Joined
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99 Posts
My thoughts/reviews/recommendations/observations from my now 2,500 miles on the Grom!
(NOTE: ADDED pictures of Koso DB-03R gauge and Custom LED Taillight on page 5!!)
(NOTE: ADDED pictures of Dual Hotlap Exhaust system on page 4!!)
(NOTE: ADDED pictures of front sprocket cover on page 3!!)
(NOTE: ADDED pictures and UPDATES on Rearsets and levers on page 3!!)
Updated pic of my whip as of October 21, 2014:
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(NOTE: ADDED pictures and UPDATES on MNNTHBX exhaust on Page 2!!)
(NOTE: ADDED a few pictures to First Post, UPDATES on seat shave, gel insert, HT Moto cover, YSS shock, and Composimo Lowering Link on PAGE 2!!!)
I’ve been slowly creating a list of notes/thoughts/reviews/recommendations/observations on the parts/mods i have tried out during my first 1,000 miles on my Grom. I’ve already learned a ton from this forum and I would like to try and repay the favor if i can. Hopefully some of this can be helpful to a few people. I want to say I am no expert, so take the following for what it is, brief comments about my experiences thusfar, not at all a professional review or anything of the sort. I tend to get long winded sometimes, so I’ll add a “Short version” at the bottom of each if you just want to read that instead.
Wanted to add this picture to this thread cause it always makes me laugh and everyone can relate i'm sure...
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- Gas - I run ethanol free 87 gas in my grom. When I bought the bike, guy said he was running premium in it. First time I filled it up I used the 87 and never noticed a change of any sort from the premium. It comes right out the same gas can I use on all my lawn equipment. I have 2 stores within a mile of my house each way that sell it, so it's also the most convenient. She seems to like it so have no reason to change.
(Short version: Ethanol free 87 gasoline works fine, no noticeable difference when running the good stuff)
- Intake/Filter - Some sort of intake/high flow filter is a must on this bike, makes a night and day difference and can be done for really cheap if you are creative. Bike has a much deeper growl now and makes the ride more enjoyable for me. I actually have mine rigged up with a radiator hose as an intake with a K&N that sits inside the airbox with the cover still on so the bike still has a stock look to it. I relocated the sensor onto the radiator hose and also used washers to space out the airbox .250” or so to allow more flow. I’ll post some pics when I do a build thread. One more thing, the K&N makes a “whistling” sound when pulling air thru, it’s not extremely loud but I could see it bothering some people.
(Short version: Intake and K&N make a world of difference and everyone should do it)
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- Exhaust - Going from the Tyga slip on with stock header to the full Tyga system surprisingly caused me to lose a bit of acceleration on the low end but once you get to midrange all the way to the top it is much better and feels "stronger" getting there. Sound was also significantly louder. This exhaust system has a great sound as a whole, I like how loud it is and the clean tone it produces.
On the flip side, two issues i have with this header - 1) it runs directly under the oil drain plug which doesn't allow enough space to fit even a tiny socket wrench, so either you can use an open wrench to change your oil each time or remove the 1st section of the header every time. Not sure if other brands of pipes do the same thing, but it's a slight inconvenience 2) The tab on the 2nd section that is supposed to bolt on to the stock location did not line up correctly (wasn't even close, a good .100" off). I ended up just bending the tab down 90 deg and making a small L bracket to connect the two which worked out fine and doesn’t even look out of place.
I got the header from a forum member for way cheaper than list price so I wasn't going to complain, but had i paid full price i would’ve expected better for sure. Even with those issues, I like this pipe, it looks pretty good and was cheap so it's alright with me.
(Short version: My Tyga Full Exhaust system has its flaws but the performance, sound, looks, and cheap price i paid make it well worth it)
(Note: Swapped on the Tyga Exhaust for a MNNTHBX, pics and review on Page 2!)
