UK company Renthal is best known for its multiple-championship-winning motorbike components, but readers with long memories will remember its early-90s alliance with Pace to make mountain bike parts. It’s been a while, but Renthal is re-entering the MTB arena with a range of bars, stems and chainrings.

The emphasis is on the more gravity-assisted schools of MTB, with the initial range including short, hinged-clamp stems, DH (wide) and dirt jump (narrower) bars and unramped hard-anodised chainrings in a bunch of sizes. That’s not to say that it’s heavyweight gear, though – the stem is claimed to come in at under 250g. Based on a brief hold at arm’s length, the bars feel like they’ve got a great shape and we’d be more than happy to use them on a “riding about” bike.

The new bits will be distributed by Ison Distribution (also the UK home of Salsa, Surly and others). Keep an eye on www.renthal.com for more details.