Honda Customs 2026: Mugen Hornet wins overall; Saharja Transalp tops off-road field

Honda ran its 2026 Honda Customs campaign around a Battle of the Twins format that pitched five CB750 Hornet-based customs against five XL750 Transalp-based customs. The ten builds were revealed at Wheels and Waves in Biarritz and then opened to a public vote that ran through the European summer.

Mugen CB750 Hornet — overall and On Road winner

Design approach: Mototrofa kept the Hornet recognisable while giving it a more purposeful, nose-down stance. Key changes included a shortened tail, bespoke bellypan, a compact exhaust, custom seat and a revised rear end. The finish uses deep forest green paint, gold highlights and exposed carbon. A carbon fibre wing beneath the headlight gives a MotoGP-influenced front profile.

Saharja XL750 Transalp — Off Road winner

Italy's DRS Custom took the Off Road category with Saharja, a Transalp transformed into a Dakar-style rally machine. Saharja attracted more than 4,800 votes.

Rally conversion: The build combines HRC tricolour graphics with a handcrafted navigation tower that carries a digital roadbook and TFT instrumentation. The nose was redesigned to incorporate high-output LED lighting. The package includes handcrafted aluminium auxiliary tanks, an aluminium bashplate, steel protection bars, handguards, a high-mounted exhaust, knobby tyres, a raised one-piece seat and rally footpegs.

The 2026 field split the brief cleanly between streetfighter and rally directions and produced focused executions rather than wholesale reworks. Mototrofa's win illustrates a restrained, detail-led approach that prioritised silhouette and stance over radical bodywork changes. DRS Custom's Saharja demonstrates how functional rally components — navigation tower, tanks, underbody protection — are used to turn a modern adventure bike into a genuine long-distance desert tool.

• Restraint in paint and graphics can slow decision-making but often produces a more cohesive result.
• Functional components (navigation towers, auxiliary tanks, bashplates) contribute as much to authenticity as aesthetic cues.
• Prior experience on similar platforms shortens build time but bespoke components still create workshop pressure.

The public vote numbers and the reveal at Wheels and Waves underline that Honda Customs continues to favour builds that mix recognisability with convincing reinterpretations of the donor machine.