26 set up.

It’s very dated in terms of geometry but I still ride it (I own newer steel hardtails too). It’s very small but rides beautifully, very stiff for a steel frame but much, much better than most frames of the time, with modern geometry it would feel pretty up to date. I love it and don’t intend on ever selling it, it’s one of my favourite ‘things’ I own.
 
Very Cool, thanks for the information- They seem like they'd be a lot of fun! In my research, I found his website with his contact information
http://www.twofortythree.com/Contact.html I'm not sure if it's still valid or not. Once I figure out what to fairly price this at it'll be for sale to pass it onto someone who will enjoy it more than me.
 
Here’s my one which I bought around the time I joined Retrobike (10 years today) came to me with a stuck seatpost that I dissolved with caustic soda that splashed onto, but caused no damage to the paint at all!! (It even has a stonechip that refuses to rust!
5C47ACC8-20ED-4549-9073-FFFA40C9446C.jpeg
 
Here’s my one which I bought around the time I joined Retrobike (10 years today) came to me with a stuck seatpost that I dissolved with caustic soda that splashed onto, but caused no damage to the paint at all!! (It even has a stonechip that refuses to rust!
View attachment 616351

That’s like mine, one of the early models. Have you still got the chain tensioners? Incredible design, means you end up with a rock solid rear end, even with 9mm axles. I got in touch with the owner of .243 not long ago, trying to find out if he still had the image files for the original graphics.
 
That’s like mine, one of the early models. Have you still got the chain tensioners? Incredible design, means you end up with a rock solid rear end, even with 9mm axles. I got in touch with the owner of .243 not long ago, trying to find out if he still had the image files for the original graphics.
No I never had the tensioners but I was thinking of cobbling something together using bmx tensioners…….although judging by the size of the back end and the thickness of the dropouts I can’t see anything flexing there!!
 

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