Athena Aprilia-Suzuki 250 cylinder kit
Celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, Vicenza, Italy based Athena has added a new cylinder kit for Aprilia RS 250 and Suzuki RGV 250.
A leader in the high-performance motorcycle, scooter and moped spare parts market, Athena's years of race experience "allowed the Athena R&D Department to create a unique product - a standard bore cylinder replacement kit for the original Aprilia-Suzuki, fully compliant with the OEM specifications and installable without making any modifications to the motorcycle crankcase".
The kit is composed of an aluminium cylinder, a flat-top piston, and all the specific gaskets to ensure optimal sealing and to achieve maximum performance.
Made of aluminium alloy, the cylinder is ready for immediate installation. The kit includes the oil mixer inlet fitting and the brass bushing for the exhaust valve shaft - both pre-assembled. The cylinder wall is finished with a galvanic treatment and a Motor-Nicksil coating developed by Athena to ensure smoother sliding of the piston, less friction and reduced wear of the piston rings.
To overcome the corrosion issue affecting the original Aprilia-Suzuki sleeve, Athena engineers have created a new brass sleeve that can be screwed directly into the cylinder.
The cylinder head stud seats have also been redesigned to no longer be connected to the cylinder water passages. The inner diameter of the CNC-machined exhaust crossbar eliminates the risk of excessive expansion that could damage the piston.
The Athena flat-top piston kit was designed and developed specifically to maximise the high performance of this cylinder kit - "we selected a high-silicon-content aluminium alloy to ensure a low coefficient of thermal expansion, and, consequently, much tighter mating tolerances between piston and cylinder.
"The lightweight piston skirt and the molybdenum disulfide coating ensure effective friction reduction, improving smoothness and durability. Additionally, the CNC-machined window on the intake side is designed to maximise lubrication for the needle roller cage bearing and the connecting rod small end shims".
The biconical piston pin is made of a nitride-treated aeronautical steel alloy and the rings included are 'Made in Japan' and crafted from special steel with chromium nitride coating to ensure high hardness and low friction.
The gasket kit includes all the gaskets necessary for installing the cylinder kit and is fully compatible with the original Aprilia-Suzuki components. The materials used and the manufacturing technologies make them particularly resistant to oils, fuels, mixtures of water with antifreeze and anti-corrosion: in particular, the head gasket and the cylinder base gasket have been redesigned using an innovative reinforced graphite material to ensure excellent adaptability to surfaces and uniform sealing over the entire surface.
The sealing is further improved through the application of a silicone bead sealing applied using high-precision screen printing machines and a special surface finishing treatment.
ATHENA
