During the ongoing quarantine, I’ve decided to give the grom some love and makes some updates that were needed. I’ve owned this bike long enough that some of the original modifications I had done are starting to show their age, the biggest of which was the handlebars.
As documented on the catchup post, I had put on honda mini bars from Tusk. They were a cheap upgrade, being only $30 or so, but have held up great! However, and I mentioned this from the beginning, the control length of the bar is too short, so all the switches and lever perches were wedged together and there was little that could be done in terms of adjustment.
I could (and have) lived with this, thankfully the levers happen to kinda fall into the position I like. However, the other thing I wanted to do was clean the bike up. I wanted it to actually looked loved and as if it was just rolled off the showroom floor. Like a garage queen, but with the miles to prove otherwise. One of the things I tried to clean up but couldn’t was the state of the bar clamps. When I first got the bike, I had a standard keyring with all the other bike keys I have. It was bulky and after miles of jostling around, it left the bars and the bar clamps scratched and chipped. So it was time for new everything.
I originally looked at the standard sized CR High bend bars that Renthal and Protaper provide, but I always thought they looked too big for the grom. I did a bunch of google image searches and viewed several build threads with these bars on, and my thoughts changed, they looked just fine now. Plus, I have the same exact bars on my DRZ400 and YZ250, so I knew they would be a good fit ergonomically. In addition to the bars I got bar clamps to match. Needed these anyway because the oversize bars wouldn’t fit the stock 7/8 inch size.
In addition to the bars, I replaced the levers with some red MZS levers, which are basically the same no-name brands that I had on previously from eBay, and just as cheap. Also on eBay, I found a small spring to place over the clutch cable from the engine side. Someone on the forums mentioned this and how much it helped. I figured foe a few buck why not give it a try. To top it off, I got some red anodized control clamps. I’ll admit these were purely aesthetic, there was nothing wrong with the old ones, but that’s what happens when you’re a few dollars short of free shipping on your order.
These Protapers actually sit lower down than the old Tusk bars, I think it gives the bike an even better profile. As expected, the ergonomics are on point, the CR High bend is so comfortable. I also feel like I got even more cornering stability with the wider width. I thought these would cause an issue with lane splitting, but then I realized that I lane split on the DRZ, so of course it’ll be fine!
Now this bike is looking really fresh, lets see how long that lasts…
