August 21, 2004

POCKET BIKES FUEL SUMMER CRAZE, DRAW IRE The next big thing is just 18 inches high, weighs about 50 lbs. and is capable of traveling up to 70 m.p.h. Meet the pocket bike, scaled-down mini-motorcycles also known as pocket rockets; though some call them a menace and refer to the summer’s hottest fad as an epidemic. The tiny two-wheelers sound like a souped up weed wacker, and tens of thousands of them are hitting the street?where they are illegal to operate in most states.

First popularized in Europe in the mid-90’s as specialized race motorbikes, pocket bikes are now being sold as toys in Wal-Mart and Toys “R” Us as well as in motorcycle stores, auto parts places and flea markets. Thousands are for sale on e-Bay. Over the past several months, a flood of cheap Chinese-made knock-offs that cost between $200 and $400 have hit the American market, where they are predominantly purchased by adolescent boys with no licenses and no concept of rules of the road.

Fans say the little motorized bikes are affordable, comfortable and fun to ride, but based on the number of citizen’s complaints about the noise and of riders zipping along sidewalks or in and out of traffic, the mini-motorcycles have become tiny terrors.

In New York, State Senator John Sabini has called for a ban on the sale of pocket bikes, citing the recent death of a Queens teenager who was killed when his miniature motorcycle hit a pothole while he was trying to elude police. “These scooters, pocket bikes and motorized skateboards are all illegal [on the street], and yet we sell them,” Sabini said. “Why are they allowed to be sold when they’re illegal? It would be like selling heroin but saying you’re not allowed to use it.”

A string of accidents has added fuel to the fire, including a near fatal crash in San Francisco on June 9, when a 14-year-old boy, driving on the wrong side of the street, was hit by an SUV. By the next weekend, the California Highway Patrol issued a ruling that the bikes are illegal to ride anywhere besides racetracks and private property, prompting local police districts throughout the state to crack down. In the last few weeks, similar crackdowns have been reported from Phoenix to New Haven.

New York police will ticket riders if their bikes are not insured or they are not licensed. To qualify as a legal motor vehicle in New York state, bikes must have mirrors and lights and be registered. Boston recently passed legislation that says pocket bikes can be ridden only by licensed drivers, who must wear a helmet and obey the rules of the road.

Pocket bikes are considered motorcycles under Arizona state law, but there is no way they could ever meet the necessary safety standards, say police who have been ticketing anyone riding pocket bikes on streets or sidewalks.

In Springfield, Mass., the City Council tightened up the city’s 2003 motor scooter ordinance to include any of the smaller vehicles. The ordinance now covers any two-wheeled, motorized, gas- or electric-powered device that has handlebars and is designed to be ridden while either standing up or seated. Drivers must be at least 16 years old and have been issued at least a learner’s permit. Police have confiscated between 45 and 50 scooters and mini-motorcycles, and have issued numerous citations since turning up the heat on the hot new mini-cycles.

A few years ago, the New Bedford City Council banned motorized scooters, which created similar traffic hazards, from the city’s streets and sidewalks. In June, Ward 2 Councilor Paul Koczera moved to include pocket bikes in the ban, but he was told that the bikes can be regulated only by the Massachusetts state Legislature. “I haven’t given up on the matter,” Mr. Koczera said.

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In California, pocket bikes are illegal on public roads, because they are motor vehicles that require registration. But the department of motor vehicles will not register them because most do not pass safety regulations governing headlight height from the ground, taillights, brake lights, horns and so on.

But websites of some pocket-bike sellers boast “no registration or insurance required in most states,” and some show promotional videos of people riding the bikes on public streets.

One advantage to their small size, say police, is that officers can easily confiscate them by picking them up and throwing them in the trunk of their cruiser.

GAS PRICES DRIVE SCOOTER SALES TO RECORD NUMBERS The high cost of gasoline is a good thing for scooter manufacturers, who have seen sales numbers skyrocket faster than prices at the pump.

According to the Washington Post, with U.S. prices for regular unleaded gas reaching $2 a gallon, Piaggio SpA, the Italian maker of Vespa motor scooters, has launched a major assault on the American automotive market, heavily targeting cities on the East and West coasts where commuters are seeking less costly modes of personal transportation.

