Stretched Honda MSX125 Grom gets a turbo and nitrous for Wheels and Waves comp

Renowned motorcycle builder and television personality Guy Willison has teamed up with custom trainer artist Matt B Customs to produce a radical one-off Honda MSX125 Grom for a competition at Wheels and Waves, complete with nitrous and a turbo charger.

The Biarritz motorcycle festival will play host to seven special builds from across Europe consisting of two Honda Dax’s, two Groms and three Monkeys – with Willison’s build called HOLD ON! representing the UK arm of the Japanese firm. Fans can vote for their favourite online, with a similar competition running last year based around the CMX500 Rebel cruiser.

“When I got the Grom I thought: ‘I’ve got to make it outrageous and beautifully, exquisitely built’.” Guy told MCN. “A lot of people make them look like mini Africa Twins and I nearly went down that route, but then I just happened to see a Japanese build of a drag-looking bike.

“I saw the stance of that, and I knew I had that fairing on the shelf in a box, and I thought that would look fantastic.”

The fairing being referred to was taken from a run of CB1000R naked specials built by Willison under his previous 5Four company name. Made of 16 layers of 0.3mm carbon fibre weave, there’s no headlight or indicators – helping to save weight on the drag strip.

The overall look of the bike is also said to have been conceived in the first hour of it arriving at the workshop, with the side panels beneath the riders’ seat now extended with number boards to fill some of the empty space now left thanks to the extended swingarm.

Matt B came on board further down the line to work on the paint alongside specialists Pro Kustom. Guy’s friend Jordan Bowen, who has been drag racing Honda Groms for almost a decade joined the team to fabricate the 6.25-inch extended braced swingarm, plumb in the single Garrett turbo and wire up the nitrous injection – taking the bike to an estimated 85bhp.

“It’s been such an unreal experience to explore and apply our art style to something crazy that isn’t shoes or accessories,” Matt B said. “Creating an illusion of the paint dripping off the bike. It’s turned out exactly how we wanted it!”

All seven bikes will be on display from Wednesday 21 June until Sunday 25 June, and fans can vote for HOLD ON! by heading to hondacustoms.com. Voting ends on Thursday, 31 August.

Turbo Honda Grom in detail:

• Shortened forks Much like the drag bike it’s been based on, the Grom’s upside down forks have been cut down by two inches – increasing spring load

• All in the mind Willison’s designs aren’t crafted using CAD, but created in his head before being designed with cardboard stencils

• Paint design The Matt B designed paint work involved around 20 stencils and included a painted element on the Core Motorcycle-designed leather seat. The paint was then applied by paint specialists, Pro Kustom.

• Famous faces Although Matt B doesn’t have a background in bikes, his shoe designs have been worn by the likes of Ed Sheeran, Ariana Grande, and Marcus Rashford

• Locked in Replacing the rear shock is a solid strut. The lack of swingarm movement then allowed for the pegs to be mounted further back on the arm itself