On paper, one A 10-horsepower motorcycle with a 30-inch saddle height doesn’t sound very exciting. Still, the Honda Grom remains one of the funniest and most beloved motorcycles on the planet.
If you can’t understand why, stop reading now and give it a shot. It’s sure to bring more smiles than bikes that are twice its size (and price) at your local watering hole. Oh, and it’ll go for miles on just a little gas.
Honda updated the Grom last year with a host of upgrades and styling refreshes. The third generation Grom places an emphasis on customisation—with explicitly designed swappable body panels and a variety of graphical toolkits available straight from the factory.
That wasn’t enough for the mad scientists at Steady Garage. Run by Kevin Dunn, Jimmy Chen, Bahwee Suh and Duy Nguyen, the California shop specializes in custom mini motorcycles. That’s why Honda USA gave them a third-generation Grom and tasked them with unleashing its full potential.
Kevin told us: “Our vision for the project was to build something futuristic with a doomsday vibe. “A practical bike that can handle some crazy terrain and looks sturdy.”
Steady’s redesigned Grom is more than just a prime example of what can happen—it’s also a testament to how big the mini-motorcycle aftermarket really is. There’s a lot of customization out there, but there’s also a long list of pre-sale parts. So if you own your own Grom, take note.
Small bicycle parts specialist, chimera technique, feature-heavy. They have provided ram air intakes and a range of covers that adorn various parts of the engine. Steady also upgraded Grom’s clutch, with new discs and stiffer springs from SMR.
The one-to-two exhaust system is custom and ends with a pair of modified Yoshimura silencers.
Switching to Grom’s Running gear, Steady outfitted the front end with two kits from Racing Bros—one to lower the forks and the other to adjust them. At the rear is a handcrafted aluminum swingarm from Gcraft, connected to a Gears Racing shock absorber.
The wheels are particularly interesting. They are modular units fitted with offset centers and special pads, so that they are ‘deeper’ on the right hand side than on the left. Chimera Engineering has supplied the whole set — right down to the custom left rear brake mount, to keep the right sides of both wheels unobstructed.
Stabilize the front brake to the other side with a custom fork holder. The brake caliper is an Anchor, the rotor and the braid are from Galfer. Tires are Shinko Mobbers; all-terrain rubber for small wheels.
Other Chimera components include front and rear axles, swingarm pins, footpegs, and a full set of pegs and washers for Grom’s clear body panel mounting points. The headlight is a powerful Baja Designs LP9 unit, but the mounting plates, headlight visor and flush mount are, you guessed it, Chimera. The cockpit also features a Chimera clamp adapter plate, which matches the Woodcraft grips with Vans waffle clamps and ASV clutch levers.
The bodywork has also been heavily modified. The original fuel tank caps are one of the few remaining parts, but they’ve been treated with custom vented aluminum inserts. Steady built the new saddle and rear ring in stainless steel, while Rogelio’s Auto Upholstery treated to a stylish two-tone finish.
Also notable are Grom’s new triangular side panels. “They consist of more than 13 different sections on each side,” says Kevin. “It was a rather complex part that we designed and worked with Chimera Engineering to build the machine.”
The finish set includes the Steady Garage slide and carbon fiber fenders, which were made for the project by carbon detail specialists By Panem, in collaboration with RAU Engineering.
When it came time to paint Grom, Steady opted for Honda’s chic Sonic Gray Pearl color. No graphics, save for a few small Honda and Steady Garage logos. Instead, the team opted for a combination of contrasting finishes for the custom parts on the vehicle, to emphasize the quantity available.
It is clear that the Steady Garage team has gone to great lengths to pursue the perfection of a pint-sized motorcycle. If there’s a wilder custom Grom out there, we haven’t seen it yet.
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