Pocket Bike Racing
21 Sep, 2010
Pocket Bikes
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Popularity of pocket bike racing in Europe, Asia and North America reached a record high during the last few years. Hand in hand with the increasing popularity of the sport is the need to produce machines with ultra high performance on the track. Italian manufacturers have dabbled on the production of these machines since the 70’s and they remain the number one producer of these mini bikes which are also sometimes referred to as mini moto. Mini moto stands for miniature motorcycles. These mini motos have launched the career of the leading motor cycle racers including Valentino Rossi of Italy and Nobuatsu Aoki of Japan.
So, pocket bikes may seem like a new sport for many Americans, but these motorized bikes have been up and around for almost three decades now. They have gained notoriety soon after the production of mechanized racing karts. Back in those days, competitions particularly “jousting” were even organized to promote the use of mini bikes. In the said competition, players wore helmets with balloons tied to them and each of these players was given rolled newspapers. The objective of the game was to pop the balloons tied to each player’s helmets with the rolled newspaper while the players were astride on their motorized bikes.
The popularity of the mini bikes declined during the 60’s. It was also during this period that the bikes were rarely seen in the States. In the 70’s, the Japanese people introduced mini moto racing in their country using their own version of mini bikes. The Italian manufacturers took interest on the machines that they focus on product research and development to come up with their own improved version of them.
In the 90’s the sport grew considerably and gained a number of followers throughout Europe. It was however, not until 1996 that an annual bike racing competition, the Swiss Pocket Bike, was organized. The event drew enthusiasts from various bike clubs which eventually made it one of the biggest of its kind in the world.
There are several categories under the Swiss Pocket Bike competition depending on the age and sex of the participants and the type of pocket bike used whether junior, stock or racing. Every year, 8 to 11 races are organized and over 120 people enlist to compete in the said event.
Most state of the art mini pocket bikes have a minimum of 3 to 4 hp to qualify as entries while racing models have a minimum of 11 to 12 hp. Most of these bikes weigh more or less 40 lbs valued at $200 for a Chinese made model compared to a $5,000 Italian made models.
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