THE MARKET
The Enduro market
Enduro is a widespread off-road discipline in Italy, practiced mainly on dirt roads or mule tracks, even the most inaccessible.
Enduro motorcycles differ from motocross bikes, because they share the roads open to common traffic and must comply with the rules of the highway code.
They must be equipped with all the necessary parts to operate on the road: the electrical system, the turn signals, the odometer, as well as the exhaust system and approved tires.
The Enduro segment continues to have a regular share in the Italian market, regularly occupying 8% of the registration market, both in 2020 and 2021 (Moto Dealer News data of Jan/Feb 2022).
THE CUSTOMER
Honda-RedMoto
Honda-RedMoto is a company founded in September 2013, to support Honda Motor Europe, in the distribution of Honda models for specialized off-road vehicles, in particular the CRF Motocross, Enduro, Supermoto models and the Montesa brand, also owned by Honda, for COTA Trial bikes.
In addition to the distribution of the product on the Italian territory, Honda-RedMoto is in effect a manufacturer. Since its inception, in fact, the company has been the owner of European homologations, on behalf of Honda, for the CRF Enduro and Supermoto that among other things are assembled at the Desio headquarters.
This has allowed Honda-RedMoto to develop important collaborations with Honda subsidiaries throughout Europe and to be the second world dealer of the Montesa brand.
THE CUSTOMER'S REQUEST
The perfect bike for the needs of amateur endurists
The routes faced by enduro bikes are very hard, they face high slopes and natural (or artificial, in the case of certain competitions) obstacles.
For this reason, compared to motocross bikes, the vehicles need a different delivery of power, specifically greater torque at low / medium revs.
RedMoto, thanks to Honda's authorization, works with Enduro bikes that arrive from Japan in a "non-street legal" configuration, to homologate them for road traffic and make them more suitable for the application.
With the aim of offering a bike more suited to the needs of amateur endurists, RedMoto modified the Honda 250cc engine as standard, bringing it to 300cc.
For this modification, the customer turned to Athena, for its experience in the design of cylinder kits and gaskets for off-road motorcycles.
THE DEVELOPMENT
The development of a special cylinder kit
For this application, Athena has developed a cylinder with special technical features and innovative production technology, in order to guarantee the reliability and performance that have always distinguished the Honda brand.
The cylinder is made of aluminum with a steel barrel, more durable and suitable for the extreme conditions in which enduro motorcycles operate. The barrel is not inserted by pressure inside the cylinder hole – a methodology that could cause reliability problems for the engine – but positioned directly in the mold. In this way, the aluminum casting "embraces" the steel, making it integral to the aluminum and prevents its sliding, even after many hours of use. The barrel is also subjected to a special galvanic treatment and coated with a nickel silicon coating developed by Athena, to obtain smoothness and optimal wear resistance.
The new Cylinder has been combined with two gaskets specifically designed for the steel barrel:
- Multilayer Head Gasket with Integrated Gas Stopper
- Base gasket in rubberized sheet metal and relief
The entire Athena kit guarantees RedMoto vehicles performance, greater torque at low revs, responsiveness, ease of driving and maximum reliability.
I prodotti
Engine cylinders
Our cylinders are worked with machinery that guarantees the utmost precision and undergo specifically-devised special treatments for covering cylinders for endothermic engines. In this way the cylinder are very hard, improving engine functions to the max.
Applications
Bicycles, motorcycles and motors
Our expertise deployed
Our expertise