Other scooter manufacturers, such as Honda Motor Co. and Yamaha Motor Co., are pursuing the same market. They are betting that thousands of Americans, at least for daily runs between home and office or quick trips to the supermarket, are willing to abandon their more fuel-thirsty cars and trucks for scooters, mopeds and motorbikes — that can get from 60 to 90 miles per gallon of gasoline.

So far, according to figures published by the Motorcycle Industry Council in Irvine, Calif., that bet is paying off in terms of rapidly rising U.S. scooter sales. MIC analysts say U.S. scooter sales rose to 84,000 last year, up from 12,000 in 1997. They are projecting a 20 percent increase in scooter sales for 2004, up to 100,800.

High mileage and low purchase prices are boosting the ranks of scooter owners, though certain misconceptions also are playing a role in higher scooter sales. For example, there is a popular belief among scooter shoppers that they can buy and ride the bikes with little or no training and without getting a license.

In reality, scooter laws vary from state to state, but in general motorcycle licenses are required for scooters with an engine displacement exceeding 50 cc and with top speeds above 60 miles per hour, but not required for below 50 cc with a top speed of 30 mph — those generally forbidden on highways.

ROAD DEATHS REACH RECORD LOW The Department of Transportation announced that the fatality rate on our nation’s highways in 2003 was the lowest since record keeping began 29 years ago, according to U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta. The number of crash-related injuries also dropped to a historic low in 2003.

Secretary Mineta pointed to efforts by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) that contributed to the reduction in the fatal accident rate, including campaigns to encourage safety belt use and discourage impaired driving, work with state legislatures to pass tougher safety belt and drunk driving laws, and rulemaking efforts to improve vehicle safety standards.

The drop is more striking for the fact that people did more driving in 2003. When measured by the estimated miles driven, the number of deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled (VMT) fell to 1.48 in 2003, down from 1.51 in 2002 and the lowest level since record-keeping began in 1966. It was the first time the rate has dropped below 1.5. In 2003, VMT increased to 2.88 trillion, up from 2.86 trillion in 2002

Motorcycle deaths rose for the sixth year in a row, this time by 12 percent from 3,270 in 2002 to 3,661 last year. NHTSA said it doesn’t yet know if there were more miles ridden on motorcycles in 2003, but it’s likely since there has been a steady increase in motorcycle travel since 1997.

Alcohol-related fatalities also dropped significantly in 2003, the first such decline since 1999, as more states adopted laws that allowed them to prosecute drivers at .08 blood alcohol content (BAC) and above. 2004 marks the first year that all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico were able to prosecute drivers at .08 BAC.

ANIMALS BLAMED FOR A QUARTER MILLION CRASHES YEARLY Deer, cows and even squirrels are to blame for more than 26,000 injuries along the nation’s roads each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in their first-ever study to examine how many people suffer non-fatal injuries in car accidents involving animals.

In half of the animal-related accidents surveyed in 2001-02, motorists were injured by hitting the animal while the other half were hurt by swerving to avoid hitting the animals, said Ann Dellinger of CDC’s motor vehicle injury prevention team. “We can’t really say whether it’s better to brake or better to swerve and avoid the animal,” Dellinger said. “You have to drive responsibly and make sure that you are buckled up.”

The CDC doesn’t know if the number of car/animal accidents are on the rise. They typically happen on rural roads or highways. Although nearly nine out of 10 such accidents involve deer, the CDC’s crash study also found cows, squirrels, bears, dogs and raccoons.

The CDC said putting tall fences at deer crossing spots and channeling deer to underpasses would help, but noted the cost might be prohibitive for many public roads budgets.

ROAD DEBRIS LINKED TO THOUSANDS OF ACCIDENTS A hunk of tire tread, an old muffler, a bag of garbage?more than just an eyesore along America’s roadways, debris causes 25,000 crashes and up to 90 fatalities a year in the United States and Canada, says the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, a research arm of the automobile association.

Although vehicle-related road debris crashes are generally less severe than other crashes, individual incidents can be catastrophic, and the study said even small objects on roads can cause serious problems because drivers traveling at highway speeds sometimes lose control of their vehicles while trying to avoid debris. Swerving to avoid the debris accounted for 45 percent of the fatal crashes, studies showed.

