oh, yea, here it is.
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WINTER HAVEN - Jimel Baz, president of Cycles Unlimited in Winter Haven, said he has had a lot of requests from parents for "pocket bikes" for their children.
Paul Crate/News Chief
The miniature motorcycles, which can cost as little as $250 or as much as $3,000, make an attractive and fun present.
But, Baz said, Cycles Unlimited does not sell pocket bikes and will not be selling them.
The bikes, he said, are "too dangerous."
"I don't sell them because the kids go on the street," Baz said.
Plus, he said, the bikes are not street-legal.
Baz is right, but Winter Haven police Sgt. Kevin Dibbern said that does not mean the pocket bikes are not often driven on city streets.
On Monday, 19-year-old Christopher Daniel Brooks was riding a pocket bike when he apparently ran a stop sign and was hit by a Polk County school bus at the intersection of Palmetto Avenue and Second Street, N.W.
Brooks later died from his injuries.
The driver of the bus, Dibbern said, never saw the 6-foot-1 man on the approximately 2-foot-tall bike.
"(The pocket bikes) are so small that cars can't see them," Baz said. "It's very disturbing."
Brooks' accident, Dibbern said, is an example of the dangers of driving mini-motorcycles on public streets.
"They're not street-legal to begin with," Dibbern said.
Without license plates or registrations and without having been examined by the Florida Department of Transportation, the pocket bikes and scooters are not allowed on public streets of any kind, Dibbern said
"The only place to legally ride those is on your own property," he said.
The Winter Haven Police Department first began having problems with pocket bikes and scooters after Christmas last year.
Dibbern said parents bought pocket bikes and scooters as presents for their children but then didn't monitor where the children were riding them.
"Every little boy wants a motorcycle," he said.
And, Dibbern said, a lot of the people stopped by police while riding pocket bikes have suspended licenses or no licenses, and they use the bikes and motorized scooters to get around, rather than using regular bicycles or just walking.
"The parents who try to be good to their kids (by buying the pocket bikes) are not looking at the big picture," Dibbern said. "Then they have a dead child on their hands because they wanted to make them happy for Christmas."
Police officers are not the only ones seeing problems with pocket bikes.
In December 2004, Consumer Reports reviewed the mini motorcycles.
"We think they're a bad bet," the organization reported. "We tested, on paved private property, two gas-powered and two electric bikes, purchased from major retailers such as Pep Boys and Amazon.com. We were astonished by the bikes' shortcomings."
Consumer Reports said problems with the bikes included their height, which has the seat less than 2 feet off the ground.
The brakes, the report said, work poorly and take a "precariously long distance" to stop the bikes.
Consumer Reports said handling was "sub-par," and "the faster our testers rode, the less stable the bikes felt. At about 20 mph, riders had to concentrate to hold a straight course."
Tight turns, Consumer Reports said, also were a problem at slower speeds "because the handlebar and brake levers collided with the bike's plastic housing."
In addition to the pocket bikes, Winter Haven police do not want to see electric wheelchairs on the road. These wheelchairs are allowed on sidewalks but not on public streets, Dibbern said.
In the past two years, the city has reported two deaths resulting from the use of electric wheelchairs on public streets, Dibbern said.
The Polk County Sheriff's Office has reported few problems with pocket bikes, since they do not go fast enough for use on county roads, but there have been problems with other motor vehicles that are not street-legal.
All terrain vehicles, or ATVs, result in a lot of complaints to the sheriff's office, said Sgt. Jerry Connolly.
"(ATVs) are not street-legal. They're not registered or equipped to be on the road," he said.
In most cases, Connolly said, deputies give verbal warnings to ATV drivers the first time they are caught on public streets.
Winter Haven motor Sgt. Kevin Dibbern looks over the miniature motorcycle that Christopher Daniel Brooks was riding when he collided with a Polk County school bus at the corner of Palmetto Avenue and Second Street Northwest in Winter Haven. According to Sgt. Dibbern the machines are illegal for use on public roads. Brooks died as a result of his injuries
