GROM
GROM: Honda Mini Street X-Treme!
Back from Laos (January 2019), I was haunted by the desire of buying a motorcycle. Actually, the whole Laotian trip was planned so to decide whether I had to start riding. The outcome was very clear: I needed a motorcycle! While I was over there, I started looking for the perfect fit. It wasn’t easy since I never rode before anything with two weels and an engine and I was quite scared… someone whould say “prudent“, due to my age (I was 36)…
Yes, a 36 years old man looking for a motorcycle without any previous experience! And the height of 1,7 m didn’t help at all because I was terrified of not being able to maneuver it while seated at 0 km/h. Moreover, I had to stick with 125cc max in order to be allowed of riding it with my driving licence. Alternatively, I had to start immediately with the pursue of driving licence A, doing so I could have been able of buying something bigger (but again, I was “prudent“).
Laotian people and market did help me a lot because the market had to serve people mostly short, like me. In fact, there are a lot of Honda MSX 125 (GROM for friends) in Asia. I usually defined it as scooter-size motorcycle emphasizing on the “motorcycle” part.
Anyway, mid of January and my mind was clear already, I approached Honda Point dealer in Milan with one and only objective: buying an MSX. I did it, less then an hour and I was an happy MSX owner waiting for it to be delivered (honestly, I asked them to deliver it on March because, you can guess it already, I was “prudent” and I wanted to start riding with a forgiving weather).
March came quickly and I asked my friend Giovanni to ride home my “Motina” (little motorcycle in italian) because he is a biker and the dealer is quite far from my place with a lot of milanese traffic in the middle. Couple of days before the date, Giovanni told me his son was sick and that he correctly had to be with him. I interpreted that sign as: “You are the rightful owner of Motina, you have to ride it home!“. Ok, I asked my friend Fabio to escort me, defending my back from other cars. He accepted, YaY!
Despite the infinite times I let Motina’s engine turning off due to my inexperience with the clutch on my left hand, we arrived home safe and sound. From that day, I used it almost every single day till August with extreme satisfaction having also some excitement spikes like a safe riding stage on Triangolo Lariano (one of the most beautiful area for bikers in Italy) and a one day trip to Rimini on SS9 via Emilia.
Right now, Motina is sleeping without the battery in it, waiting for warmer days to come again!