A survey of government transportation officials in the United States and Canada found the most common forms of road debris are, in order: tire treads; garbage from waste haulers; lumber and construction materials; gravel, soil and tree limbs, mufflers and exhaust parts. Overloading or improperly loading cargo onto passenger vehicles, such as mattresses or furniture, caused 12 percent of the crashes reports said.

The study noted that increased defensive driving awareness, more commercial vehicle driver training to inspect the vehicle and cargo and stricter enforcement on truck weights could reduce the rate of road hazard wrecks.

It also called for stiffer penalties in the form of fines and demerit license points for those who fail to properly secure loads, and it recommended targeting specific groups, such as waste haulers andlandscapers, with enforcement action.

To safely avoid road debris you should maintain a safe following distance of four to five seconds between vehicles at highway speeds, and focus further down the road by scanning at least 12 seconds ahead to be able to see and react to changing highway conditions. Sudden movements by cars up ahead often indicate a road hazard. AAA also advises that it is sometimes safer to run over debris than to swerve into adjacent lanes of traffic. Striking minor road debris can be far less dangerous than veering into oncoming traffic, or risk losing control of your vehicle.

WEIRD NEWS: TEENS ADMIT TO INJURING BIKERS WITH PLASTIC WRAP Four teenage boys from Waukesha, Wisc., admitted pulling a “stupid prank” by stretching kitchen-variety wrap across a road that caused a motorcycle to crash, according to Waukesha County District Attorney Paul Bucher who said the boys could face charges of being delinquent in juvenile court.

Daniel Buckel, 22, of the Town of Waukesha, went out for a ride last month with his girlfriend, Theresa Brzykcy, 19, of Brookfield, when his motorcycle crashed into the plastic wrap stretched between two traffic posts, causing his 2002 Honda motorcycle to slide across the pavement and the two landed on a nearby driveway. Buckel broke a finger and needed 15 stitches to close a gash above his eye, while Brzykcy was knocked unconsciousness for a short time but was not seriously injured.

Buckel, who works as a bartender and selling motorcycles, said the crash caused him to miss two weeks of work. He said he was relieved to learn that authorities had found the suspects.

BOAT BUILDER BUYS INDIAN In a move aimed at revving up an American icon, owners of the country’s oldest luxury boat maker, Chris-Craft, have bought the defunct Indian Motorcycle Co., the legendary brand that once rivaled Harley-Davidson for U.S. motorcycle sales.

“There are huge parallels,” Stellican founder and Chris-Craft Chairman Stephen Julius said in comparing the two companies. “Both once had dominance in their industries, and properly cared for, these brands can be brought back to life,” Julius added

“They’re both iconic American heritage brands with loyal followings that fell on some tough times,” he said. “To bring it back, having a sense of the brand is vital. It is something we proved at Chris-Craft and we intend to do the same with Indian.”

As with Chris-Craft, Stellican’s purchase of Indian’s trademark, logos and licensing rights might also translate into local manufacturing jobs. “We’re evaluating a whole range of alternatives in California, the Southern states, and certainly Southwest Florida,” Julius told the Associated Press, referring to a site for a new Indian manufacturing plant.

Stellican intends to spend the next three to six months evaluating Indian’s prospects and the overall market before building a single new motorcycle.

Indian, “America’s first motorcycle,” was founded in 1901 in Springfield, Mass. and competed head-to-head with Harley-Davidson for control of the U.S. market before ceasing its U.S. production in 1953. It was resurrected by an investment consortium in Gilroy, Calif. in late 1998, but closed without warning on Sept. 19, 2003, despite rising sales numbers.

QUOTABLE QUOTE: “None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.”
–Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 – 1832) German dramatist, novelist, poet, & scientist

A BLONDE BREAK FROM THE NEWS A married couple were asleep when the phone rang at 2 in the morning.

The wife (undoubtedly blonde), picked up the phone, listened a moment and said, “How should I know, that’s 200 miles from here!” and hung up.

The husband said, “Who was that?”

The wife said, “I don’t know, some woman wanting to know if the coast is clear.”

A FINAL WARNINGRecently it was reported in the Los Angeles times that motorcycle accidents were up for LA. I want to get my hands on this story, but a reliable friend reported that the Police Chief said he would initiate pulling over more motorcyclists.

He plans to pull bikers over for equipment checks and DOT helmet infractions. We’ll bring you more on this report in the near future, but watch out Socal riders.–Bandit

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