#Grom

What happens when you shoehorn a Ducati 1198 Panigale R engine into a Honda Grom? It burns to the ground due to a leaky fuel line, and you begin again with a new Panigale and Grom. At least that’s what Mario Kleff has reportedly done. According to TodoCircuito, the Thai engineer is quite the mad scientist when it comes to motorcycles. Another project bike of Kleff’s is a Grom powered by a turbocharged 1198 Duc. The video below is the first test ride of the Gromigale R before meltdown. By following this link to TodoCircuito, you’ll see more videos and photos of the bike itself. Enjoy!

Our Project Honda Grom has put us through quite the whirlwind of emotions. If you’re not familiar with what I’m talking about, check out our Top 10 Honda Grom mods, build story, and especially our 24-hour race recap to get caught up. To take an incredibly long story and sum it up: our Honda Grom made great power (for a Grom anyway) but was plagued with atrocious handling. Simply put, it was one of the most frightening motorcycles we’ve ever ridden. The front end was unpredictable and far from confidence inspiring, though tedious tweaking from teammate and suspension guru Ed Sorbo helped make the bike rideable, at least.

To summarize: a back-to-stock Grom was only marginally slower than the race winner… Tells you how much good a pile of expensive aftermarket parts do.. Think twice before you modify your bike.. It’s unlikely you’re more qualified than 100 Japanese engineers..

I’m in trouble. I’m only two turns in at the inaugural UMRA 24-Hour endurance race at the Grange Motor Circuit aboard our Project Honda Grom and I’m already certain the bike is trying to kill me with its unpredictable front end. I’ve tucked the front twice, but somehow didn’t end up on my ass. As I complete the first lap, images of Gob Bluth from Arrested Development are flashing through my mind…

If you’ve been following Motorcycle.com lately, you’ll have noticed a recent Top 10 about Honda Grom modifications. The list, of course, was a teaser to a bigger event a few members of the MO team participated in: a 24-hour endurance race. We’ll get to that story in the coming weeks, but we’re getting ahead of ourselves here. Before we could ever race a Grom, we’d have to transform it from the little funster that it is in its stock condition into a dedicated kart-track destroyer.

Close MO readers will have figured out that, between the six-day Sport-Adventure-Touring ride and the actual publication of the shootout, we took a tricked out Grom and raced it for 24 hours in a UMRA event. I won’t step on Troy’s story about the event by giving away any specifics, but I will say it was… an adventure. This was my third 24-hour endurance race (You can read about my second 24-hour race here), and in the hours after each one, I vowed that I will never do anything this foolish ever again. Of course, over time, the itch returns, and hopefully, after an appropriate length of time for my family and myself to forget the pain associated with a 24-hour, I’ll get another opportunity to scratch… on the track… at night.

Here at MO we like riding slow bikes fast. Both Chief Editor Duke and contributor Gabe Ets-Hokin have written columns about it (read Duke’s here and Gabe’s here), but it’s a sentiment all of us on staff share. To prove it, I’ve signed up the entire staff, sans Tom (he’s got a press intro to attend. Ppfff), to come race with me in a 24-hour race on mini bikes, organized by the United Mini Racing Association. Our chariot that will hopefully lead us to glory (embarrassment, more likely)? None other than the hugely popular Honda Grom.

As the popularity of the Honda Grom has shown, people love small-displacement play bikes. The little funsters always seem to make grown riders act like kids. Maybe it’s the lack of power, tiny dimensions, or the fact you can have so much fun around town with them and never break the speed limit. Before the Grom came around, however, the Sachs MadAss was on the scene. In this week’s Church of MO feature, we travel back to 2010, and the Madass’ introduction. Resident scooter expert, Steve Guzman, fills us in on what makes the MadAss such an appealing motorcycle for those who understand big fun can come in small packages.

Honda can’t seem to keep enough Groms on dealership floors, and considering its $3,199 price tag, it’s easy to see why. For those in urban environments, college towns, or both, the Grom represents an extremely affordable way to blast through town on a fun and compact motorcycle. Its appeal widens even further when you take into account first-time riders who want to learn the fundamentals of two-wheeling on a motorcycle that isn’t the least bit intimidating.

Less than a decade ago, the motorcycle market was experiencing unbridled success. Manufacturers were updating their sportbikes every two years, and the cruiser market was blazing hot with riders who sought personal freedom via riffs on the V-Twin archetype. Motorcycles sold at unprecedented levels, especially to a baby boomer demographic that was absolutely flush with cash, credit, and/or home equity.

With 2014 just around the corner, it’s time to take a look back at the year that was and revisit the top news stories from the motorcycling world in 2013.

Last month, we showed you the RC-X Mini Vintage Racer, a heavily-modified Grom by Honda’s Thai affiliate that transformed the modern monkey bike into a Mike Hailwood-era grand prix racer.

When Honda introduced its new Grom, the little 125cc funster was heralded as the modern return of the classic Monkey Bike. One of the first reactions – likely immediately after “what the heck is a ‘Grom’?” – was “what the heck is a Monkey Bike?”

Motorcycle.com and GromForum.com have a new contest with a fantastic prize: a brand new 2014 Honda Grom.