1969 - 2019

Yes, Renthal handlebars have just had their ‘Golden’ celebration, producing a winning product for 50 years. In this reflection, we go back to the very humble beginnings of a company which, along the way, would produce so many winners in the world of motorcycle sport. It all started when Henry Rosenthal and his business partner, Andrew Renshaw, begun on this aluminium adventure of producing handlebars back in 1969. After introducing this new product in local trials to develop and prove the product, the ‘Jackpot’ came when Mick Andrews won the 1971 Scottish Six Days Trial using Renthal handlebars. It’s not been an easy adventure, and Henry is the surviving partner after Andrew passed away in late November 2013 after a brave fight against cancer. When the company was sold in 2006 as they both retired it went across the water to the USA, returning into the safe hands of a more modern Renthal company in 2018, when Henry returned to the fold. Andrew would have been very proud.

It’s fitting that these two young entrepreneurs would have their first introduction to one another through motorcycles. Having converted his road-going Matchless into an off-road racer, Henry had crashed (anyone he knows him in the present day will know this is a normal procedure!). With the Matchless broken, Henry needed some new front forks and, through one of his friends, the introduction to Andrew was made as he happened to have the required replacement forks. Having made the necessary purchase, Andrew then mentioned to Henry that they would not fit. However, using his early engineering skills, Andrew soon had the required adaptors machined and ready to use. The beginning of a lifelong friendship had begun, which led to the starting of Renthal a few years later, an enduring relationship which would last until Andrew’s untimely death.

ALUMINIUM – REALLY!

The idea for aluminium alloy handlebars was born from the constant bending of steel ones. When Henry complained to his uncle, who owned a large aluminium stock-holding business in London, about how many times he had bent the handlebars on his motorcycle, he suggested an aluminium material designated H14 WP. This alloy, which was used in the Spitfire aeroplane airframes and was 7/8 Ø gauge, had immense strength because it had to withstand the considerable G forces generated by the steep angles that Spitfires could bank to! Henry was not so sure about this but agreed to go along with it, and he was sent with some tube to a TV aerial maker in South London to bend the first pair of aluminium handlebars. The aerial makers broke their first bender trying to bend the handlebars, and took another half day on another bender trying to make them!

“This alloy, which was used in the Spitfire aeroplane airframes and was 7/8 Ø gauge, had immense strength because it had to withstand considerable G-Forces generated by the steep angles that Spitfires could bank to!”

LET’S PRODUCE HANDLEBARS!

Andrew and Henry had become good friends and had a shared interest in motorcycles as Henry started to compete in trials. On Remembrance Sunday 1969, at the tender age of 20, with no trials to attend and nothing to do, they sat front of the fire discussing the past when the subject of the alloy handlebars that had been made so many years before came up. After an ‘engineering’ discussion, the idea of aluminium alloy trials handlebars was born. A small hobby company would be started, with Andrew being the engineer and Henry in charge of commercial and marketing. They thought of a name: ‘Rosenshaw’ – which was too unwieldy – but ‘Renthal’ from Andrew Renshaw and Henry Rosenthal sounded much better.

BUILDING THE DEMAND

It’s alright having a product, but the next step was a rather tricky one: they had to market it and then sell it. Credibility was gained through Mick Andrews, Malcolm Rathmell and Martin Lampkin who were approached to use the handlebars, and who all agreed to try them. They liked them, so they were then advertised as super-strong handlebars ‘as used by’, and soon they were selling in limited quantities. Renthal needed customers, and they went to the local dealers to stock them: Jim Sandiford at Bury and Johnny Burns of MotoXMotors of Oldham, convincing them about these fantastic handlebars and could they pay 50 per cent in advance! Both agreed that they were either on to something fantastic or were going to lose money, but they both took the risk. As they say: the rest is history.

WINNERS – RENTHAL REMEMBERS

To prove any product you needed to be at the cutting edge of the sport and that’s the direction Renthal went in. Here in the picture captions, Henry Rosenthal talks about the early days and the success of Renthal and some of the people who played an essential part in Renthal’s Trials success over the past 50 years.

50 YEARS AND BEYOND

So what does the future hold for Renthal in motorcycle trials?

