Showing Off or Too Poor?

Its small, its cute & its cool, but is it too small for the bus driver or other heavy vehicle to notice their existence on the road? Although its not expensive to own one, but just feel that its too dangerous to ride the Pocket Bike on the road. Wonder if they are street legal too?

Just did a check on Wikipedia, & the findings is as follow.

A minibike, also recently known as a mini moto or pocketbike, is a miniature motorcycle. Most traditional minibikes use four stroke engine to turn the rear wheel via a chain. Small cheap gasoline engines like ones produced for yard equipment are most often used, though most designs require a horizontal crankshaft engine. Some models use a two stroke engine, and electric-powered models are also available. A 2-stroke engine usually creates a louder, higher frequency noise then a typical four-stroke engine, this is because a two-stroke engine has a power stroke, and subsequent exhaust pulse every rotation of the crankshaft, while a four-stroke has a power stroke, and an exhaust pulse every other rotation of the crankshaft. In effect, two-strokes sound as if they are operating at double the speed of a four-stroke engine. Also, an improperly tuned two-stroke often releases unburnt fuel, and thick blue smoke out exhaust during normal operation, these features, along with a minibike's small size, mean that minibikes are rarely street-legal.



Like go-carts, the first minibikes were made by enthusiasts from spare parts found in their garages. They were first popularly used as "pit bikes", for drag racers to travel around in the pits during races in the late 1950s. They were very useful for this purpose, as they could maneuver very well in the tight pit roads, fit in about the same space as a small bicycle in a trailer or pickup, and they were faster than most previous forms of transportation. As racers brought them home and used them around their neighborhoods, many children liked the idea of having a "mini motorcycle" and started building their own. A market for minibikes developed and many cottage and major industries developed to meet the demand. Famous minibike companies include Arctic-Cat, Rupp, Taco, Heath, Gilson, and Fox, many of which also made other power toys such as go-carts, trikes and choppers. The height of the minibike/go-cart era was from the late 1960s to the early 1970s in America. Many of the famous brands, foremost Rupp, have gained a cult-following of enthusiasts and owners.

Wanted to know more? Check this out http://www.pocketbikes.com.sg & http://www.minipocketrockets.com. Have fun!