The “post-apocalyptic” Dax “Furiosa”, created by young Portuguese artist Tamara Alves (@tamara_aalves) and the customizers at Art of Wheels Garage (@artonwheelsgarage) was crowned the winner of this year’s Honda Customs.
With 34% of the total 15,924 votes, the Furiosa beat the six other customized European mini-bikes in the competition and follows in the footsteps of the previous winners of the Honda Customs competition: the “Maanboard”, a Rebel customized by the Italian house Motocicli Audaci, the “Fénix” from the Portuguese Honda dealer Mototrofa – a customized version of the CB650R – and the “CB100R Africa Four” from the Swiss Honda dealer Brivemo Motos.
Inspired by a post-apocalyptic scenario, the Furiosa features club tires, a wolf’s head design on the frame, graffiti details, a modified exhaust with a wire mesh guard, tartan finishes present on the burnt cover seat trim.
The elegant and graceful “Manjushage”, a customized Honda Monkey, designed and prepared by the German team formed by artist @Lanaarts23 and customizer Maximilian Zech, a technician at the Honda Centre dealership in Frankfurt, came in second place, with 29% of the total votes.
This subtle cafe racer has dropouts instead of a handlebar, a Yoshimura tip and rear shocks with remote reservoir to improve performance and maneuverability; the fuel tank and mudguard are adorned with the characteristic Japanese lilies (Manjushage in Japanese) courtesy of Lana, and the finishing touch is a small drawing of a monkey wearing sunglasses (Monkey = Monkey) on the heat shield of the manifold.
The podium was completed by the “Tokyo” preparation from France, another Monkey customized with a profusion of colors by the French duo formed by artist Grems (@insta_grems) and preparer George Woodman (@georgewoodman64). What set this Tokyo preparation apart from the others were the pop-art visuals, full of vibrant colors in abstract – and subtly interwoven – patterns on every square centimeter. This preparation received a total of 12% of the votes.
This year, the page www.hondacustoms.com during the summer was visited by 21,606 people to vote, an increase of 41% on last year, with 5,461 users downloading a wallpaper of their chosen preparation to their cell phone or computer.
All seven bikes were on display at the annual Wheels and Waves festival, which ran from June 21 to 25 in Biarritz, France.
In the words of Masayuki Hamamatsu, General Manager of Honda Motor Europe’s Motorcycle Division: “Working with young artists to create unique versions of our mini-bikes has been a fantastic way 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 pique people’s interest when they are given the opportunity to be ‘in touch’ with them.
The Furiosa is a very worthy and deserving winner, and we are very grateful to all the artists and customizers from seven different countries who took part in this event and to the more than 15,000 people who voted.”
For those wishing to take a closer look at the seven customizations, the Honda Customs website www.hondacustoms.com is still available in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese and features bikes from Spain, Austria, France, Italy, Germany, Portugal and the United Kingdom. Visitors can still download a wallpaper of their favorite motorcycles to their computer or cell phone.