Keith Addison wrote:
Anyone want a containerful of pocket bikes? If you're in the US you
won't be doing much good for the balance of trade, so to speak, but on
the other hand 138 people will be using a lot less fuel so China can
have it instead. - K
Not really. Buncha fat little kids in serious need of exercise roaring
up and down my street on smelly loud two-strokes for entertainment
hasn't exactly endeared them to me.
Here's what the NY Times had to say a couple of weeks back.
jh
A Big Load of Zip and Noise for Just 50 Pounds of Bike
By ROBERT JOHNSON
Published: July 10, 2005
SPEEDY, high-styled and low-slung, the minimotorcycles known as pocket
rockets are hot sellers. But along with these bikes, most of them
imports, have come complaints about safety and quality that have caught
the attention of many police departments and lawmakers around the nation.
Typically priced at $200 to $500 and with engines whose intense whine
would endear them to the Wild One, the machines are miniature versions
of brawnier bikes that cost many thousands of dollars. That is a
combination that many consumers find irresistible.
"They make you think, 'Where were these when I was a kid?' " said Greg
McLendon, 38, a maintenance worker in Las Vegas who has bought pocket
rockets for his sons, Tyler, 11, and Austin, 8. He allows them to ride
only on a private commercial track under adult supervision.
Pocket rockets are gaining a reputation as the skateboards of the new
millennium, but they have their critics, including many police officers,
who consider them a hazard, regardless of whether they are ridden
legally. "These things are some of the most fun you can have, but the
sales are running ahead of parks and tracks where they can be ridden
legally," said David Edwards, editor of Cycle World magazine in Newport
Beach, Calif. "It isn't realistic to let people buy these and expect
them to just ride in their driveways."
Why would riders feel restricted? Because pocket rockets fail to meet
the minimum safety standards to be driven on many American roadways.
Although state laws vary, the minis usually fall short of lighting and
other safety standards. And the off-road options are limited: pocket
rockets, with their small tires and low chassis, are not all-terrain
vehicles fit for trails or the woods.
The American market for the minimotorcycles is small, considering that
roughly one million full-size motorcycles are sold annually. Precise
figures are not available, but the industry estimates that some 25,000
pocket rockets, mostly Chinese imports, have been bought in the United
States since the late 1990's.
The bikes, usually powered by gasoline engines similar to those in
lawnmowers, have a top speed of about 35 miles an hour, but they can be
modified to go faster. The most popular ones weigh as little as 50
pounds, though larger ones can weigh closer to 100.
Quality can be spotty. "You really need to be mechanical if you're going
to own one," said Sherman Smith, owner of the Multi Gear Bike and Sport
shop in Riverview, Fla. "Most of the nuts and bolts practically vibrate
right off the chassis during a ride." He still sells them, he said,
because his profit margins from repairing them are so good. He buys
various brands on the Internet from California-based importers. "But the
brands are basically just different decals that someone puts on them,"
he said.
The pocket-rocket makers themselves, of course, beg to differ. The
Suzhou Ufree Sports Vehicle Manufacture Company, in Jiangsu, China, does
offer to manufacture bikes that importers can sell under their own brand
names, but says the quality of all bikes it makes is consistently
excellent. The Yongkang City Bosuer Vehicle Company, based in Zhejiang
province, promotes its "perfect quality assurance system" on its Web
site and adds that "winning customers with reputation is our basic
strategy."
Although some familiar names are available in the pocket-rocket market,
they may not be what they seem. Ufree makes a bike called the Mini
Harley. The wholesale price is just $142.50. But a Harley-Davidson
spokesman in Milwaukee, Bob Klein, said his company had not licensed the
product.
Some models have at least a tenuous connection to their bigger brethren.
For example, an electric-powered Honda minibike is being sold at some
auto parts stores in the United States for $180. Lee Edmunds, a
spokesman for American Honda Motor's motorcycle division in Torrance,
Calif., said his company licensed them a few years ago to a foreign
manufacturer he didn't identify. "It's really more of a toy," he said,
"not in the same league as the gasoline-powered pocket rockets." Honda
doesn't intend to enter the faster gas-powered-rocket field, he said,
largely because of safety concerns.
