THE NEW ERA

We’re huge fans of the new Honda Dax 125, especially because Honda stayed true to the spirit of the original Dax AKA Trail 70 / CT70 by retaining the iconic unibody frame-and-body construction. For this project, our goal was to work with major components that would elevate the build while preserving its originality. At the same time, we wanted to channel the energy of the early Japanese Mini Moto custom era, where the philosophy was to go all-out, leaving no part of the chassis untouched. From the lowered stance to the tight, narrow handlebars and countless custom details, we set out to capture that spirit with a cleaner, more modern twist.

JDM FUNK

When it comes down to mini-moto styles, Japan started it all! The narrow positioned handlebar looks funky, but feels good. To keep it true to the classic style, we worked with Chimera Engineering to build a custom handlebar adapter that would allow us to mount custom stainless steel handlebars that brought back the original folding feature from the classic CT70's. But turning the knobs to remove the bolt, it would allow the handlebar to slip forward and fold downwards, making it easier to fit into low storage areas.

We spent weeks brainstorming, sketching, and filling our design board with ideas. The initial plan was to build two Dax 125s, but we put the second on hold so we could focus on completing the first in time for the launch with Honda. Once our concepts were finalized, the green light came from Honda, and the project officially kicked off. From there, we reached out to our friends at Vance & Hines, SMR Factory, Gears Racing, G-Craft, Chimera Engineering, and Kenda Tires to share our vision and bring them on board for this exciting collaboration.

The original Honda emblem was replaced with the Chimera Engineering CNC billet "Honda" logo in kanji characters.

We custom built a storage box that house the seat release latch and allows for small items to be stowed in there, such as a small tool bag, spark plugs, and pocket items.

We wanted to build a super cool exhaust that looked wild. After showing V&H the concept, they knew they had a lot of work to do! It's hard to bring a 2D sketch to life as there are many profiles and dimensions that need to be taken into consideration, but our designer Duy took charge of rendering how to route the header pipe.

G-Craft has built a strong reputation across Asia for their beautifully crafted swingarms, hand-made in Japan and trusted by countless Mini Moto enthusiasts. For the Otto Dax, it only made sense to incorporate one of their masterpieces. Built from their signature triple square tubing, we requested an added under-brace to deliver extra strength, stability, and of course, a touch of badass-ness.

The OEM seat although comfortable, was too tall and too large for this project. We asked our good Roger at Rogelio's Auto Upholstery to help us with the task of getting the seat perfect. We fabricated a full aluminum seat pan, where we Frenched in the custom tail light to give it a smooth and seamless look. Roger took seat pan afterwards and worked his magic on it. After hours and hours of shaping the foam, he was able to get it to the profile that matched our rendering and wrapped it with black vinyl fabric and yellow stitching in the tuck n roll pattern.

The chassis was completely sand blasted to strip it down to the bare metal and it was powder coated in a classic green color. The front fender was brought to life from a 3D model by John from Detailed by Panem, which this fender design is shared with the MavenGrom project as well. The handlebars are custom bent and welded from stainless steel and polished to the final finish. We wanted the position of the handlebar to match the custom 4 mini look blending a little bit of chopper and bozo style into it. Chimera Engineering made the handlebar conversion block and this one was the prototype unit. It retains the folding function similar to the classic Dax, which makes loading Otto Dax into a low space super easy.

The original Dax came equipped with classic 3-piece wheels, made up of two rim hoops and a center section. For our build, we wanted to honor that heritage by keeping the iconic 4-spoke design, but with our own modern flare. We incorporated the styling into Chimera Engineering’s modular wheel centers and paired them with their rim hoops, sizing them to 12x5 in the rear and 12x4 up front. The 4-spoke layout not only nods to the original design but also ties in perfectly with the Dax’s namesake—the four short legs of a Dachshund. Wrapped with Kenda Kwik KD2 tires, which are practically street legal race slicks. Their minimal, clean tread pattern and rounded race profile complements the custom classic JDM aesthetic perfectly.

When it comes to suspension, Gears Racing is second to none. Their products embody quality in every aspect, manufacturing, performance, design, and even down to the packaging, attention to detail is everything. For the Otto Dax, we wanted a lowered suspension setup that not only looked right but also delivered when pushed.

Up front, we’re running Gears Racing’s FFC-200TT full fork cartridges technology you’d typically see on race bikes. They feature complete adjustability for compression, rebound, and spring preload, all ingeniously engineered into compact 31mm I.D. stanchions. Out back, the Extra-Volume (EV) rear shocks provide tunable rebound, spring preload, and ride height adjustment, giving us the perfect balance of style, comfort, and performance.