Nicky Hayden left a massive hole in the motorcycling world?and in all of our hearts?when he passed away unexpectedly in May last year. In a fitting tribute, the Kentucky Kid was inducted into the AMA Hall of Fame earlier this month.
To commemorate the occasion, the Hall of Fame Museum commissioned two tribute bikes from Chicago’s Analog Motorcycles. American Honda donated the motorcycles, including a CBR1000RR to be wrapped in Hayden?s Repsol MotoGP livery. But the direction of the second bike was left entirely up to Analog shop boss Tony Prust (below).

Most people know Nicky Hayden from his time in MotoGP and the Superbike World Championships. But longtime fans will remember that Nicky actually got his start in flat track racing.
?I chose to build a flat track bike,? Tony tells us, ?because that?s where Nicky’s roots were. I also wanted to remember his American racing heritage, so I chose the AMA 2002 Championship RC51 livery. The rest was about making all that happen, and not looking forced.?
Before he could execute his vision, Tony had to pick a donor. The AMA wanted the bike to be street legal, so the CRF250L and XR650L ended up on the short list. Then Honda announced the release of the CRF450L?but by then, Tony had already made up his mind.
?The 450 would have been fun,? he says, ?but I think the air-cooled XR650 fits the bill pretty well.?

The XR650L is a fantastic choice. It’s a close cousin to the desert-dominating XR650R, makes decent pow...