Kind of an older pic of my bike but you can see the L bracket I'm talking about and it's a decent shot of the exhaust:
![]()
- Sprocket - 14t sprocket is a drastic change from the stock 15t, from my experience with it so far, it would seem that people with either love the 14t or absolutely hate it. With the 14t, your RPMs will be high, and i mean real high all the time. 1st and 2nd gear become nearly useless and even 3rd will only get you to 30 mph or so before you are hitting 8000 rpms. With the 15t, riding in mostly slow traffic is much more comfortable because u can actually use 2nd and 3rd gear to cruise a bit and not feel like you always have to be in 4th. The real benefit of the 14t to me is once i get to about 45 mph, the bike pulls what seems to be twice as hard as with the 15t all the way to top speed and gets there much quicker. I lost no top end installing the 14t and actually might have gained 1 or 2 mph oddly enough. With the 14t, the speedo will be off as others have mentioned. It doesn’t bother me at all but some hate it. Wide open I’ll see an indicated 73 mph as it hits the rev limiter and my gps shows it to actually be 69 mph. So if it’s 4 mph off on the top end I would think its 2-3 mph off at lower speeds. Some are even running a 13t, but I don’t even feel the need to try one out, the revs are high enough with the 14t and I would assume the 13t would be much worse.
(Short version: My opinion is, if you are doing most of your riding in the high-mid range of 40 to 55ish, i would run the 14t. If you sit in high traffic and are slow moving most of the time, i would stick with the stock 15t.
- Blinkers/Flasher - I already did a thread on my flasher/LED blinker install, found here: (http://www.hondagrom.net/forums/12-...front-leds-rear-leds-elfr-1-flasher-info.html ), but i'll just add a quick bit here. The ELFR-1 flasher is expensive as hell but worked with no extra resistors or anything and paying for convenience was worth it for me. The LED flush mount front blinkers definitely make it a bit harder to see from in front of you, but they look so much better and still function decent. The front and rear LED blinkers are both average during the middle of the day with sun shining directly on them, the use of hand signals is wise, but at night they are both super bright and they were pretty cheap so i'm happy with them.
(Short version: LED flush mount front blinkers and LED rear blinkers are cheap and get the job done. They are much better at night than during the day.)
![]()
- H4 headlight - This light is brighter than stock like it should be being a much higher wattage but also has its downsides. When my bike is idling, the light is a bit dim and affects the panel (Neutral light and others lightly flicker at times) but once you get the RPMs up even a little (3000+ or so) it gets much brighter and everything else is fine. I've only had it for a month or so and have not had any issues with battery draining, i'll continue to monitor it to make sure, but so far so good.
(Short version: H4 headlight upgrade is brighter but does seem to put a little strain on battery. Because of the improved visibility it's a solid cheap upgrade for now.)
Pic stolen from another thread to show everyone the bulb part number:
![]()
- Oil - Bike had Honda G4 oil in it when i got it. Immediately did an oil change right after i bought it, went with some basic Valvoline 4 stroke. I actually felt like the Valvoline made the shifts feel more 'crisp' or clean, i was quite impressed. About a week ago, I had put right at about 1,000 miles on that Valvoline oil, so i wanted to do another oil change to experiment with a different type of oil. I tried some Mobil 1 syn after reading a whole bunch of material on syn vs regular oil (everyone has different opinions..) Well my opinion was that the Mobil 1 was terrible. First day it was in my bike my clutch slipped for the first time since i purchased it. I also felt as if the shifts felt much harder, as in it would 'slam' into gear each time. Problems continued so after 2 days I went to Autozone and bought some plain ole Castrol 4 stroke regular oil and everything went back to normal. Out of the 3 (Castrol 4 stroke, Valvoline 4 stroke, Mobil 1 syn) my bike seems to prefer the Castrol, shifts are smooth, not missing gears, no problems thus far and for 4 bucks a quart i'll gladly continue to use it.
(Short version: Cheap ass Castrol 4 stroke oil is currently my oil of choice, Mobil 1 had worst results of any oil I have tried.)
