For this edition of Classic Ink, we are going to take a look back at some of Renthal’s moto ads from the 1990s.
Today, the Renthal brand is synonymous with some of the most successful teams in the pits. Founded in 1969 by Henry Rosenthal and Andrew Renshaw (the Renthal name comes from a combination of their last names), Renthal made their first inroads into motorcycling by producing lightweight alloy bars for the trials market. At the time, all OEM and aftermarket handlebars were being produced out of steel, and their innovative and lightweight aluminum bars proved an instant success.
The appearance of Renthal’s iconic barpad on the machine of Ricky Johnson in 1986 signaled the brands’ movement into the American moto mainstream.
By the mid-seventies Renthal had expanded into motocross, and in 1981 the brand won its first World Motocross title with Englishman Neil Hudson at the controls. In 1986, Renthal’s US profile was expanded exponentially by the presence of their bars on Honda’s newly signed superstar Rick Johnson. RJ captured the 1986 250 Supercross and National Motocross titles running Renthal’s lightweight alloy bars and made them the aftermarket upgrade to have for aspiring Bad Boys everywhere.
In 1991, Honda moved their 125 program to Mitch Payton’s Pro Circuit team and he fielded a Renthal-backed quartet of riders that exceeded even the most optimistic of expectations. Jeremy McGrath, Brian Swink, Steve Lamson, and Jeromy Buehl (misspelled in the ad above) captured both the 125 East Coast and 125 West Coast Supercross titles for Peak Pro Circuit and Renthal.
Renthal’s Factory Honda connection continued into the nineties with riders like Jeff Stanton and Jean-Michel Bayle putting a new generation of Red Riders at the front.
By 1991 Renthal held a near stranglehold on the 250 factory paddock, providing the bars and sprockets to Team Kawasaki, Team Honda, and Team Suzuki. Yamaha was the only holdout of the Big Four, choosing to go with Answer’s new ProTaper bars and AFAM for their sprockets.
Peak Pro Circuit teammates Brian Swink and Steve Lamson both made the jump to Factory Suzuki in 1992 joining fan favorite Guy Cooper and a very fast rookie Ezra Lusk on the Renthal-backed Yellow Magic squad. Lamson’s season would be derailed with injury, but both Swink and Lusk would enjoy success on the extremely colorful RMs. Swink would back up his 1991 East Coast 125 title and Lusk would show he was a name to watch in the future by claiming three second place showings in his rookie Supercross campaign.
Renthal’s Honda association once again paid major dividends in 1993 as Jeremy McGrath moved up from the Peak Pro Circuit Honda team to the full factory rig. McGrath would end up setting a record by winning eleven main events on his way to his first AMA 250 Supercross Title. The win marked Honda and Renthal’s sixth Supercross title in a row dating back to Ricky Johnson in 1988. In addition to MC’s big 250 win, newly hired 125 ace Doug Henry (Honda moved its 125 team back in-house in 1993) took his Pete Steinbrecher-tuned CR125R to a pair of championships claiming the 1993 125 East Coast Supercross and 125 AMA National Motocross titles.
As talented as Jeremy McGrath was on a 125, very few people had him pegged as the next Supercross champ at the start of the 1993 season. Most of the smart money was on Damon Bradshaw, who had won nine events in 1992 only to narrowly lose the title in one of the sport’s most epic meltdowns in the season finale. Number two on most pundits list at the beginning of the season had to be reigning series champ Jeff Stanton, who had capped off another amazing season with his sixth AMA title in the 250 outdoors the year before. With these two legends on the gate, most people thought the rookie would take a while to get going, but by round three, the kid they called Showtime already had the veteran’s numbers. McGrath would pass Stanton early on in the main and never look back on his way to his first 250 Supercross victory. After round three, McGrath would make it four straight, cementing his position as the man to beat for the title. Bradshaw would bounce back with two wins in ‘93, but the amazing form he had shown in 1992 would never rematerialize for the mercurial Yamaha star.
Renthal had an amazing season in 1993, capturing every major US and World Motocross title available.
In January of 1994 Jeff Stanton was only 25 years old, but many could see the writing was already on the wall. Today, many racers compete into their early thirties, but in the eighties and nineties the mid-twenties were often the end of the road for a rider’s competitive career. In 1994, Stanton made some questionable diet and training changes that seemed to sap some of the physical edge he enjoyed throughout his career. Despite this, however, Stanton remained a threat at times, taking several podiums inside and out on his Renthal-backed Factory Honda during his farewell season.
After Honda pulled its support in 1993, Mitch’s Pro Circuit team was left looking for a new partner. Coming to their rescue was Kawasaki, who has retained that relationship ever since. While the color of the machines changed, PC’s winning ways did not. Suzuki mini star Jimmy Gaddis secured the newly renamed Hot Wheels Pro Circuit Kawasaki squad a 125 West Coast Supercross championship in 1993 and France’s Mickaël Pichon brought Renthal and Pro Circuit two more titles in 1995 and 1996.
Frodaddy: In 1996, the balance of power started to shift away from Honda for the first time in a decade. Jeremy McGrath captured the last of his Supercross crowns for the Red Riders before an epic outdoor season saw him lose the 250 Motocross crown at the last round to Kawasaki’s Yamaha transplant Jeff Emig. For my money, these glowing neon green and bright purple 1996 works Kawasakis remain some of the best-looking factory machines of the decade.
After a year on ProTaper bars with Suzuki of Troy, Jeremy was back under the Renthal tent with his move to Chaparral Yamaha in 1998.
After Jeremy’s move to Yamaha, Honda’s Ezra Lusk turned out to be his biggest threat for the 1998 and 1999 Supercross titles. Lusk would give McGrath fans a scare early on in both campaigns, but inconsistency would prove to be his undoing.
While McGrath was dominating the 250s on his Yamaha, a short redhead from Havana, FL was taking the Pro Circuit Kawasaki team to new heights on the 125s. Ricky Carmichael’s 1999 125 National Motocross title made it three in a row for RC and Kawasaki and seven straight 125 MX titles for Renthal.
