Renthal

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Renthal Ltd.
Type	Private
Founded	1969
Headquarters	Stockport, England, United Kingdom
No. of locations	1
Area served	42 Countries Worldwide
Key people	Henry Rosenthal Commercial Director Andrew Renshaw Technical Director
Industry	Manufacturing
Products	Alloy Motorcycle & ATV Handlebars, Motorcycle & ATV Chainwheels, Motorcycle & ATV grips., Motorcycle & ATV Chains and various other related products
Employees	70
Website	http://www.renthal.com

Renthal is a worldwide leader in manufacturing and design of motorcycle handlebars, chainwheels, grips and accessories for the off-road, street, and ATV markets. Currently, Honda, Kawasaki, KTM, and Suzuki all specify Renthal handlebars as stock for their performance off-road motorcycles. Renthal’s world class manufacturing and engineering facility is located in Stockport, England which makes Renthal unique in that it’s one of the few companies that manufactures product in-house in this market segment. This ability to control the entire manufacturing process from start to finish ensures that the end user is receiving the highest quality product available. Renthal’s handlebars and chainwheels have won more US and worldwide titles, 130 and 90 respectively, than any of its competitors combined.

[edit] History

Renthal was formed in 1969 by friends and motorcycle enthusiasts Andrew Renshaw and Henry Rosenthal, who are today, still the company's Technical and Commercial Directors respectively. The very first handlebars were based upon a prototype that Rosenthal made for his trials bike from H14 aircraft aluminum that was World War 2 surplus material. These handlebars performed quite well when compared to the steel bars they replaced. In fact, when building the first set, they broke the tube bending machine while being formed. With a great deal of effort, the two founders made their own specialized tube bending machine to handle the aluminum and started small scale production.

When trying to figure out a name for their new venture, the two founders decided to combine parts of their surnames. They took "Ren" from Renshaw and "thal" from "Rosenthal" to make Renthal. Making motorcycle handlebars was initially a part time job while Andrew studied for a degree in mechanical engineering and Henry finished his business studies at a local university. Initially Renthal only produced handlebars for the trials market, but the two soon realized there was much more demand for this type of product in the ever emerging motocross market. With increasing sales and demand, full time production began in 1975 in Stockport England, the very same place where the company resides today in Northern England.

Growth was steady through the 70's and 80's and in 1990, Renthal opened it's first US office and warehouse for sales / marketing with the help of a young American entrepreneur by the name of Jim Hale. Armed with a new US office and a factory working at full tilt, the Renthal brand absolutley exploded through the 1990s along with the popularity of motocross. Just about every professional motocross race team in the 90's had used, or was using Renthal products to help them secure championships in their respective classes worldwide. It was during this time that Renthal had become the #1 Handlebar in racing, a title they still hold today.

In October of 2000, Renthal suffered a major setback when it's factory in Stockport England was burned to the ground by a faulty machine. The machine at fault was an aluminum particle extractor which acts a huge vacuum to remove particles from the air during the machining process. A spark within this machine had caused it to catch fire and act as giant blowtorch straight through the roof of the factory. Before the machine could be shut down, the entire factory had burned almost beyond recognition. Some parts of the fire were so hot that it melted stacks of handlebars and sprockets into unrecognizable piles of metal. Fortunately nobody was hurt during this incident and plans were made to immediately start rebuilding the facility in the same exact location. With a huge effort from employees, the goodwill of the suppliers, and even support from some of its competitors, the company was still able to meet their responsibilities to clients and race teams that year. What replaced the original factory was a completely new, state of the art manufacturing and design facility. Renthal's 41,000 sq. ft. factory now uses the most state of the art equipment available for manufacturing, quality control, R&D, and storage. This includes five Yamazaki two and three axis CNC turning centers, seven Kitamura machining centers, one Kardex Shuttle 500NT automated vertical storage system, and a number of other custom specification machines. These custom spec machines include bar bending machines, a fatigue tester and drop test rig created to fatigue aluminum handlebars.

In 2004, Renthal added to its list of records by supplying the first aluminum handlebar to be fitted as OEM equipment on a Japanese manufactured off-road motorcycle. This was one of the highest accolades possible for a company such as Renthal, further solidifying its brand image in the motorcycle industry.

[edit] Racing

Renthal has always had very strong ties to professional and amateur racing since the early days of the company. It is a company philosophy that believes through racing involvement at the highest level, product R&D and evolution will continually move forward. This technology will eventually trickle down through the product range and end up in the hands of the consumer.