On roads, the faster pocket rockets are difficult for motorists to see,
and they usually lack headlights and turn signals. Steve Kohler, a
California Highway Patrol spokesman, said that in his state, "they
aren't allowed on any public right-of-way, including sidewalks." A
spokesman for the Florida Highway Patrol, Ernesto Duarte, said: "The
pocket rockets don't belong out on the road with S.U.V.'s and
18-wheelers. And they shouldn't be on the sidewalk with pedestrians and
baby carriages." Still, the minibikes are tempting many buyers. "They're
eye candy," said Mr. Smith, owner of the Florida bike shop. "I have even
sold them to police officers. I tell them, 'You're going to have to give
yourselves tickets.' "
An ordinance passed in September by the New York City Council prohibits
not only riding the minimotorcycles on public thoroughfares, but also
selling them. "We had a lot of complaints from residents about these
vehicles shooting in and out of traffic and zooming down sidewalks,"
said John C. Liu, a Queens Democrat who is chairman of the Council's
transportation committee. "We had a teenager in Queens who was killed
last year in a traffic accident while riding a pocket rocket. That
convinced a lot of people that we needed to ban them."
The New York City law carries a penalty of $500 for driving the bikes in
public and $1,000 for selling, leasing or renting them. (That law also
covers motorized scooters that are driven standing up, although the
police say they are not as dangerous because they are easier for
motorists to see.)
BUT law enforcement officials say it's difficult to enforce bans against
riding, let alone selling, pocket rockets. For one thing, even if few
stores carry them, the tiny motorcycles are readily available on the
Internet and at flea markets. And many consumers become aware that the
bikes are not street-legal only after buying them. "We get a lot of
complaints from people who bought them and then find out there aren't
many places to ride them," said Mr. Duarte of the Florida Highway Patrol.
One national auto parts chain, Pep Boys, sells pocket bikes in most of
its stores, where signs advise customers to check with their state's
department of motor vehicles about applicable laws. Bill Furtkevic,
senior director of marketing, said, "Nevertheless, Pep Boys is not in a
position to either educate customers about all local laws and
regulations regarding their use of these products or to ensure that its
customers in fact conform to all legal and safety standards." In places
where sales of pocket rockets are outlawed, like New York, Pep Boys
doesn't stock them. Another city that prohibits their sale is Pep Boys'
hometown, Philadelphia.
Las Vegas, though, is more welcoming to the minimotorcycles. Joe
Wickert, who holds a novel title as the city's director of extreme
sports, said there had been a shortage of riding sites, reminding him of
"where skateboarding was a few years ago."
Mr. Wickert began organizing competitions for pocket-rocket riders in
closed parking lots two years ago. "We had to find a way to legitimize
the sport," he said, "because these people had nowhere else to turn."
Last year, when the number of participants in the weekly events grew to
about 100, Mr. Wickert struck a deal with a private go-cart track, the
XPlex Racetrack, for exclusive use by pocket rockets on Monday nights.
Riders pay fees to enter various competitions for prizes that include
safety gear. "Helmets are mandatory," Mr. Wickert said. "Children under
12 must wear long pants, long-sleeve shirts, elbow pads and a chest
protector. We have kids as young as 4 years old riding and also people
in their 60's."
Wrecks are routine, but most are minor. "My kids have probably turned
over a dozen times or more," said Mr. McLendon, the Las Vegas
maintenance man. "I know it sounds dangerous, falling at 30 miles per
hour on a curve. But there isn't far to fall because the bikes are so
low to the ground."
Correction:
A table last Sunday with an article about minimotorcycles included a
reference, erroneously, to the top speed of a full-size motorcycle, the
Harley-Davidson VRSCA V-Rod. The company does not disclose top speeds
for its motorcycles. (Cycle World magazine, however, recently estimated
the V-Rod's at 134 miles per hour.)
The table also misstated the V-Rod's suggested retail price. It is
$17,695 to $17,995, not $12,995.
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