Enduro Gas Gas equips Braktec’s innovative brakes

Enduro Gas Gas equips Braktec’s innovative brakes

Gas Gas has already introduced its new Enduro division since the company passed into KTM’s hands.

Mattighofen’s released four models, two 2x models (EC 250 and EC 300) and two more 4x models (EC 250F and EC 350F versions.) All of them are equipped with Braktec’s new Enduro brake system (owned by J.Juan).

The system consists of a new factory hand master cylinder and caliper; A master cylinder and rear caliper has also been designed for the new models with a hydraulic clutch system.  All this has received outstanding reviews from publications that have already tested the bikes and have published their conclusions.

Components of the new Gas Gas enduros include Braktec brakes, Maxxis tires and WP front suspension with 48 mm Xplor fork.

J.Juan’s strategy to adapt its China plant to the coronavirus

J.Juan’s strategy to adapt its China plant to the coronavirus

 THE CATALONIAN COMPANY’S FACTORY IN JIAXING IS OPERATING AT 25% CAPACITY DUE TO LACK OF PERSONNEL. ITS TOP PRIORITIES ARE TO RE-ESTAPBLISH NORMAL PRODUCTIION AND TO PREVENT ANY CASES OF COVID-19 IN THE FACTORY AT ANY COST

Jaume Rosinés Juan landed in Barcelona on the 20th of January to spend the Chinese New Year holiday. He has been in charge of the motorcycle brake systems and hoses manufacturing plant in China since 2014, and for the last few days has been running the business from Barcelona. “I’ll return to China the day I don’t have to go through quarantine”, he said. For the moment he does not have a return ticket.

New Year is a time of uncertainty in China: staff go to their homes, their home towns, but you don’t know if they’ll be back”, Rosinés explains, because in Chinese homes there is a sort of “competition” among family members to see who makes the most money or has the best car, “as a status symbol”, and this often results in changes in employment after the New Year celebrations.

Given this disruptive factor, companies frequently provide themselves with supplies for a longer period of time than usual in order to restart production with the fewest possible problems. Things should have returned to normal on the 3rd of February, but J.Juan’s plant, located in Jiaxing, in the Zhejian province (about 800 kilometres from Wuhan, where the focal point of the virus is), went back into operation on the 10th of February, although with hardly any production.

Mr. Rosinés himself – son of María Ángeles Juan, one o the three siblings who own J.Juan, is for the moment managing the China factory from Gavà (Baix Llobregat), the company’s headquarters.

 

Daily Monitoring

“We’ve been holding daily monitoring meetings since the 25th of January, when we saw that they were starting to isolate the residents, says Rosinés in an interview with EXPANSIÓN Catalunya, in which he explains that they have had to obtain “Government authorization” to resume production and he emphasizes that their priorities, for now, are two: “Recover production capacity and prevent cases of the coronavirus in the factory”.

“Now we are working at 25%, although nobody has managed to go over 30%, the problem is that I don’t know when we can get back to 100%; for the moment our problem is more a lack of personnel than o supplies”, he adds. “Whoever moves from one province to another has to go through quarantine, which forces you to hire people from the city itself (3.3 million inhabitants), but kindergartens, schools and universities have postponed the entrance of students until March or April, which makes it difficult for people to return to work; you have to pay an incentive so that they resume work quickly”, he comments.

Added to all this are the large companies with plants in the city itself, like Philips, Lego, ZF and Hyosung, who had recently planned to resume their activity and have started looking for staff in the area.

 

Safety

The company has introduced a catalogue of twenty procedures to prevent cases of Covid-19. Some examples are that lorry drivers may not get out of the vehicle – others unload it-, teleworking in some cases, special cleaning of communal areas, shifts to reduce the concentration of staff, eating is not permitted in the factory and safety distances among people. Staff also change their masks every three or four hours.

Rosinés underlines the need for there to be no cases of coronavirus. “They can close the factory, and that would be for three weeks, minimum”, he warns. The company, because it is foreign, has someone who acts as a liaison with the different levels of the communist Administration. In this case, he/she communicates the guidelines regarding the virus.

Last year, J.Juan had a turnover of 72 million euros, six million more than in 2018. Production in China is growing at high speed, with 19 million in income in 2019, compared to eight million in 2015. The company employs 140 people, of whom 80% of indirect employees, but only 15% of direct employees are working. “We were expecting to turnover more than 20 million in 2020, but now we don’t know how much the turnover will be; our goal is to stay alive”, he said, half-jokingly. Half of the China production is sold in the local market and the rest is for South-east Asia, Europe and America.

 

The need not to depend on one country

J.Juan’s CEO in China believes that coronavirus crisis will subside “if the international cases recover”.

“But if not, then the concern could be greater”. Jaume Rosinés thinks that he Chinese Government is doing everything possible to “minimize the damage” to the country just when it has launched a campaign to remove the stigma cheap, low quality products”. “This crisis has opened many companies’ eyes to their dependence on a single country”, referring to the world’s factory. In their case, J.Juan has not yet moved their production – something that would imply pushinig the Catalonian facilities to export to Europ and North America -, but that is a scenario for which the family-run business has plans.

