Operation "Secret Santa". I Built My Wife a GROM.

*The Grom (aka ‘Lulu’) in all her glory!*

Most husbands buy their wives jewellery, perfume, or maybe a nice sweater for Christmas. I decided to go a different route. I bought a neglected Honda Grom that functioned better as a paperweight than a motorcycle!

But I had a vision - but more importantly, my wife had an earworm! She would not stop walking around the house singing Wiz Khalifa’s "Black and Yellow." After hearing "uh huh, you know what it is" for the four-hundredth time, the theme for this secret Christmas build was locked in!

‘Black and Yellow’ by Whiz Khalifa

Here is the story of how a neglected basket-case bike became my wife’s custom daily rider.

The Midnight Ninja Missions at Garage 50

If you want to pull off a motorcycle build as a surprise, you have to embrace the 007 double life. Every night in the lead up to Christmas, after the house went quiet and the lights went out, I would sneak out and head over to Garage 50. Do you know how hard it is to sneak back into bed at 2:00 AM smelling like degreaser without raising suspicions?

When I first bought this Grom on the back of my ute, the diagnosis was grim. I wasn’t just doing a cosmetic makeover; I had to perform a full-blown mechanical resurrection!

Phase 1: Chasing Gremlins and Paying the Blood Tax

Before I could make it look cool, I had to make it work.

The Electrical Nightmare: The previous owner had done a number on the wiring harness. I had to chase down shorts, splice in fresh, properly heat-shrunk wiring, and drop in a brand new battery to get Lulu’s heart beating again.
The Clutch Cable Realities: The clutch line was absolutely toast. I ripped it out and routed a brand new cable, meticulously adjusting the free-play at the lever and the actuator arm so she’d have a buttery smooth friction zone. No stalling at red lights on my watch (Side Note: any stalling that has/does and may occur is the result of the rider and not a direct reflection of my mechanical work).
The Blood Sacrifice: You haven't truly worked on a motorcycle until you’ve sacrificed a knuckle to the 10mm socket gods. When I said this build took blood, sweat, and hard work, I meant it literally. There’s my DNA somewhere on that engine block. I understand the amusement and fascination with small bikes — but these bikes are a nightmare to work on with man sized sausage fingers like mine!

Phase 2: The "Black and Yellow" Swagger

With the bike now up and running, it was time to address the fact that it looked awful. I wanted this thing to turn heads and perfectly match the Wiz Khalifa theme playing on loop in my wife’s brain.

Powder Over Paint: I stripped the rims and the side pegs and had them professionally powder-coated. Shout out to my powder-coating guys - they always deliver for me within 24 hours!
Gold and Carbon: To nail the aesthetic up top, I bolted on a set of aggressive golden levers. Then, I swapped out the notoriously uncomfortable stock foam for a custom-made carbon fibre seat from Thailand. It looks incredibly premium and saves her from the dreaded "Grom-butt" on longer rides - not to mention the dip helps with her flat-footing this bike (which was important to me from a safety perspective, given I do have strong feelings for this little gremlin).
The Drivetrain Bling: You can't do a "Black and Yellow" theme and leave a rusty, stretched-out stock chain on the sprockets. I tossed the old one and installed a heavy-duty gold chain to really make the drivetrain pop against the dark swingarm.
The Tail End Tidy-Up: The stock rear fender on a Grom looks like a plastic diving board. Installing a sleek tail tidy was mandatory to tuck the license plate and clean up the entire rear geometry. To finish off the back end with a proper tuner vibe, I installed a set of TST Industries spools. Not only do they look incredibly trick, but they also made getting the bike up on a rear stand a breeze for the rest of the build.

Phase 3: Stage 2 Power

You can’t build a custom bike and leave the engine sounding like a sewing machine. I wanted to give her a full Stage 2 custom build, which means addressing the airflow in and out of the engine.

I ripped out the restrictive stock airbox and replaced it with a high-flow air intake so the engine could actually breathe. But the crown jewel of the performance upgrades is the Yoshimura RS-9T Full Racing Exhaust System.

Geek note for the builders: When you dramatically increase airflow with an intake and a free-flowing Yoshi pipe, the bike will run dangerously lean. Getting the air-to-fuel ratio dialed in for this Stage 2 setup ensures the bike doesn't just sound like an angry hornet, but actually pulls hard and reliably through the rev range.

Garage 50’s Favorite Pocket Rocket!

The Ultimate Christmas Morning

Christmas morning arrived! The exhausted nights, the panic of hiding parts, and the band-aids all culminated in rolling this black and yellow beast into the garage. She lost her mind!!

But honestly? The reveal wasn't even the best part.

The best part of this build is right now. She gears up and rides this Grom every single day. Seeing her tear down the street on a machine I built from the ground up, knowing how much she appreciates it, cleans it and brags about it to her friends and colleagues is the greatest feeling in the world!

Every busted knuckle totally paid off. Happy wife, happy life, right?