The 90s had been a wild time for bike graphics—and in the event you want proof, the Honda NX650 Dominator has it in spades. All through its tenure, it wore every thing from conventional Honda crimson to vibrant swathes of turquoise, purple, and pink. Seeing a {custom} Dominator that harks again to that radical period is refreshing.
This practice Honda NX650 Dominator is the work of brothers Jarek and Aleksander Turkosz at Adrenaliner Design in Świdnica, Poland. The duo runs a workshop the place they juggle numerous engineering, 3D design, and manufacturing jobs. They lately started dabbling in bike elements—and now they’re constructing {custom} bikes, too.
“This Honda NX650 mission taught us lots in regards to the course of,” says Jarek. “The primary lesson is that it is useful to make mission plan earlier than beginning the construct. It saves loads of time and struggles in the course of the precise construct, and it helps take a look at all of the concepts initially with zero price.”
“The second lesson is to all the time keep in mind to have enjoyable and benefit from the course of. That is what it is all about.”
The brothers began with a 1994 Honda NX650 Dominator that was in surprisingly respectable situation, given its age. Their cousin, Maciek, gave the engine once-over, however discovered nothing to report. So the blokes merely gave it a recent coat on the surface and added cutouts to the sprocket cowl.
“The inventory NX650 engine appears to be like candy,” Jarek explains. “We did not need to spoil it with extreme modifications.”
Jarek and Aleksander had a laundry listing of adjustments in thoughts for the remainder of the bike. “Our purpose was to construct a avenue bike with a 90s vibe and a little bit of flat tracker and supermoto appears to be like. We began by lacing the entrance wheel with a 17” rim, and discovering a gasoline tank from a 1970 Honda CB350—then we constructed a brand new subframe round it.”
Adrenaliner’s deft fabrication work ensured that the subframe labored in good concord with the classic CB tank, which appears to be like prefer it was all the time meant for the Dominator. The blokes tucked a custom-made electronics field beneath the seat, after which flanked it with a pair of handmade facet covers that tie the back and front halves of the bike collectively, visually.
The entire association is asymmetrical, designed to accommodate the Dominator’s distinctive exhaust setup. “We wished the exhaust to be as compact as doable,” Jarek explains. “With so little area out there, we got here up with the thought to make a brief one which goes by way of the facet plate. It really works—and it assures nobody can confuse this with an electrical bike.”
Most of what is going on on beneath the seat is put collectively like Tetris blocks, with the electronics tray additionally incorporating an airbox. Jarek and Aleksander leaned closely on their expertise with CAD software program to make sure every thing would match earlier than they dedicated to any onerous elements.
Even the exhaust headers had been designed with CAD, after which TIG-welded by Aleksander. The duo additionally constructed their very own rolling machine to create the exhaust’s center part, and constructed their very own silencer (a time period we use loosely, contemplating it is solely 10 cm lengthy).
The subsequent huge mission was designing the Dominator’s headlight meeting. “We’re big followers of 90s pop-up lights and wished to make one thing like this on a motorbike,” says Jarek. “When the bike stands nonetheless, a plate covers the lights—however when the lights are turned on, the flap is opened by an inner mechanism that makes use of a servomotor and restrict switches.”
“The motion of the flap appears to be like easy, nevertheless it’s complicated, because it first wants to maneuver backwards after which to the facet. Making this strong and agency took loads of time. The entire mechanism has its personal electronics, hidden in a black field mounted on the left facet of the body.”
With the massive duties out of the way in which, Adrenaliner turned its consideration to all of the small issues. With the smaller entrance wheel fitted, the bike’s stance wasn’t fairly proper—in order that they designed a brand new rear suspension linkage to select the bottom up. Then they lengthened the facet stand to match the brand new experience peak.
Serrations had been added to the unique foot pegs so as to add grip (and a few MX type), the seat was lined in leather-based and Alcantara, and the bars had been swapped for a trimmed set of Renthals. Renthal grips, AVDB Moto levers, and a one-off aluminum gasoline cap full the construct.
Then there’s the Dominator’s retro fabulous livery. Jarek and Aleksander despatched the body off to be powder-coated black, after which painted in a darkish gray metallic end. The edges had been achieved in purple, with the spokes galvanized in black. The remainder of the elements had been tackled in-house.
“We painted every thing in our storage in a single 15-hour session,” says Jarek. “We did not need to use stickers, so we designed stencils that had been used to masks the weather, coloration by coloration. It turned out fairly okay, contemplating that we had solely painted one bicycle body earlier than this mission.”
Within the true spirit of DIY, the brothers then wheeled the bike exterior and photographed it themselves, utilizing suggestions and methods from Bike EXIF’s pictures how-to articles. From the Dominator’s flawless stance to its vivid paint job, myriad particulars, and these crisp photos, they nailed it.
Trending Merchandise