 

GREAT WORLD SEASON OF J.JUAN BRAKE SYSTEMS

GREAT WORLD SEASON OF J.JUAN BRAKE SYSTEMS

J.Juan brake systems are acquiring great prestige worldwide. You may think that it is anexaggeration of the marketing or commercial team, but our systems have won in the competitions where they have been present. Be it speed, off road, two or four wheels. Sounds like an over exaggeration but it’s a reality, and a direct result f the hard work of everyone in the J.Juan Group.

 

Speedies to the Podium

 

If we look in the field of speed, J.Juan has been proclaimed champion in Italy, France, Portugal and Spain in Moto3, monodisk, and Premoto3. He has also won in the European (FIM-CEV) motorcycle 3 and in the Talent Cup, and we have done so in multiple ways by equipping different brands such as Honda, BeOn, RMU, KTM or MIR.

Many will tell us that in Moto3 of the World Cup we have not been successful. This is false! In the World Cup we cannot equip our double disc front system because our engineering team considers that it is not in the proper development phase to win races, but the riders who have used our Thumbrake have climbed, continuously, to the top of the competition. This is the case with Aaron Canet, and, it seems that next season will bring very positive news about our thumb brake in all categories, even in MotoGP.

Also, in Moto2 of the World Cup we have had a breakthrough. This season has been equipped by Stop and Go, a team that in previous seasons struggled to score. In this season, they hav achieved 2 pole position and they have climbed twice to the podium! We already foresee them competing for first place with Alex Márquez next year.

 

Another World Championship to Rea

As for Superbikes … More incredible news! Jonathan Rea has broken a historical record by winning the World Cup for an amazing fifth time! Few know that Kawasaki had never won in this category until the Roda brothers (Guim and Biel) took control and equipped, in passing, J.Juan hydraulic tube systems. In seven seasons, they have won 6 world titles.

Ana Carrasco, on the other hand, has not been able to conquer the World Cup due to two inopportune falls that have relegated her to third place, but the future is exciting for her! We are convinced that this is just the beginning of a promising career for this future Murcia lawyer of just 22 years.

In Trial, what am I going to tell you…!

On Off Road, we have revived a classic: Braktec sweeps the trial. More surprising news would be that one day some motorcycle without our product would reach the podium of GPTrial, or the Junior World Cup, or the World Cup. With this it is seven years (2012-2019) that Braktec is owner and sits atop the throne. Thanks also must go to the pilots Bou, Raga and Emma Bristow.

 

The Enduro Came, Saw and Conquered

The novelty, yes, has been the Motocross. The new system designed by Braktec was released in 2019 undergoing training only for the Spanish Championship. The idea was to test the product on this stage. The test has become the achievement of the competition with Jezyk. In addition, the pilots have competed in only some tests of the European competitions that has already earned them a fourth-place finish.

As if that were not enough, the Spanish team of the Six Days of Enduro tested the brakes that had just been produced, and the result was that the captain of the national team, Ivan Cervantes, a “nobody” who has only won 5 World Cups, gave them a 9.5 out of 10 on average.

 

Absolute Kings of Side by Side

If we look in the field of four wheels, “for now” we only compete in the Side x Side category. And I say “just” because some car teams may be on the horizon….

In SxS we have swept. It is almost identical to that of Braktec in Trial. All competitions where a vehicle carried brakes produced in Sant Cugat have won with J.Juan systems. There is more. Famous pilots like Toby Price, Nasser Al-Attiyah, Nani Roma or Heinz Kimigarden have rated the performance of our systems through the clouds.

Let’s savor the joys of this 2019 with great satisfaction. These successes are not easy for us (you know well). Similar to the complications of production, competing is very difficult. Not only are we competing, but we are winning! Let us enjoy the successes and continue to strive for improvement to repeat them in the coming years.

HERO PRESENTS ITS NEW XTREME 1.R CONCEPT WITH J.JUAN FRONT CALIPER

HERO PRESENTS ITS NEW XTREME 1.R CONCEPT WITH J.JUAN FRONT CALIPER

Continuing with its strategy to introduce new X-series models (XPulse 200 in 2017 and XPulse 200T in 2018) at EICMA, Hero unveiled a new motorcycle concept, the “Xtreme 1.R” equipped with J.Juan front caliper. The new Hero 1.R Concept gives an outlook of ​​the future of the brand’s premium motorcycle range.

The new Xtreme 1.R Concept is a segment product of Naked Roadster. The aggressive style of the conceptual vehicle is complemented by premium specifications, such as J.Juan brake, inverted forks on the front, a mono shock on the back, Arrow exhaust, carbon fiber lever protectors, adjustable levers and brakes petal type disc on both wheels. and much more. The conceptual vehicle also featured a full LED headlight and a camera on the back.

The extensions of the fuel tank, the engine hood and a very exclusive rear panel give the motorcycle a very attractive appearance. It looks like a racing motorcycle.

Xtreme 1.R looks at the next generation of the Xtreme range.