Eric Fox from .243 Racing gave me these DH tires to test in December but I did not get a chance to log a bunch of different trail condition rides until February. The tires have a tough sidewall for decreased pinch flatting(i did not get one flat in my six rides - using cheapo regular tubes), a double bead for stronger rim contact and most importantly for shore riders - a soft rubber on the beefy tread so the tire can run a low pressure and stick to roots, logs and rocks. Here is a brief overview of what I noticed about the tires on the 6 different rides:

#1 Cypress in the snow : hard to say what the tires were doing here as there was a foot of snow on Old Forks. Lower down on Roach Hit the .243¹s stuck to snowy and muddy roots and rocks. The tires did not slide on the iced over log to four foot air near the bottom of Roach.

#2 Fromme frozen over : upper oil can logs were slightly iced and a little slippery but all rideable on slow speeds. I ran super low tire pressure and I think that helped. The Air Supply jumps did not cause any flats and the swivel totter to double totter section and the final skinnies to golden arches did not have any slipping(other than me sliding on my butt when i hit the ground from a lack of balance skills - not due to the tires). Ladies and lower ladies were dry and frozen without any ice on the roots or logs so it was a sticky fast ride down - any dh tire would have stuck well in these conditions.

#3 Seymour with a bit of snow, a little ice and a lot of mud: the tires held on fine through the rutted snow on Corkscrew and Pingu, slid nicely through the mud on Boogieman sticking nicely on the piledriver 9 footer at the end then holding well on the Empress rock faces but the best proof for shore worthiness came on the gnarled up downhill log on Booger. It¹s the one that has some remnants of chicken wire bits left on it. This log is usually slippery as snot and on this day it was no different. The two other guys with me slid off the log right away but my tires (super low pressure again) stayed on till the end. If I have to buy skills by getting better equipment well that is okay with me as long as I can stay on logs longer.

#4 Woodlot in the snow, ice and a whole lot of Maple Ridge mud: Krazy Carpenter had some snow which was not a problem for traction but the iced over log rides proved to be too slippery for the 243's and I would suspect the only tires that would work on the ice are those MEC winter tires with the spikes in Œem. This ride was the first super - soupy mud ride on the tires and they held out pretty good. There were only a few times when I slid a little on steeper sections with tight turns but I think that that is inevitable with these conditions and that you just have to steer through the sliding sections. The high speed twisty turns of the certain sort of still secret trail were grippy on the tires.

#5 Seymour in the wet: I will only talk about the first trail we did because a good comparison can be had. I was riding an 8Ball I am testing with Maxxis DH Mobsters (the kind with the chinzy sidewalls) and got two flats on Ned's while my buddy who was riding my 243's got no flats but he had to give me his spare - sucka. I love the idea of less flats and fewer hassles so I¹m willing to pay more in weight and cost; although I hear these tires are going to retail around $60 so I guess the only cost is in heavier weight and they are the same weight as my other tires(Mobster - thick sidewall, Intense DH).

#6 Fromme in the snow and a bit of mud but mostly frozen dry ground: the tires held well on the Air Supply swivel totter which was a little icy and covered in moist dirt. The landings on the Starfish/Boundary airs worked and the tires held strong on the wet rock faces on the end of Starfish and throughout Boundary.

I figure these tires are perfect for the shore, they can be run on low pressure, they stick great but roll fast, they have got strong treads and a thick double beaded sidewall and best of all they are cheap.

Trevor "T-Bone" Hansen

photos by: Derek Lynn