Through the somewhat muffled blur of earplugs and protective eyewear, the Renthal factory floor appears bewildering, but also enthralling to an engineering and manufacturing mortal like myself. The place is a hive of activity. A constant hum from the CNC machines is the factory’s chorus whilst the purple glow of a plasma cutter makes light work of a chunky aluminum sheet. Fatbars are bent effortlessly into shape, motorbike sprockets are counter-bored and their teeth cut. The ‘heavy industry’ feel to the buildings and their contents are satisfying, following the journey from raw aluminum billets right through their birth and into adulthood as they head to the warehouse and distributors, before beginning the next chapter of their life on the world’s trails.
What would later become the Renthal brand we know was started by Henry Rosenthal for his own personal moto-trials demands on the UK national circuit. After bending the steel handlebars on his bike and realizing the market’s offerings were of the wrong material, he took matters into his own hands. People began to sit up and take notice of his custom bars and, before too long, other riders were asking for their own set. In 1969, alongside fellow motorbike and engineering enthusiast Andrew Renshaw, they embarked on the manufacturing of trials handlebars, giving the foundations to their company. The ‘Renthal’ name of course coming from the chopping and conjoining of the duo’s surnames.
Motocross was the next entry into Renthal’s portfolio along with a move into the US market in the 80s, the disciplines of motocross and supercross then took off with Renthal surfing the wave. The green light for their bicycle story illuminated in 2007, three years before they hit the market in 2010. Seeing the crossover between moto and mountain bikes, they first embarked on gravity disciplines with an aluminum handlebar which garnered immediate accolades with Specialized’s Sam Hill and Troy Brosnan taking gold at Mont Saine Anne World Champs. Their ‘Fatbar’ evolved new iterations including a carbon version, as well as bringing chainrings, stems, and grips to their offerings. The moto market is still the heft (75%) of Renthal’s income, although the bicycle products are continuing to see a steady growth as they expand into new markets and consolidate their ‘core’ products. Bear in mind their bike side is still rather youthful...
We took the trip to Renthal’s factory on the outskirts of Manchester, UK, to get a behind the scenes snoop:
Renthal are proud of their racing and competition history. Taking pride of place at reception, there are plenty of big names with championship success: Hill, Graves, Ragot, Rude, Gwin, Hart, and Ravanel to name but a select few...
| From a bicycle perspective, it was seen that we had the capability and capacity to make bicycle products, there was a lot of crossover between motocross and mountain bike, so the decision was made to move into that market. We made that decision in 2007. There were two years of development to get to the first products which went to market in 2010. Initially, it was to use the crossover from motocross to try and be recognized in the marketplace, the most obvious move was to downhill so we went with pure gravity products to start with.—Ian Collins |
| The manufacturing methods between the motorcycle and bicycle products are similar. For example, swaging, bending and heat treatment processes are all transferable between products of a similar type. If you build up your manufacturing knowledge in those particular areas then that suits you well for manufacturing products in the other disciplines, but you’ve still got to understand the load cases, fitments and other requirements to drive the design of a particular product.—Simon Brocklehurst |
| We found that the typical mountain bike rider was far more concerned in having lighter products than we had previously experienced in motorcycle products, so every gram in the design was critical. Since then, we’ve adopted a similar mentality with our new motorcycle products; focusing on removing unnecessary weight where possible. Obviously, the distinct difference with mountain bikes is the largest mass is the rider, not the bike. But we can still apply the same methodology to make all products as light as possible.—Ian Collins |
There is, of course, a large amount of waste, this is all recycled. For the first part it's environmentally friendly, but for the second part, it helps put money back into the business with the waste sold off.
| At Renthal, we design around the technical aspects of the product, far more than fashion. Until very recently we’ve only produced one color of handlebar which is in our own signature AluGold. Although we’ve just introduced black, we are not a brand that’s out there to produce every colour under the sun with graphics to match your wheel or forks… We think it’s more important to develop and produce technically derived products.—Ian Collins |
A Renthal chain ready for breaking into correct lengths.
