Honda NX500 to leverage Dominator heritage
The golden era of the Dakar rally in the late 80s and early 90s is the latest retro trend that manufacturers are tapping into and with a glittering record from that period, Honda can't be blamed for making the most of it.
With the Africa Twin already proving a success and plans to revive the Transalp name on an upcoming 750 cc twin derived from the upcoming Hornet 750 that will debut later this year, Honda's adventure bike range is looking increasingly strong.
Next, the company seems set to revive the Dominator - previously offered in a host of capacities from the 1980s until the early 2000s. Honda has just filed for rights to use the trademarks 'NX' and 'NX500' on future motorcycles, reviving badges that were last used on Dominators from the NX125 to the NX650.
These days Norton holds a trademark on the Dominator name, potentially preventing Honda from using it, but by reviving the 'NX' badge there's no doubt what Honda is alluding to. While old Dominators were single-cylinder machines, sitting below the Transalp and Africa Twin in Honda's range of adventure bikes, the new NX500 is likely to be a twin. In fact, the clearest route to creating a successful Dominator revival is to give the CB500X adventure bike a 1980s-inspired restyle and the new name, bringing its nomenclature and appearance into line with the Africa Twin. That would mean it uses the same 471 cc engine as the CB500 range and the upcoming CL500 scrambler that Honda is expected to launch later this year, using the CMX500 Rebel as its basis.
Honda's rivals are already jumping on the Dakar-inspired trend, most recently with Ducati's DesertX and MV Agusta's Lucky Explorer 9.5 and 5.5 models, which all take their inspiration from the Dakar-winning Cagiva Elefant. BMW's R nineT Urban G/S and Moto Guzzi's V85 TT have also adopted 80s-inspired adventure bike looks.
Honda's own Dakar winners of the era were all 'NX' branded, albeit pure prototype bikes in the form of the NXR750V and NXR800V machines that took four consecutive victories from 1986-89, spanning the absolute peak of the Dakar rally's popularity.
Although a trademark isn't a guarantee that a bike will reach production, it is a reliable pointer to the bikes companies are developing, and given the ease with which Honda could cash in on its racing success at the very event that others are paying tribute to, it would be crazy not to consider capitalising on it.