Following is the list of professional teams for 2007/2008 which Renthal currently sponsors worldwide.

2008 AMA Supercross / Motocross Teams
American Honda (Davi Millsaps, Andrew Short, Ben Towley, Ivan Tedesco)http://www.hondaredriders.com/motocross/
Monster Energy Kawasaki (James Stewart, Tim Ferry, Travis Preston(replacement for Stewart)http://www.kawasaki.com/Racing_MotocrossRacing/Landing.aspx
Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki (Ryan Villopoto, Brett Metcalfe, Austin Stroupe, Christophe Pourcel(injured), Branden Jesseman(replacement for Pourcel) http://www.kawasaki.com/Racing_MotocrossRacing/Landing.aspx
Torco Racing Fuels Honda (Kevin Windham, Josh Grant, Jake Weimer, Trey Canard, Daniel Reardon) http://www.hondaredriders.com/motocross/teamdetail.asp?TeamID=090111c0806241bf&bhcp=1
Xtreme Kawasaki Motosport Outlet (Tommy Hahn, Kyle Chisholm, Andrew Mcfarlane, Phil Nicoletti)http://www.motosport.com/offroad/team/
Troy Lee Designs Honda (Chris Gosselaar, Gavin Gracyk, Justin Keeney) http://troyleedesigns.com/teamtld/mx/index.php
Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Yamaha (Charles Summey, Josh Hansen) http://www.jgrmx.com/cgr/community/home.htm

2007 FIM World Motocross Teams
CAS Honda (Mike Brown, Ken de Dyker) http://www.cashonda.com/racing.php
Martin Honda (Antoine Meo, Julien Bill, Ryan Mills, Pascal Leuret) http://www.hondaracingmotocross.it/default.php
Honda Japan (Yoshitaka Atsuda, Kazumasa Masuda) http://www.honda.co.jp/WMX/
Multitek Honda (James Noble)
Kawasaki Racing Team (Billy Mackenzie, Tanel Leok) http://www.kawasaki-racingteam.com/mxgp/krt/
Molson Kawasaki (Gareth Swanepoel, Stephen Sword, Tom Church, Ray Rowson) http://www.kawasaki-racingteam.com/mxgp/krt/
Wulfsport Kawasaki (Mark Jones, Shaun Simpson) http://www.teamwulfsport.com/theteam.html
Kawasaki Japan (Tetsuya Mizoguchi, Tomonori Nakamura) http://www.khi.co.jp/mcycle/msinfo/index_e.html
Twisted 7 Kawasaki (Bryan Mackenzie, Richard Lawson, Greg Fisher) http://www.twisted7.com/index.htm
Red Bull KTM (David Phillipaerts, Jonathan Barragan, Tyla Rattray, Tommy Searle) http://www.ktmpress.com/Motocross
Martens KTM (Sven Breugelmans) http://www.jmracingteam.com/jmracing/
Champ KTM (Jereny Van Horebeek, Rob Van Vijfeiken)
Team Suzuki World MX1 (Steve Ramon, Kevin Strijbos) http://www.suzuki-racing.com//team_profile.aspx?SRS_ID=5
Team Suzuki Japan (Toda Kuraudo, Kojima Youhei, Kitai Yoshiki, Nakayama Hiroshi) http://www1.suzuki.co.jp/motor/sports/jmx/jmia250.html
Team Fork Rent Suzuki (Jason Dougan, Jake Nicholls) http://www.forkrentsuzuki.com/
Swift Suzuki (Elliot Banks-Browne, Sean Hamblin) http://www.suzukimotocrossteam.com/
Dixon Yamaha (Carl Nunn, Carlos Campano, Martin Barr) http://www.yamaha-mx.co.uk/

2007 US Offroad Teams
Honda Offroad (Johnny Campbell, Steve Hengeveld, Kendall Norman, Robby Bell) http://www.hondaredriders.com/offroad/
Monster Energy Kawasaki (Ricky Dietrich, Nathan Woods, Destry Abbott, Ryan Abbatoye, Jamie Lanza, Josh Morros) http://www.kawasaki.com/Racing_OffRoadRacing/
Monster Energy Kawasaki ATV (William Yokely, Jason Lubergh, Josh Creamer) http://www.kawasaki.com/Racing_ATVRacing/
Team Suzuki Offroad (Mike Kiedrowski, Ryan Hughes, Rodney Smith, Glen Kearney, Jimmy Jarrett, Josh Strang, Blake Savage) http://teamsuzuki.com/OffRoad/
Red Bull KTM Offroad (David Knight, Mike Lafferty, Russell Bobbitt, Kurt Caselli, Justin Soule, David Pearson, Robbie Jenks, Justin Williamson, Kellon Walch, Matt Gosnell) http://www.ktmpress.com/US-Racing
Fred Andrews Monster Energy Kawasaki (Fred Andrews, Scott Watkins, Jesse Robinson) http://www.kawasaki.com/Racing_OffRoadRacing/

