 hile most families’ idea of a great summer vacation may be a trip to the beach, the river, camping in the mountains, Vegas, etc., this June, we Emde’s packed our bags and headed to Europe to visit the headquarters of Acerbis and Alpinestars in Italy and Akrapovic in Slovenia. We learned a lot on our visits to these world-class facilities, getting to see first-hand all the hard work and impressive technology involved in creating these top of the line products. Since all of these factories were just a stone’s throw from some of Italy’s top tourist spots, we even made time for a little vacation and sightseeing along the way!
Check out some of the many highlights from our fantastic trip…
Looking out over the Roman ruins, with the Colosseum in the background.
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Downtown in Ljubljana, Slovenia, near the Akrapovic headquarters. Slovenia is a very beautiful country!
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View of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.
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Tracy, Don and Jen in Venice.
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Tracy and Jen in Venice.
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On the road again! Packing up our many bags at the charming Albergo Al Sole hotel in Asolo, Italy, near the Alpinestars factory.
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 he first stop in our 2006 Euro tour took us to the Akrapovic exhaust system company in the lovely country of Slovenia, just to the northeast of Italy, about a two-hour drive from Venice. The factory is located in Ivancna Gorica, near the capital city of Ljubjana.
Akrapovic products are named after the company founder Igor Akrapovic. Following a successful racing career, Igor went into business in 1990 to use his experiences to help other riders perform better. His desire for a better performing machine ultimately led to the creation of an exhaust system and the business we know today.
One thing that sets Akrapovic apart from its competitors is the extensive use of high tech materials such as titanium, stainless steel and carbon fiber, as well as state-of-the-art processes of R&D and manufacturing that enable the company to build a top quality product.
Akrapovic exhausts can be seen on factory roadrace machines from Yamaha and Kawasaki to KTMs and others in off-road, Supermoto and ATV competition. We were very impressed by what we saw on our visit to the factory and look forward to watching Akrapovic pursue the American market in the years to come.
Our Publisher Don talks with Igor Akrapovic, who is flanked by two of his senior employees, Slavko Alojz Trstenjak, (left) Manager of Research and Development; and Marko Adamic, the Managing Director. In talking with him, our impression was that being known as making the best products is a higher priority than being the biggest. If you are the best, then sales volume will take care of itself.
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Production all the way from start to the final assembly (seen here) is an orderly process that constantly pays attention to doing the job right. The facility is also kept very neat and clean.
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One of the more impressive pieces of equipment in the factory we saw was the hyroforming machine. Hyroforming is a process of tube forming using a medium based on an emulsion of water and lubricant additives.
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Akrapovic has a separate factory devoted entirely to the production of carbon fiber. The factory had, for some time, been an independent supplier, but was recently acquired by Akrapovic.
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The carbon fiber factory presently makes parts for the Akrapovic exhaust systems, but separate accessory items are being planned for the future.
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Marko Adamic shows the difference between a section of header pipe before, and on his left, after the hyroforming process. Their patented D-type header tubes are made this way.
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he Acerbis product line is fantastic. Almost more fantastic is to hear the story that Franco didn’t really intend to be a manufacturer when he started in business back in 1973. An enduro mechanic at the time, Franco traveled to the United States with the Italian team and met plastics pioneer Preston Petty. On that trip, the idea was born to become a distributor of motorcycle accessories, including Petty’s line of plastic fenders, in Italy.
Things went well for the first three years and Acerbis was by then selling 40,000 Petty fenders a year. Then he got the sad news that Petty was discontinuing his fender line. So with no backup line, Franco decided to go into production himself and he has not looked back since. Sales have been nothing but up and today his company supplies 43 countries around the globe with 1,800 different products for OEM and Aftermarket use.
We had a chance to stop at the Acerbis headquarters in Albino, Italy in June to get a first hand look at the headquarters and nearby plastics manufacturing plant.
The impressive Acerbis world headquarters in Albino, Italy, about an hour east of Milan. Acerbis photo.
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A full staffed R&D center was busy working on new ideas that will soon come to market.
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The full line of Acerbis products are colorfully displayed in the showroom.
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The day we were at the plastics factory, there were more orange fenders coming down the line that I had ever seen in one place.
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Our Editor Jen observes Acerbis designer Ornerakis Lykoyrgos at work on a new product idea.
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Marketing & Communication Director Marco Zamparini gives Don and Jen an overview of the Acerbis story.
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 ne of the most recognizable logos in the world of motorcycling, if not all of motorsports, is the A-Star of Alpinestars. Since taking over at the helm of Alpinestars from his father Sante, who founded the company in 1963, Gabriele Mazzarolo has expanded the business in many directions through the years. Maintaining the early tradition of fitting boots to stars like Roger DeCoster and Kenny Roberts, today you still see the logo on the boots of the top names of motocross, Supercross and roadracing. But it’s now seen too on the shoulders of auto driving suits and roadrace leathers. It’s also on gloves, driving shoes, casual shoes, sportswear, gear bags and more.
