A Close Look at “The Daryl” From The Walking Dead

This Honda Nighthawk was purpose-built for Norman Reedus to slay walkers, but it’s actually an awesome ride.

Classified Moto has had a banner year. After building a bike for devoted client Norman Reedus—whom you know as Daryl Dixon in AMC’s The Walking Dead—Classified got their own role on the show as the builders of Daryl’s latest ride. Showrunner Scott Gimple approached the team with one request: a gnarly, post-apocalyptic bike that looked to be cobbled together from a bunch of found parts but could start, speed and stop perfectly and reliably. Oh, and for production purposes, make that two interchangeable bikes—with identical dents, scratches, rust and patina.


Undaunted, Classified, working with The Walking Dead’s prop-master, turned out a pair of zombie choppers. For a base, they chose two 750cc Honda Nighthawk’s from the nineties (anything Honda made in the nineties is (walking) dead reliable) and then swapped in a new front end from a Yamaha YZF-R6 with knobby Kenda Big Block tires that mark this as a bike that can handle zombie-torn roads. Though the tank and mud-guards are well-worn and rusty, between them sits a $1000 Progressive Suspension system; likewise, the rustic-looking, hand-sewn storage bag integrated into the frame was made possible through the use of a super-slim Shorai lithium-ion battery. The rack is custom designed to fit—of course—a cross-bow.

A fast, capable, well-made bike that looks like zombie-bitten chopper born and bred in a junkyard? That’s our kind of movie magic. 

Photos by Classified Moto