PBR Sprockets: Alessandro Palladino, President. The Bologna based sprockets specialist was among the sponsors who are celebrating 23-year-old Kiara Fontanesi’s 5th women’s MX World Championship in six years in 2017. Recent new products include C45T steel sprockets for Ducati models that offer the company’s dealers an alternative price-point to its Ergal alloy designs. The company says they feature the same quality control and precision CNC-machining, with an advanced induction tempering treatment ensuring improved reliability and increased durability; www.pbr.it
SW-Motech: Recent new products from the Rauschenberg, Germany based manufacturer include its retro styled ‘Legend Gear’ luggage line for cruisers, additions to its TRAX ADV case system, luggage and protection options for the Ducati Scrambler and accessories for the BMW R1200GS; www.sw-motech.com
Euro Racing: The Italian Yoshimura, K-Tech, Marolo Test, Carrillo and CP Pistons distributor’s own brand technical parts programme includes the AVIO 760 battery starter, racing clip-ons, electric starter and EVO 3 push-pull throttle; www.euro-racing.it
Premier Helmets: Recent new products from the Italian manufacturer include the MX ‘retro’, which is described as “bringing 21st century manufacturing, materials and safety standards to a 1970s style shell shape (and other components) with graphics that recall the earliest days of MX racing. The external shell is moulded using DCA fibre, composed of carbon, Dyneema and aramidic fibre mixed with epoxy resin - a mix that “contributes to creating the strong but comfortable structure of the ECE 22-05 homologated MX”; www.premier.it
Yuasa: Theo den Hoed, Motorcycle Batteries Product Manager. It is always interesting to be reminded about the history of the market’s “majors”, and while the 2004 merger between Yuasa and GS Battery still feels like recent news to motorcycle industry “lifers”, the long-term history of both is being celebrated now as “100 Years of History” with “200 Years of Experience”. Japan Storage Battery and Yuasa Corporation, the predecessors of today’s GS Yuasa, are celebrating their 100th anniversaries in 2017 and 2018 - established in 1917 and 1918 respectively. That heritage now finds expression in a global corporation of 38 operating sites in 17 countries with 15,000 employees; www.yuasa.com
SHAD: The Barcelona based luggage manufacturer is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. Founded and still owned by Jaume Xicola, and now operated by his son Jaume Xicola Serrano Jr, (seen here on the right with Bernat Font, Marketing Manager), SHAD has won multiple awards for its designs and respect for the quality of its manufacturing. In the 25 years since the business started with its original first 22 litre top case, more than 1,500 products have been developed. “Design and innovation have been the main values for SHAD,” said Jaume Xicola Jr. “With the development of new solutions for motorcycles and the registration of our own patents, three in the last three years alone, we have constantly focussed on R&D, and that commitment to design and technology was recognised this year with our international 2017 Red Dot Award for the SH58X and SH59X ‘Expandable Concept’. In addition to its 28,000 sq m Barcelona facility, where it employs some 190 personnel, the company has an extensive commercial network. It currently offers over 500 fitting kits and also has two production centres in China (Shanghai) and Indonesia (Jakarta), which allow it to give local supply and support to the company’s international operations – over half of its sales are in Europe, but Xicola says its Asian business is growing rapidly and that they sell in 80 countries in total. As well as selling to the replacement and retro-fit aftermarket through the SHAD trademark, parent company NAD SL is an OE supplier to many leading motorcycle manufacturers, including Yamaha, Honda, BMW, KTM, Piaggio and Kymco; www.shad.es
Newfren: Based near Turin, the company says its recently updated range of brake pads has 20 different compound options available to “guarantee the right quality, efficiency and performance for all braking needs”, offering its distributors and dealers access to a comprehensive range with coverage for most popular makes and models of on and off-road motorcycles and scooters; www.newfren.com
Termignoni: Founded in 1969 by Luigi Termignoni, race pedigree is etched into the legendary Italian exhaust manufacturer’s DNA. “The R&D department and facilities that designs and creates the racing products for MotoGP, Moto2 and SBK is the same that designs and develops our aftermarket systems, meaning that our distributors and their dealers have access to the same no compromise search for knowledge and quality in the street legal and performance exhausts they can sell that we are able to bring to the track for many of the world’s leading race teams”; www.termignoni.it
