There’s an undeniable appeal to the Honda Grom and other little bikes like it – the Kawasaki Z125, Kymco K-Pipe 125, SSR Razkull, and Benelli TnT135 come to mind. All of these little tikes offer silly amounts of fun for a relatively small ding to your wallet. Of course, gearheads being gearheads, we can’t leave well enough alone, and it was only a matter of time before the aftermarket had gone crazy modifying these things. It’s madness to see this little 125cc, two-valve Single, meant for simple mass transit especially in the Asian market, get transformed to fire-breathing racers with five-speed transmissions and carbon fiber wheels costing more than the bike itself! We’ve even seen some making double their stock 10-ish horsepower! Imagine taking your bike and bolting on twice the power.
If you’re one of those serious about making your Grom better than the rest, we’ve gathered 10 must-have items to give your Grom the edge.
10. Sprockets
While sprockets don’t add any power to your bike, having the ability to tailor the power application more to your liking via gearing changes can really transform any bike. This is especially true when you have as many fingers as you do horsepower. Changing the gearing via larger or smaller sprockets can either help you reach a higher top speed or help you accelerate quicker. Many times, aftermarket sprockets are made from lightweight aluminum rather than the heavy steel of the stockers, significantly reducing both unsprung and rotating mass. If you don’t know what that means or why it’s important, just know it’ll help your bike in most all performance applications. Vortex makes a wide variety of sprockets to fit the Grom.
9. Rearsets
Once you start getting serious with Grom performance – especially if you plan on going to racetracks – you’ll soon discover the stock pegs will drag on the floor very quickly. Luckily, there’s a solution to that: aftermarket rearsets. As the name implies, these pegs place your feet slightly higher and a little more rear set. The result is less chance of dragging pegs or boots on the ground at lean. If you’re really racy, some offer the ability to reverse the shift pattern, so first gear is up and the rest are down – just like the MotoGP guys. Lastly, rearsets also have a side benefit of looking cool, too. Several different companies make rearsets for the Grom. This is just one example.
8. SS Brake Lines
Lots of people focus on going fast and forget about other crucial aspects of performance… like stopping. In the case of the Grom, the stock rubber lines are fine for a trip down to the coffee shop, but they start to feel real spongy when you’re riding hard. Steel braided lines solve that problem by not expanding (like a rubber line) when the brakes are applied. The end result is a much firmer feel at the lever. Like the rearsets, steel braided brake lines are widely available from a large number of retailers and companies.
7. Sintered brake pads
Of course, there’s more to stopping a motorcycle than brake lines. A more aggressive pair of brake pads, particularly those of the sintered variety, will go a long way in transforming the braking characteristics of your Grom. Sintered pads will have metal particles embedded within the pad material for more bite when you pull the lever. The tradeoff to the stronger bite is quicker pad wear, but replacement pads are cheap and easy to swap out, so there’s really no reason not to upgrade your pads. EBC is a trusted name, if you’re looking for a specific example.
6. Bigger rotor
If you really want to get serious about scrubbing speed on your Grom, then the above mentioned lines and pads should get paired up with a larger rotor. The stock 220mm disc is actually fairly adequate for most people and most situations, but if “good enough” won’t do, this EBC rotor kit delivers a 240mm disc and an adapter bracket to relocate the brake caliper accordingly. The result, we’re told, is insane stopping ability likely beyond what any Honda engineer ever imagined for this little bike.
5. Suspension
No comments:
Post a Comment