Henry Rosenthal: “Well, for certain, our commitment to trials is undiminished, with our continuing support of both international and domestic trials teams. Renthal handlebars can be found on the winning machines of Toni Bou, Dougie Lampkin, Emma Bristow and many of the rising stars. In 2019 we won our first TrialE FIM world title with Albert Cabestany (ESP) on the

Gas Gas E model. Every year new materials become available, and new methods of manufacture are developed. All these changes are being led by a younger workforce looking to honour the principles set up by Andrew and me while modernising and improving the Renthal range.”

As Henry, the last remaining survivor of early Renthal inevitably slips into the twilight of life then it is for the next generation of employees to carry Renthal forward; long may the success continue.

For many top athletes at the age of 39, the glory years are well past their sell-by date – unless, that is, your name is Takahisa Fujinami. Third position overall in the 2019 TrialGP world championship behind his untouchable teammate on the Repsol Honda Toni Bou and another veteran Spanish rider Adam Raga, the Japanese rider continues his incredible career while waiting for the youngsters to push him from the podium. He has touched the ‘Holy Grail’ by becoming the FIM World Champion in 2004 in front of his teammate at the time, a certain Dougie Lampkin from Great Britain. Exceptional longevity at the highest level, as we have witnessed the coming and going of so many high-level riders, and yet he is still there.

Consider that the most Catalan of Japanese riders (‘Fuji’ resides in Barcelona) had been crowned with a national title before his freelance adventure into the FIM World Championship in 1996. Or, to put it in perspective, it was a year before the birth of one of his direct competitors in 2020 Jaime Busto, who was born in 1997.

After that virgin year ‘Fuji’ won his first GP in Germany ahead of riders like his fellow Japanese rival Kenichi Kuroyama, David Cobos (ESP), Bruno Camozzi (FRA), Steve Colley (GBR) and the legend Jordi Tarres (ESP). To have beaten riders in the same career such as Tarres, Lampkin, Raga, Marc Colomer (ESP), Bou and Busto is a feat in its own right and a legend in the history of trials. And even today he doesn’t ride a GP just to make the numbers, as his five podiums in eight rounds in 2019 proved. Slowed by a shoulder injury in 2018, even this did not prevent him from tasting the podium during the season, but his sixth-placed finish left him with a bitter taste in his mouth. He could not stop there, no way; he just had to keep fighting and riding anyway.

When you are in one of the most professional teams in motorcycling and still visiting the podium, the adventure has to continue! The secret of Japanese longevity? There is none; it is the passion for trials and the work ethic that attracts respect, let alone being for so many years at the highest level.

Fuji: “I love trials, I’m always passionate, also happy on the Honda and in training” he declared five years ago. Until when? It’s hard to say, but what we do know is that our man has more than one string to his bow. Also passionate about Enduro, he has admitted several times to be interested in Extreme Enduro. He trains regularly in the discipline and even in motocross, with a speed that all the observers who have had the chance to see it evolve say makes it more than convincing. When you know that one of the pillars of Extreme Enduro is none other than Great Britain’s Graham Jarvis, four years older, we tell ourselves that anything is possible!

1969 – Dave Thorpe (GBR): “Dave was the first top rider to use Renthal handlebars. I met Dave by falling off in front of him at a muddy local Winsford trial! The ensuing conversation proved a useful opportunity to persuade Dave to try the bar. Dave was riding the first early trials Ossa, which had a fixed brake and clutch controls. This meant that the position of the levers could compromise the position of the handlebars. As fitting Renthals solved this problem it was enough for him to give them a try. However, what Dave really came to like was the flex the bars gave which helped with the very unforgiving early Ossa forks.” 2019 – Toni Bou (ESP): “Toni with Renthal is our most winning rider ever. We have been associated with the factory Montesa team for many years. Our association with the team has meant the replica factory models come fitted as standard with Renthal. As you would expect from a Honda-owned company, their technical expertise and product requirements are very exacting. However, we welcome this as it is very good discipline for us, and one can’t argue with 26 FIM world championships via Toni!” ▲ Peter Fletcher (GBR): “Peter, seen here on the right, was a famous Royal Enfield rider in the late ’50s and early ’60s, and became the UK Ossa importer when the Mick Andrews-developed ‘MAR’ first became available. In the early ’70s you could avoid purchase tax by selling motorcycles in kit form; when you bought a motorcycle — the engine, frame, wheels, front forks, handlebars etc were all supplied separately, and the purchaser had to build the machine completely themselves. In the UK, Peter and Mick decided that as Mick was using Renthal the MAR models should come with Renthal handlebars as original equipment. Ossa was Renthal’s first factory customer. This picture shows the very first Ossa MAR Replicas imported into the UK.”