| All our product development goes through a multiple stage-gated process. It starts off at Gate 1 – essentially a feasibility assessment. We review subjects such as the available production resources, manufacturing technology and current supplier base to determine if this product is viable. We then proceed to Gates 2 and 3, where the product is developed from initial sketches to a fully signed off design which has passed all required laboratory and field testing, has material requirements fully specified and all the engineering drawings are completed. Not only does this involve the engineering departments but also requires input from the commercial department to design the packaging, compile fitting instructions and review any relevant intellectual property subjects. The later gates then control the project from the manufacturing side. We hand over a design to the Production Engineering Development department, who implement the manufacturing systems to make the product. Prior to launching the product we run a pilot production run which verifies all aspects of the manufacturing process.—Simon Brocklehurst |
The bars get subject to two different grades of blasting which gives them their hard wearing finish.
These are almost like templates, allowing engineers to check the finish of their batch of components - they aren't used to check tolerances.
| From a technical point of view, when we’ve brought stuff in-house it’s always interesting to understand about materials and how they process. As far as the user is concerned they are the features of the products, like the hard anodizing, or whatever else is beneficial to them. From a design point of view, when something new comes along it’s not just making new geometry of something, it’s an understanding of how the materials need to be processed. The heat treatment operations, the forming operations, the bending, there are lots of subtleties in the way you can manufacture these things that affect the final product, getting to the bottom of those and understanding what makes the best product is probably the most rewarding thing.—Simon Brocklehurst |
With the main bulk of machining done, the clamps need to be remounted for the rest of the excess material to be removed.
| [On bringing more in-house] If it means a product will be better, we would definitely consider it. It’d be really nice to make everything ourselves, but you’ve got to look at it from a viability and from a product performance point of view. What can you make better by producing in-house? If you bring a process in-house, then you’ve got to bring in or develop the resources and the knowledge base which accompanies it. The people with their experience and understanding makes something successful, not just having a particular machine. We have suppliers who may have 20-30 years of experience in providing a product or service. There must be a benefit to the final product for us to decide to bring something in-house.—Simon Brocklehurst |
The final few steps are assembly and packaging before they are shipped out.
Next stop the trails...
For more photos, view the full album
here.
MENTIONS:
@renthalcycling @rossbellphoto
www.freeride-magazine.com/mein_dk/freeride_download/action/purchase/getFile/pdfId/17117.html
This test from 2014 was done in a neutral lab, but of course you never know, if there is 100% integrity. It passes the minimum requirement, but falls massively short in the multiload test, which they say was developed with real data from the field.
I mean the whole test rig world is insanely complex, when you wanna do it "right" and I have never seen a test in the bike industry with a sufficiant amount of samples to do even half valid statics (e.g. Weibull B10 or similar on the basis of min. 6 samples), but this test still makes a statement. And their recommendation for results under 150000 cycles is to change bars in freeride application yearly! I hope they have improved their benchmark testing and general inhouse testing big time over the last 4 years. I mean, they got everthing they need to do so...
It's an Eddy current tester and that's what you use to find cracks in the aluminum.
Oh, but I was assured by Renthal that my broken apex was a rare instance. At least they warrantied it at their cost. I sold it and got a Deity though. Wasn’t going to risk another failure.
Nope, upper steerer clamp split in two where they machine it out to make it lighter. Happened on a ride and never noticed, happy the lower clamp was enough to keep the bars on that day. I discovered it a week later while prepping the bike for a ride.
@renthalcycling Can you confirm that you black Fatbar Lites are made in the UK? I understand that your carbon bars are made in the Far East, but can't find anything about your aluminium bars.
but renthal angles over dietys every day
from the above listing, I must have got the last 38mm riser....
Keep it up
Good to see Fatcreations paintjobs
My fatbar carbon snapped after 3months without warning. It’s hardly a conspiracy against renthal.
I could have been badly injured. Shame on pink bike
He gets a downvote from me for lack of detail on how they broke and how they were installed.
Thanks for the hush package