![]()
- Throttle/Clutch/Chain - Did a quick tune up the other day and adjusted the play in the throttle, clutch, and chain to the manuals specified ranges. To me the chain seems a bit too loose in that range, but the throttle and clutch did feel much better though. The clutch engages a lot sooner now rather than almost all the way out like when I first got the bike. When I went to adjust my throttle cable, the nut seemed way too loose, that could explain why I had an insane amount of play in the throttle beforehand. I adjusted and tightened it up and now it feels better. No big changes from any of this, but it’s worth checking these things every once in a while and keeping them in the ranges set by the manual seem to be alright. Of course personal preference plays a part in the throttle/clutch adjustments..
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- Rear Brake – I was in the same boat as a lot of folks saying the rear brake was a bit lacking. I adjusted the rear brake lever to sit up a little higher and it made a difference. I don’t have to mash it all the way to the ground like before to stop. I’m sure we will have tons of options for rotors and rear setups in the future, but the stock setup will do the trick for now.
(Short version: Adjusting rear brake lever to a higher level made it a little less work to stop.)
![]()
- I haven’t messed with controllers or tuning this bike in any way nor would i know where to start. Resetting the ECU seemed to be sufficient enough for the little mods I’ve done so far, so I’ve had no desire to take the tuning any further at the moment. So if i decide to big bore one day, or do some more extensive mods besides sprockets, intake, and exhaust, i'll be reaching out to all you experts here to figure it all out!
- This site has a bunch of good information, if you don’t have it bookmarked, you should. This is where I found out how to reset the ECU and a few other useful bits of info. ( Installation & Info - Inveniam Performance )
If you somehow made it all the way thru this mess, hope you got something useful out of it. I love this bike and I’m learning more about it everyday. Im saving so much on gas money (which gets dumped right back into my bike!) and having a blast everyday. Despite a few things here and there, i've formed the opinion that Honda pretty much knocked it out the park with the Grom.
That’s all I can think of for now, looking forward to hearing any feedback, thoughts, or ideas anyone has regarding any of the topics above.
(NOTE: ADDED pictures of Koso DB-03R gauge and Custom LED Taillight on page 5!!)
(NOTE: ADDED pictures of Dual Hotlap Exhaust system on page 4!!)
(NOTE: ADDED pictures of front sprocket cover on page 3!!)
(NOTE: ADDED pictures and UPDATES on Rearsets and levers on page 3!!)
Updated pic of my whip as of October 21, 2014:
(NOTE: ADDED pictures and UPDATES on MNNTHBX exhaust on Page 2!!)
(NOTE: ADDED a few pictures to First Post, UPDATES on seat shave, gel insert, HT Moto cover, YSS shock, and Composimo Lowering Link on PAGE 2!!!)
I’ve been slowly creating a list of notes/thoughts/reviews/recommendations/observations on the parts/mods i have tried out during my first 1,000 miles on my Grom. I’ve already learned a ton from this forum and I would like to try and repay the favor if i can. Hopefully some of this can be helpful to a few people. I want to say I am no expert, so take the following for what it is, brief comments about my experiences thusfar, not at all a professional review or anything of the sort. I tend to get long winded sometimes, so I’ll add a “Short version” at the bottom of each if you just want to read that instead.
Wanted to add this picture to this thread cause it always makes me laugh and everyone can relate i'm sure...
- Gas - I run ethanol free 87 gas in my grom. When I bought the bike, guy said he was running premium in it. First time I filled it up I used the 87 and never noticed a change of any sort from the premium. It comes right out the same gas can I use on all my lawn equipment. I have 2 stores within a mile of my house each way that sell it, so it's also the most convenient. She seems to like it so have no reason to change.
