Tiny bikes a pocket of trouble?

Charlotte Southwick is a grandma and employee at Centerville Honda motorcycle shop. She works every day in the motorsport industry but can't play in it because of her age.

That was until she found mini-bikes, those small two-wheeled jobs that look like real motorcycles but have engines the size of a lawn trimmer's. Not only can she ride them, so can every member of her family, from her small grandchildren to her husband.

Southwick now owns six of the tyke motorcycles. They are too small to require license plates but fast enough to be at home on the street — and on the minds of the safety-conscious.

A rider's feet are only 6 inches off the ground. The low seats cause the knees to stick out to the side, and riders hold on to the handlebars by reaching between their knees. Leaning is about the best way to turn it.

Riders say the bikes aren't as menacing as they sound because top speed is only 25 to 40 mph, and they're so low to the ground that the rider can just roll off the bike in an accident.

"Human beings love to be on a motor; it's part of being human," Southwick said. "And when people see an adult on one, they don't ask, 'What are you doing on that?' like with a flat scooter, they ask, 'Where did you get that?' "

The mini-bike fad began when Italian racing vehicles known as "pocket bikes" hit the market a few years ago.

According to Guy Standing of X-treme Motor Toys in Murray, pocket bikes were invented about 15 years ago when an Italian racing bike manufacturer downscaled some designs to make a mini-bike for his son's birthday.

"Almost as a gag, if you will," Standing said.

When others in the industry saw it, they began manufacturing similar bikes for professional motorcycle racing. The sport is respectable in Italy, and many states, including California, have pocket bike racing associations.

They're expensive — as much as $3,500 — and they have always been intended for closed-circuit racing, never for street riding, he said.

But a few years ago, Chinese companies began producing cheaper imitations sold on the Internet at around $400, and the bikes were suddenly all over the place.

Despite their popularity, the cheaper bikes are a safety and consumer nightmare, Standing said.

"They're an accident waiting to happen," said Centerville Police Lt. Paul Child. The bikes are low to the ground and hard to see, and the operators are usually children without any traffic safety training.