Honda Customs Competition 2023
The post-apocalyptic Dax ‘Furiosa’ created by the Portuguese pairing of young artist Tamara Alves and bike builders at the Art of Wheels Garage has been crowned this year’s Honda Customs winner.
The customised ‘post-apocalyptic’ Dax ‘Furiosa’ wins the fourth annual Honda Customs competition collecting 34 per cent of the votes.
‘Manjushage’ – a classy customised Monkey from Germany was second, with ‘Tokyo’ a French multi-coloured Monkey, in third.
This year the Honda Customs website showcased seven minibikes from seven European countries – each the result of a creative collaboration between a young artist and established bike builder, the site receiving over 21,000 visitors over the summer – a 41 per cent increase over 2022 engagement.
Inspired by the world of post-apocalyptic movies, Furiosa features block tyres, a wolf motif, graffiti signatures, bespoke exhaust with wire mesh cage, and glimpses of tartan peeping out of the scorched seat cover.
The classy and graceful ‘Manjushage’, a customised Honda Monkey designed and built by the German team of artist @Lanaarts23 and bike builder Maximilian Zech, a technician based at the flagship Honda Centre dealer in Frankfurt, came in a close second with 29 per cent of the total.
The subtle café racer features clip on bars, a Yoshimura end-can and aftermarket remote reservoir rear shocks to boost performance and handling, while Lana’s signature spider lily motifs (Manjushage in Japanese) adorn the fuel tank and fender, with the finishing touch being a tiny cartoon monkey on the downpipe heat shield.
The podium was completed by France’s ‘Tokyo’, a Monkey displaying an absolute riot of colour from the French duo of artist Grems and builder George Woodman. What set Tokyo apart from the other entries were the pop-art visuals, pumped with vibrant colour in abstract – and subtly meshed – patterns on every square centimetre. It attracted 12 per cent of the total votes.
All seven bikes were on display at the annual Wheels and Waves festival, running from 21st to 25th June in Biarritz, France.
Masayuki Hamamatsu – General Manager of Motorcycles
Honda Motor Europe
“Working with young artists to create unique versions of our minibikes has been a fantastic way for us to attract the attention of a younger audience to the fun and accessibility of motorcycles. The strong reaction to these seven incredibly diverse creations is an encouraging sign of how motorcycles really engage people’s interest when they are given the chance to be ‘in contact’ with them. Furiosa is a very cool and worthy winner and we are very grateful to all the artists and customisers who were involved from seven different countries – and to the more than 15,000 people who voted.”
For those wishing to take a closer look at all seven customisations, the Honda Customs page www.hondacustoms.com is still available in a multitude of languages, including English and features bikes from Spain, Austria, France, Italy, Germany, Portugal and the UK .