(Short version: Ethanol free 87 gasoline works fine, no noticeable difference when running the good stuff)
- Intake/Filter - Some sort of intake/high flow filter is a must on this bike, makes a night and day difference and can be done for really cheap if you are creative. Bike has a much deeper growl now and makes the ride more enjoyable for me. I actually have mine rigged up with a radiator hose as an intake with a K&N that sits inside the airbox with the cover still on so the bike still has a stock look to it. I relocated the sensor onto the radiator hose and also used washers to space out the airbox .250” or so to allow more flow. I’ll post some pics when I do a build thread. One more thing, the K&N makes a “whistling” sound when pulling air thru, it’s not extremely loud but I could see it bothering some people.
(Short version: Intake and K&N make a world of difference and everyone should do it)
- Exhaust - Going from the Tyga slip on with stock header to the full Tyga system surprisingly caused me to lose a bit of acceleration on the low end but once you get to midrange all the way to the top it is much better and feels "stronger" getting there. Sound was also significantly louder. This exhaust system has a great sound as a whole, I like how loud it is and the clean tone it produces.
On the flip side, two issues i have with this header - 1) it runs directly under the oil drain plug which doesn't allow enough space to fit even a tiny socket wrench, so either you can use an open wrench to change your oil each time or remove the 1st section of the header every time. Not sure if other brands of pipes do the same thing, but it's a slight inconvenience 2) The tab on the 2nd section that is supposed to bolt on to the stock location did not line up correctly (wasn't even close, a good .100" off). I ended up just bending the tab down 90 deg and making a small L bracket to connect the two which worked out fine and doesn’t even look out of place.
I got the header from a forum member for way cheaper than list price so I wasn't going to complain, but had i paid full price i would’ve expected better for sure. Even with those issues, I like this pipe, it looks pretty good and was cheap so it's alright with me.
(Short version: My Tyga Full Exhaust system has its flaws but the performance, sound, looks, and cheap price i paid make it well worth it)
(Note: Swapped on the Tyga Exhaust for a MNNTHBX, pics and review on Page 2!)
Kind of an older pic of my bike but you can see the L bracket I'm talking about and it's a decent shot of the exhaust:
- Sprocket - 14t sprocket is a drastic change from the stock 15t, from my experience with it so far, it would seem that people with either love the 14t or absolutely hate it. With the 14t, your RPMs will be high, and i mean real high all the time. 1st and 2nd gear become nearly useless and even 3rd will only get you to 30 mph or so before you are hitting 8000 rpms. With the 15t, riding in mostly slow traffic is much more comfortable because u can actually use 2nd and 3rd gear to cruise a bit and not feel like you always have to be in 4th. The real benefit of the 14t to me is once i get to about 45 mph, the bike pulls what seems to be twice as hard as with the 15t all the way to top speed and gets there much quicker. I lost no top end installing the 14t and actually might have gained 1 or 2 mph oddly enough. With the 14t, the speedo will be off as others have mentioned. It doesn’t bother me at all but some hate it. Wide open I’ll see an indicated 73 mph as it hits the rev limiter and my gps shows it to actually be 69 mph. So if it’s 4 mph off on the top end I would think its 2-3 mph off at lower speeds. Some are even running a 13t, but I don’t even feel the need to try one out, the revs are high enough with the 14t and I would assume the 13t would be much worse.
(Short version: My opinion is, if you are doing most of your riding in the high-mid range of 40 to 55ish, i would run the 14t. If you sit in high traffic and are slow moving most of the time, i would stick with the stock 15t.
- Blinkers/Flasher - I already did a thread on my flasher/LED blinker install, found here: (http://www.hondagrom.net/forums/12-...front-leds-rear-leds-elfr-1-flasher-info.html ), but i'll just add a quick bit here. The ELFR-1 flasher is expensive as hell but worked with no extra resistors or anything and paying for convenience was worth it for me. The LED flush mount front blinkers definitely make it a bit harder to see from in front of you, but they look so much better and still function decent. The front and rear LED blinkers are both average during the middle of the day with sun shining directly on them, the use of hand signals is wise, but at night they are both super bright and they were pretty cheap so i'm happy with them.