2007 World Offroad Teams
KTM World Enduro (Juha Salminen, Alessandro Belometti, Samuli Aro, Ivan Cervantes, Marko Tarkkala, Fabien Planet)http://www.ktmpress.com
UFO Corse Yamaha (Maurizio Micheluz, Simone Albergoni, Cristobal Guerrero, Johnny Aubert, Fabrizio Dini) http://www.ufocorse.it/

2007 US Road Racing Teams
American Honda (Miguel Duhamel, Jake Zemke) http://www.hondaredriders.com/roadracing/
Erion Honda (Josh Hayes, Aaron Gobert) http://www.erionracing.com/racing.htm

2007 World Road Racing Teams
Yamaha Italia World Superbike (Troy Corser, Noriyuki Haga) http://www.yamaha-racing.it/Racing/superbike/
Airwaves Ducati British Superbike (Gregorio Lavilla, Leon Haslam) http://www.airwaves-ducati.co.uk/
Stobart Honda British Superbike (Shayne Byrne, Tom Sykes) http://www.stobartmotorsport.com/sbk_index.asp

2007 Supermoto Teams
Red Bull KTM World S1 (Bernd Heimer, Atillio Pignotti) http://www.ktmpress.com/Supermoto.5352.0.html
Troy Lee Designs AMA Supermoto (Jeff Ward, David Pingree, Cassidy Anderson, Chris Fillmore) http://troyleedesigns.com/teamtld/supermoto/
Aprilia Rip-It Racing AMA Supermoto (Darryl Atkins, Ben Carlson) http://www.apriliausa.com/

[edit] OEM Involvement

Renthal has always had very strong ties with the manufacturers of motocross motorcycles and ATV's such as Honda, Kawasaki, Yamaha, Suzuki, and KTM. In 2004, Honda became the first manufacturer to fit Renthal 7/8" aluminum handlebars to their motocross bikes. This was also the first time that aluminum 7/8" handlebars had been fitted to a motocross bike which typically came with very cheap steel handlebars. The benefits of using aluminum over steel were numerous for motocross use. The two most important benefits were greater strength and greater flexibility which helped reduce vibration and fatigue.

In 2005, Yamaha followed suit and decided to also fit Renthal 7/8" handlebars to their motocross model range of YZ's, YZ-F's and WR offroad models. By 2006, every manufacturer had chosen the benefits of a Renthal handlebar over the steel handlebar which they replaced. Kawasaki's line up of motocross bikes from 2006 now included a Renthal 7/8" handlebar. Since 2006 Suzuki have been fitting their motocross models with a Renthal 1 1/8" Fatbar which is an oversized tapered handlebar. The Austrian manufacturer KTM has been using the oversized Renthal Fatbar on their motocross bikes since 2002. For 2008, Kawasaki has chosen to fit the Renthal Fatbar on every one of its new KFX450R quads.

In addition to supplying the OEM's with alloy handlebars for many years, Renthal also supplies a few select manufacturers with its grips and chainwheels for various applications and uses.

Renthal Links
official website (http://www.renthal.com)
official myspace page (http://www.myspace.com/renthalworldwide)
official sponsorship page (http://www.sponsorhouse.com/Members/renthal/Home.aspx)

OEM Links
Honda(http://world.honda.com/motorcycle/)
Kawasaki(http://www.kawasaki.com/Home/Home.aspx)
Yamaha(http://www.yamaha-motor.com/)
Suzuki(http://www.suzuki.com/index_flash.php)
KTM(http://www.ktm.co.at/)

References
Renthal Ltd. business data, Manta.com (http://www.manta.com/coms2/dnbcompany_kzkscy)
ISOQAR Quality Assured Firm, ISO 9001 Certified Company, Certificate #4229/04 (http://www.isoqar.com/uk/index.asp)
International Dealernews, Al Franck - International Editor<br (http://www.dealer-world.com)