Martin Lampkin (GBR): “Martin thought all riders from west of the Pennines were soft, and as I was from Cheshire, with me it was doubly so. When I rode in Nationals he would say ‘Ay-up, soft bugger’s here again’! In spite of this I managed to persuade Martin to try the handlebars. However, whatever he tried was just too low for him, so we ended up supplying him with a giant of handlebar at 6.5 inches rise. Even he worked out that they were too tall, and eventually opted for a lower handlebar which gave us both our first World title in 1975.” Mick Andrews (GBR): “Mick Andrews got to know about the handlebars through Dave Thorpe as a fellow Ossa rider and with his association with John E Shirt, someone who had been a great believer in Renthal from its inception. Mick used them, really liked them and suggested that as the bars were aluminium why didn’t we anodise them in ‘pretty’ colours? We did a handlebar in red for him and they have been available in a variety of colours ever since! Mick was a great promoter, travelling to many countries promoting first Ossa and then Yamaha. After his trips he would give us a list of addresses of people who were interested in importing Renthal.” Albert Casanovas (ESP): “He was the boss of KM-2, a leading trials shop in Barcelona. He approached us to import Renthal, but at that time Albert couldn’t speak English and I couldn’t speak a word of Spanish. So my sister-in-law, who lives in Spain and is bilingual, did all our translation, which led to some hilarious misunderstandings because although her Spanish was perfect, her motorcycling knowledge was nonexistent! Albert became our importer for Spain and eventually moved on to be part of the Gas Gas management, so we are all still in contact.”

Malcolm Rathmell (GBR): “Malcolm was ‘Mr Precise’ and started to use the handlebar at the same time as Martin, as he and Martin were good friends. However, Malcolm was very specific in what he wanted – a handlebar with massive droop. I tried them because I thought what was good for Malcolm must be good. I found them awful, but he loved them, and they must have suited him as he achieved Montesa’s first SSDT victory in 1979.” Ulf Karlson (SWE): “Ulf, like Vesty, was introduced to Renthal by Renthal enthusiast Jim Sandiford. Ulf was very pleasant, but a man of few words. He visited our factory and we were asking about what he thought about the bars. He said ‘I use them. They work. What more do you need to know?’ He was the first Montesa FIM World Trials Champion in 1980.” Yrjo Vesterinen (GBR): “Yrjo was not a fan of Renthal as he didn’t like the flex. However, when he moved to Montesa, with prodding from Jim Sandiford he agreed to try them, but we had to make the bars more rigid. So a brace was developed. This was the start of the Renthal braced trials bars. He tried them, with some scepticism, but nevertheless used them to become the first foreign winner of the Scottish in 1980.” Eddy Lejeune (BEL): “Eddy used Renthal because fellow Honda development rider American Marland Whaley used them. Renthal’s big motocross market was the USA and Marland was a good friend of our then USA distributor. So from very early days Marland was a big fan and tester of Renthal. Marland extolled the virtues of Renthal to Eddy, who converted to Renthal and went on to win three world championships 1982–1984.” Takahisa Fujinami (JPN): “Takahisa is a Dougie Lampkin convert. Dougie said Renthal was perfect for Takahisa because when ‘Takahisa crashes, he crashes big style!’ Takahisa won the 2004 FIM Trials World Championship and is a big influence in Japan, and has been instrumental in Renthal’s trials popularity in Japan.”

Dougie Lampkin (GBR): “Dougie has used Renthal continuously from the age of 12 and now his sons are doing the same. Dougie had been instrumental in Renthal’s trials success from when he first entered adult trials to the present day. He also helped us develop what is now our standard trials handlebar, the Renthal Fatbar.” Albert Cabestany (ESP): “As the trials world evolves do does Renthal as a company. Renthal handlebars were fitted to the 2019 FIM TrialE World Championship winning Gas Gas.” Emma Bristow (GBR): “Emma is our first female top rider in trials. We are really pleased that so many more women are now competing in trials, and we very much hope it starts to mirror the mountain bike scene where female riders are becoming an ever-increasing percentage of participants.”

2019 TWC TrialGP RD 1 ITA Takahisa Fujinami-JPN

2019 TWC TrialGP RD 6 FRA Takahisa Fujinami-JPN

2019 TWC TrialGP RD 7 ESP Podium

2019 TWC TrialGP RD 7 ESP Takahisa Fujinami-JPN