(Short version: LED flush mount front blinkers and LED rear blinkers are cheap and get the job done. They are much better at night than during the day.)
- H4 headlight - This light is brighter than stock like it should be being a much higher wattage but also has its downsides. When my bike is idling, the light is a bit dim and affects the panel (Neutral light and others lightly flicker at times) but once you get the RPMs up even a little (3000+ or so) it gets much brighter and everything else is fine. I've only had it for a month or so and have not had any issues with battery draining, i'll continue to monitor it to make sure, but so far so good.
(Short version: H4 headlight upgrade is brighter but does seem to put a little strain on battery. Because of the improved visibility it's a solid cheap upgrade for now.)
Pic stolen from another thread to show everyone the bulb part number:
- Oil - Bike had Honda G4 oil in it when i got it. Immediately did an oil change right after i bought it, went with some basic Valvoline 4 stroke. I actually felt like the Valvoline made the shifts feel more 'crisp' or clean, i was quite impressed. About a week ago, I had put right at about 1,000 miles on that Valvoline oil, so i wanted to do another oil change to experiment with a different type of oil. I tried some Mobil 1 syn after reading a whole bunch of material on syn vs regular oil (everyone has different opinions..) Well my opinion was that the Mobil 1 was terrible. First day it was in my bike my clutch slipped for the first time since i purchased it. I also felt as if the shifts felt much harder, as in it would 'slam' into gear each time. Problems continued so after 2 days I went to Autozone and bought some plain ole Castrol 4 stroke regular oil and everything went back to normal. Out of the 3 (Castrol 4 stroke, Valvoline 4 stroke, Mobil 1 syn) my bike seems to prefer the Castrol, shifts are smooth, not missing gears, no problems thus far and for 4 bucks a quart i'll gladly continue to use it.
(Short version: Cheap ass Castrol 4 stroke oil is currently my oil of choice, Mobil 1 had worst results of any oil I have tried.)
- Throttle/Clutch/Chain - Did a quick tune up the other day and adjusted the play in the throttle, clutch, and chain to the manuals specified ranges. To me the chain seems a bit too loose in that range, but the throttle and clutch did feel much better though. The clutch engages a lot sooner now rather than almost all the way out like when I first got the bike. When I went to adjust my throttle cable, the nut seemed way too loose, that could explain why I had an insane amount of play in the throttle beforehand. I adjusted and tightened it up and now it feels better. No big changes from any of this, but it’s worth checking these things every once in a while and keeping them in the ranges set by the manual seem to be alright. Of course personal preference plays a part in the throttle/clutch adjustments..
- Rear Brake – I was in the same boat as a lot of folks saying the rear brake was a bit lacking. I adjusted the rear brake lever to sit up a little higher and it made a difference. I don’t have to mash it all the way to the ground like before to stop. I’m sure we will have tons of options for rotors and rear setups in the future, but the stock setup will do the trick for now.
(Short version: Adjusting rear brake lever to a higher level made it a little less work to stop.)
- I haven’t messed with controllers or tuning this bike in any way nor would i know where to start. Resetting the ECU seemed to be sufficient enough for the little mods I’ve done so far, so I’ve had no desire to take the tuning any further at the moment. So if i decide to big bore one day, or do some more extensive mods besides sprockets, intake, and exhaust, i'll be reaching out to all you experts here to figure it all out!
- This site has a bunch of good information, if you don’t have it bookmarked, you should. This is where I found out how to reset the ECU and a few other useful bits of info. ( Installation & Info - Inveniam Performance )
If you somehow made it all the way thru this mess, hope you got something useful out of it. I love this bike and I’m learning more about it everyday. Im saving so much on gas money (which gets dumped right back into my bike!) and having a blast everyday. Despite a few things here and there, i've formed the opinion that Honda pretty much knocked it out the park with the Grom.
That’s all I can think of for now, looking forward to hearing any feedback, thoughts, or ideas anyone has regarding any of the topics above.
