The idea is to take a very capable classic Honda NX650 Dominator and turn it into a modern, great looking custom scrambler.

Well, where do we start. We can either approach it “my way” or “Oli’s way”.

Get the kettle on… the decision is either 3 months of method, organisation, attention to detail, order and discipline (my way), or lost parts, missing tools, chaos, laughs and fun (Oli’s way). I don’t quite know how to break it to him, because he’s already in the workshop getting stuck in.

Our process starts by mood boarding the bikes we love and establish what features we want to keep, and what we want to remove. At this stage its much more about shape and form, but this is our first serious bike build, so we need to keep it practical and affordable.

We’ve drawn inspiration from a mix of classic scramblers like the Yamaha XT 500 and the 80’s KTM 495, and from more modern custom builds of the Dominator.

Once our vision is formed we can then start sketching it out to decide what we want it to look like. When our sketches are complete, we ask our mate Colin from Saunders Motorcycles if he’ll help us. Picture his excitement when he realises that we are serious. We ask him to cost it out (which he still hasn’t done), reassuring us that it will be fine and that a trip through the pyrenees will be first on the list.

I send him my photoshop images and we agree that we’re all on the same page.

It’s a “win-win”. Colin gets paid to do what he loves and we get a brand new custom bike. Perfect…..

The next stage was to find a suitable donor bike.

We found a little beauty in a small Norfolk town. Tony from “Here be Dragons Workshops” didn’t have time to do it himself so sold us a 1990 ex military NX650L Honda Dominator.

As soon as I saw her I knew that the vision we originally had needed to change.

This bike had history. Its story should be present in our design considerations.

Follow her progress in The Lowdown.