Of Course it is: Honda Grom 125 is Selling Like Hotcakes

Surprising absolutely no-one who was paying attention to what the cool kids were riding, Honda’s Grom 125 new-age monkey bike is sold out. The Grom is so hot right now that, not only have dealers sold out, there are waiting lists. In some cases, waiting lists 40 buyers deep, with many would-be buyers offering to pay more than Honda’s $2999 asking price – which is, itself, a bit more than what most 125 cc scooters currently go for.

As I said, this should surprise absolutely no-one.

When photos of the 2013 Honda Grom 125 first surfaced, I immediately lost my mind. I squee’d and squealed at the little bike, calling it “the most fun you can have without an overwhelming karmic retribution getting portioned out by the cosmos” and craving, desperately, to get my grubby little mitts on one.

Here we are, months later, and the closest I can come to riding a new Honda Grom 125 is sit in the waiting line with – well, probably not 40 other similarly-minded bike nutters. Hopefully not, anyway.

As for all those “no surprise” comments up there? It really shouldn’t come as any surprise that a bike like this is successful. Sure, it’s not a big-bore chopper or blistering sport-bike, but that’s stuff for old guys, anyway. Like, “baby boomer” old guys – and Honda gets that. “We need this market to grow,” says Bill Savino, manager of American Honda MC Press. “The boomers are going out. We need new riders coming in.”

Those new riders are buying scooters, small-bore sport bikes, and vintage UJMs – sometimes to cut into Cafe Racers, sometimes to restore, and sometimes just to ride. The big cruisers? The bullet-bikes? They’re cool, I guess. Maybe my dad will buy one.

As for Honda, they got the message loud and clear. At Huntington Beach Honda, owner Greg Guthrie sees a broad appeal for the little Grom 125 as a go-anywhere, traffic-carving super-fun machine that defies the various motorcycling stereotypes and cliques of my youth in the 90s and 00s. “Every day we have three or four people asking about it,” he explains. “I’ve been in the business 25 years, and I can’t remember a unit that has had a wider cross-section of buyers. There is no demographic for this bike. It’s everyone. That’s the demographic.”

Well said, Greg. Well said.

Source | Photos: LA Times | Honda.