The Red Dot awards have become a major fixture on the annual calendar, with the German design organisation handing out prizes to the best-designed products across a wide range of industries. This year’s awards included some big successes for biking.
First up is Honda, whose WN7 electric bike scooped a ‘Best of the Best’ award for its “sense of calm and power”. Judges liked its “combination of innovation and familiarity,” and said that “the WN7 signals a change in direction for the design of electrically powered motorcycles and demonstrates how the design principles of classic motorbikes can be translated into a new form.”
Yamaha MOTOROiD AI-powered prototypeAt the other end of the spectrum, Yamaha won a Red Dot award for its MOTOROiD: a concept machine that has absolutely no familiarity at all. It’s an AI-powered prototype that’s “designed to learn and evolve autonomously while showing the process of its growth.”
Away from the esoteric, Ducati, Suzuki and CFMoto earned plaudits for some much more everyday machines: the Monster naked roadster, GSX-S8T and TT retro café racers, and the new supersport 750 SR-S respectively, all three of which won Red Dot awards for their combination of style, technology, performance and design excellence.
It’s not just bikes which did well: there were three aftermarket winners in the 2026 awards too. SHAD took a gong for its new Terra range of adventure luggage and Brembo won an award for its TrackTribe app-based digital data and coaching platform for track riders.
Finally, communications specialist Cardo won a design award for its Beyond helmet, which features active noise cancelling and other high-tech features.
More information on the Red Dot awards at www.red-dot.org.