The 90s were a wild time for motorcycle graphics—and if you need proof, the Honda NX650 Dominator has it in spades. Throughout its tenure, it wore everything from traditional Honda red to vibrant swathes of turquoise, purple, and pink. Seeing a custom Dominator that harks back to that radical era is refreshing.
This custom Honda NX650 Dominator is the work of brothers Jarek and Aleksander Turkosz at Adrenaliner Design in Świdnica, Poland. The duo runs a workshop where they juggle various engineering, 3D design, and manufacturing jobs. They recently began dabbling in motorcycle parts—and now they’re building custom bikes, too.
“This Honda NX650 project taught us a lot about the process,” says Jarek. “The first lesson is that it’s helpful to make a good project plan before starting the build. It saves a lot of time and struggles during the actual build, and it helps test all the ideas at the beginning with zero cost.”
“The second lesson is to always remember to have fun and enjoy the process. This is what it’s all about.”
The brothers started with a 1994 Honda NX650 Dominator that was in surprisingly decent condition, given its age. Their cousin, Maciek, gave the engine a good once-over, but found nothing to report. So the guys simply gave it a fresh coat on the outside and added cutouts to the sprocket cover.
“The stock NX650 engine looks sweet,” Jarek explains. “We didn’t want to spoil it with excessive modifications.”
Jarek and Aleksander had a laundry list of changes in mind for the rest of the bike. “Our goal was to build a street bike with a 90s vibe and a bit of flat tracker and supermoto looks. We started by lacing the front wheel with a 17” rim, and finding a gas tank from a 1970 Honda CB350—then we built a new subframe around it.”
Adrenaliner’s deft fabrication work ensured that the subframe worked in perfect harmony with the vintage CB tank, which looks like it was always meant for the Dominator. The guys tucked a custom-made electronics box under the seat, and then flanked it with a pair of handmade side covers that tie the front and back halves of the bike together, visually.
The whole arrangement is asymmetrical, designed to accommodate the Dominator’s unique exhaust setup. “We wanted the exhaust to be as compact as possible,” Jarek explains. “With so little space available, we came up with the idea to make a short one that goes through the side plate. It works—and it assures no one can confuse this with an electric bike.”
Most of what’s going on under the seat is put together like Tetris blocks, with the electronics tray also incorporating an airbox. Jarek and Aleksander leaned heavily on their experience with CAD software to ensure everything would fit before they committed to any hard parts.
Even the exhaust headers were designed with CAD, and then TIG-welded by Aleksander. The duo also built their own rolling machine to create the exhaust’s middle section, and built their own silencer (a term we use loosely, considering it’s only 10 cm long).
The next big mission was designing the Dominator’s headlight assembly. “We are huge fans of 90s pop-up lights and wanted to make something like this on a motorcycle,” says Jarek. “When the motorcycle stands still, a plate covers the lights—but when the lights are turned on, the flap is opened by an internal mechanism that uses a servomotor and limit switches.”
“The movement of the flap looks simple, but it’s complex, as it first needs to move backwards and then to the side. Making this robust and firm took a lot of time. The whole mechanism has its own electronics, hidden in a black box mounted on the left side of the frame.”
With the big tasks out of the way, Adrenaliner turned its attention to all the small things. With the smaller front wheel fitted, the bike’s stance wasn’t quite right—so they designed a new rear suspension linkage to pick the backside up. Then they lengthened the side stand to match the new ride height.
Serrations were added to the original foot pegs to add grip (and some MX style), the seat was covered in leather and Alcantara, and the bars were swapped for a trimmed set of Renthals. Renthal grips, AVDB Moto levers, and a one-off aluminum gas cap complete the build.
Then there’s the Dominator’s retro fabulous livery. Jarek and Aleksander sent the frame off to be powder-coated black, and then painted in a dark grey metallic finish. The rims were done in purple, with the spokes galvanized in black. The rest of the parts were tackled in-house.
“We painted everything in our garage in one 15-hour session,” says Jarek. “We didn’t want to use stickers, so we designed stencils that were used to mask the elements, color by color. It turned out pretty okay, considering that we had only painted one bicycle frame before this project.”
In the true spirit of DIY, the brothers then wheeled the bike outside and photographed it themselves, using tips and tricks from Bike EXIF’s photography how-to articles. From the Dominator’s flawless stance to its vivid paint job, myriad details, and these crisp images, they nailed it.
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