Winner of Honda Customs 2022, Nicola Manca, founder and head of Motocicli Audaci, talks about the inspiration for the Maanboard

Winner of Honda Customs 2022, Nicola Manca, founder and head of  Motocicli Audaci, talks about the inspiration for the Maanboard

Today Honda have announced that ‘Maanboard’, the customised CMX500 Rebel from Sardinia- based customisers Motocicli Audaci, has been crowned the winner of the 2022 Honda Customs competition.

Receiving over 5,000 ‘likes’ from the public, and beating out nine other special customs, Motocicli Audaci took their inspiration from the Sand Racers of the 1930s, applying custom parts across the board, from rebuilt front suspension, to 19in wire spoke wheels and full stainless steel exhaust system. A unique, stunning blue candy and gold-leaf paint scheme adorns the tank and bespoke custom tail, with handlebar risers and a new leather seat finishing off the look.

Below, Nicola Manca, Founder and Head of Motocicli Audaci, talks through the inspiration for and challenges involved in creating the Maanboard.

1. Congratulations on being crowned the 2022 Honda Customs winner. Maanboard is truly a unique bike - why were you inspired by the look of 1930s Sand Racers?
2. Thank you, it was a really enjoyable experience and thank you to everybody who voted for us.

We were inspired by the sand racers of the 1930s for several reasons. The first was the context in which the bike was to be presented: in our imagination, Wheels and Waves is all about racing on sand at full throttle so being inspired by classic Sand Racers was almost inevitable.

The second was actually related to a technical issue. To achieve the line that we wanted, we needed to raise the rear of the bike a lot and also lower the front end by approx. 16cms.  As we wanted to use 19-inch tyres, this caused a space problem because the front wheel would touch the radiator. To avoid this, we used a springer fork that allowed us to move the front wheel forward, freeing up the space we needed, while also allowing us to lower the front end to get the line we wanted.

1. The candy blue colour is certainly eye-catching. Does this colour have any personal significance?
2. Initially the bike was to be red with gold leaf decorations. Our friend Ivan Motta sent us the candy blue colour as a test sample and we liked it a lot. We felt it really fitted with our inspiration as it recalled the sea and the waves. Because it’s a 'candy' colour, it changes depending on how the light touches the bike, a bit like what happens when the sun hits the sea.
3. Maanboard proudly wears the number 90 on the front and tail. Does the number mean anything specific?
4. The number 90 is taken from the ‘Kabbalah’ (an esoteric method, discipline and school of thought in Jewish mysticism) which translates to the word 'fear'.

Also to tie in with the custom scene, if you look closely, the number 90 on the bike is formed by the letters 'fear does'.  Of course, there were so many numbers that we could have used, but as riding flat out on the sand, without the front brake could best be described as ‘a bit scary’, the number 90 seemed appropriate.  

1. What was the hardest part of the build?
2. The most difficult part to build was the initial idea. Before we set to work, we looked at several Rebel-based designs and noticed that they all tended to emphasise its rising line towards the front.

To make the Maanboard really stand out, we decided to work in the opposite way - working on flattening the line as much as possible without changing the tank or cutting the frame.
Obviously, before building the custom parts there was a little anxiety within the team about how the final bike would look, but we trusted our sketches and our skills and evidently it worked. The rest of the build almost fell into place and all of us are really proud of the final vision. 

1. What part of the build are you most proud of?
2. The thing we are most proud of is that we were able to achieve a completely different line from the starting model without having to modify the frame, tank or the swingarm. The choice, which is more difficult than radically modifying the bike, is linked to the fact that we like to think that it can be an inspiration to hobbyists and amateur customisers, highlighting the very high potential of the Honda Rebel in terms of customisation, which, with very few and reversible modifications, can become a true laboratory for fantasy and customisation.

In addition to this, there are many details that make us proud because, for example, the sculpted saddle or the hand-painted or hand-beaten tail come close to the custom world while maintaining the racing soul that we have imbued into the bike.

ENDS