At the invitation of Mr. Mazzarolo, we traveled this past June to the company headquarters in Asolo, Italy, a short drive from Venice. I had been there about five years ago and Gabriele has since been telling me that I needed to come see the many changes that had taken place there since my last visit. And he was right. It didn’t take very long after our arrival there for me to see what he meant.
Walking the halls at Alpinestars, there is so much going on. People are coming and going to events in all corners of the world and the excitement of development of new products and new ideas is in the air. Everyone is caught up in the pursuit of being the best at what they do.
They all have one goal and one vision…
The Alpinestars world headquarters in Asolo, Italy has a very unassuming entrance as seen from the outside. Inside, a lot is happening.
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The product showroom provides an impressive display of Alpinestars apparel currently on sale. Buyers from around the world come and go constantly.
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Boots were the first product made by Alpinestars, so, of course, a major portion of the product showroom is devoted to the extensive line of road and off-road boots.
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Auto racing suits are now a big part of the Alpinestars world. The dark blue suit was made for NASCAR star Kurt Busch.
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Boots are still hand assembled in the company’s original boot factory located just a few miles from the current headquarters building.
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A batch of Tech 10s as far as you can see make their way down the assembly line ready to get boxed up and shipped out.
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Seen on the lower shelf is a pair of custom shoes an Italian F-1 driver had requested to honor his country winning the 2006 Soccer World Cup Final.
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Colin Ballantyne from the Alpinestars product development department was our tour guide of the company’s impressive laboratory and test center. Here he shows us how gloves and booties are tested for water leaks.
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Without question, the highlight of our visit to Alpinestars was the tour of the testing laboratory. I have visited many manufacturing facilities through the years and witnessed lots of workers welding, sewing, buffing and painting. But I can’t think of any company with such an extensive test facility as what we saw there.
The Traction/Compression Dynamometer performs compression and tensile strength tests on materials, stitching, bonding and seams. Data is collected on load and elongation limits and fed into a computer which tracks the mechanical characteristics of the material to ensure that defined minimum performance standards are met and exceeded. Alpinestars Photo.
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Colin shows our Editor Jen the results of an abrasion resistance test that was conducted on a Martindale test machine. Leather and other materials are tested for 3000 cycles or more under a load of 500 grams and analyzed against a set of performance benchmarks.
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Now that Alpinestars is involved in automobile racing, it needs to test the fire resistance capabilities of materials used in racing suits, gloves and shoes. Materials must meet FIA Homologation rules, which specify strict limits for both heat transfer and flame retardation over a standard of set time parameters. Alpinestars Photo.
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This machine tests the boot soles. A defined load is placed on the sole to simulate a rider’s body weight and then in a typical test, this footpeg will spin around under it 8,000 times so Alpinestars can determine the wear rate and accurately fine tune the best compounds for each specific boot model.
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The Walkmeter tests boots and shoes for structural integrity and durability. Products are subjected to 100,000 cycles or more with varying body weight, stride patterns and surface conditions. Alpinestars Photo.
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The Climatic Chamber tests material resistance to accelerated aging and extreme climatic conditions. Products are placed in the chamber, which is capable of simulating 5 years of exposure in 1 week, with temperatures ranging from –20 degrees to 120 degrees centigrade and humidity levels of 0-99 percent. Alpinestars Photo.
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The EA cooling system makes use of two previous back safety features, a back protector and the padded hump on the back of the leathers that provides head and neck protection. The fan fits right into the hump area and installs to the back protector. Alpinestars Photo.
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A close up shows the fan installed in the back protector. It draws air in from the outside through the hump. Alpinestars Photo.
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With a bench full of cooling fans behind him being prepared for the upcoming MotoGP races in Catalunya, Colin gave us a preview of the experimental Alpinestars Embedded Air System. It is part of what they call an ongoing “cold rush” development program concentrating of the cooling of riders in competition. Hayden, Roberts, Hopkins and others love them. Applications for consumers have not been determined at this time, it’s just experimental at the moment.features, a back protector and the padded hump on the back of the leathers that provides head and neck protection. The fan fits right into the hump area and installs to the back protector. Alpinestars Photo.
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Another way Alpinestars keeps its riders cool is by providing these cool chairs in the garages. When the riders come in off the track and need to consult with crew members, the chair pumps cool air around the rider. Where some events, including this year’s USGP, have temperatures in excess of 100 degrees, this is a popular benefit for riders. Like the EA system, these are experimental only. But who knows? Maybe some day we’ll be watching MotoGP on Speed Channel in cool chairs!
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Following our visit to the headquarters, Publisher Don traveled on to the MotoGP races at Catalunya to see how Alpinestars was setup at the races. There he met two of the traveling race support staff, Christopher Hillard and Antonietta Secco. She had one of Nicky Hayden’s leather suits in the sewing machine following a practice crash he had experienced that day. She can make repairs right there in Alpinestars’ traveling service center.
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