The Best Mods Available For The Honda Grom

The popularity of the Grom, Honda's road-legal ankle biter, may astonish those accustomed to, well, normal-size bikes, but the craze is for real. About a year ago, I was visiting my in-laws and needed to get some time to myself, so I absconded to my favorite local bike dealership ("Sanctuary!" I cried). On my way there, traffic stopped at a busy downtown intersection when hundreds of minibikes—many of which were not even street legal—took over the roads, with riders excitedly pulling wheelies and giving high fives to confused drivers. The whole thing was a bit surreal, like if the Kentucky Derby was run on miniature ponies. By the time I made it to the dealership—a very fine establishment selling multiple lines of European and Japanese bikes—I was the only customer there and the showroom floor was overflowing with unsold machines.

While big bikes can come across as overly serious and can be relatively large investments, small machines like the Grom are all about easily accessible fun. In fact, if you'd like to dip your toes in the waters of tuning and modifying a motorcycle for performance, doing so on a Grom makes the whole thing seem unintimidating. Check out these bolt-on options for the Grom, and tell us if it doesn't make you want to break out the wrenches and see what you can get out of the little Honda.

Koso specializes in parts for small-displacement machines; its 170cc big-bore kit is a great example of the affordability of hopping-up a Grom. The kit includes a new ceramic-coated cylinder, 61mm forged piston, rings, pins, gasket kit, banjo bolts, and all the requisite hardware. Imagine the cost of all of that for a big bike. That's what we mean by accessible. If you're trying to increase the top speed of your Honda Grom from 62 mph, then this is the mod you need to install. The process makes it a great gateway into the larger bike world too.

This Öhlins rear shock is by no means inexpensive, but it is markedly cheaper than many big-bike equivalents. A fully adjustable rear shock will improve the Grom's handling in a big way.

Another piece of kit offered by Öhlins gives you everything you need to change out your fork internals, besides the oil. The fact that the Swedish suspension specialist makes parts for the Grom is further proof the minibike craze is upon us.

Putting Öhlins springs and a Yoshimura exhaust on a Grom is sort of like giving a child a Rolex, but at least the Grom can't grow up to be entitled and terrible, so go for it. This might bump up your top speed, if installed with the right fuel mapping, but don't count it. Typical Yosh looks and performance in miniature. Some would call this adorable.

Chimera is another company that has gotten in on the minibike craze and has developed this air intake specifically for maximizing the Grom's potential. The company claims its own intake system provides significant torque gains compared to the stock throttle body-mounted intake. It's fairly easy to install and looks trick.

Especially with pipe, intake, and bore mods, it's important to optimize fueling. The Power Commander V unit does the trick. Power Commander has eight options for fuel mapping, no matter what exhaust you end up putting on the Grom. If you're looking for top speed performance for your Honda Grom, then install this in conjunction with an exhaust and a big bore kit.

Get your knee down before the pegs scrape with these classic CNC-machined rearsets from Driven Racing, based in Chatsworth, California.

Improve clutch performance with top-shelf components from EBC. Kevlar-lined friction plates and stiffer springs should reduce clutch fade under serious abuse.

Stainless steel lines will improve power and feel of those mini Nissins.

A motorcycle is what you make of it, whether you keep it bone stock or completely customize it. The Grom is no different and begs to be modded.