They stand barely 2ft high, can travel at speeds of up to 40mph and make an ear-splitting din as they flash past bystanders. Mini-motorbikes and motorised skateboards have become this summer’s must-have accessory. However, while sales of the machines are booming, critics claim they pose a menace to riders and pedestrians alike and are destroying the tranquillity of parks and beaches.
Several people have been killed on mini-motorbikes in America — the birthplace of the new fad — and earlier this month a British child was seriously injured riding one. With confusion surrounding their legal status, police and safety campaigners are calling for a clampdown on their use in public places.
Motorised skateboards come in a variety of forms, but currently the most fashionable is the Wheelman. It features a motor and frame supported at each end by a spokeless wheel. Riders, who stand upright, position their feet on platforms. Powered by an engine of about 43cc, the Wheelman can travel at up to 20mph and costs £695. The rider holds a pneumatic ball that he squeezes to accelerate, and releases to slow down.
“It’s just starting to catch on now,” says Jeremy Crook, director of Lineone Distributors (www.lineonedist.co.uk), the company that began importing the machines into Britain at the start of the summer.
Lineone has sold about 350 so far, but Crook says there are now just enough in Britain to start a craze spreading by word of mouth. “Suddenly you get the momentum and pockets of sales mushrooming up around the country,” he says. “This is going to be one of the top 10 most desirable Christmas presents.”
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Crook says he knows of no accidents involving the Wheelman but concedes “it is like snowboarding or anything extreme: you’ve got to be prepared to take the knocks. You wouldn’t want to use them on the roads. You need grass, or bridle paths, where it’s not going to hurt too much when you fall”.
Other motorised skateboards have been involved in serious accidents. Shortly before Christmas Adam Good, 37, of Newquay, died after falling off his 42cc Alini motorboard. The Alini is an aluminium skateboard with four pneumatic tyres and a hand-held throttle. They are available from online retailers for as little as £145.
Mini-motorbikes, or pocket bikes as they are also known, are essentially miniature replicas of their full-size counterparts. Typically powered by a two-stroke 49cc petrol engine, they are capable of zipping around at 40mph or — with a little tweaking — can reach a frightening top speed of 60mph.
Although pocket bikes have been manufactured in countries such as Italy for many years, they have traditionally cost several thousand pounds and have been reserved for use on racing circuits. China, however, has recently started to churn out cheap imitation models with a price tag of less than £300, sending the leisure market for the machines through the roof.
Demand for the bikes in America is so high — more than 500,000 have been sold there this year — that they are even being stocked in supermarkets and grocery stores.
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“Their proliferation is something that is dramatic, something that presents a devastating public danger,” says John Liu, chairman of New York’s transportation committee, which is spearheading a backlash against the machines.
The arrival of the machines here looks set to create similar levels of consumer interest and public concern. PocketBike.uk.com, Britain’s largest distributor of the vehicles, claims to have sold a staggering 2,000 bikes in the past six weeks.
“They’re increasing in popularity by the day as people see others riding them, or read about them,” says Thomas Jasper, the firm’s marketing director. “They are capable of speeds of up to 40mph, but when you are at that sort of height off the ground it feels like you are going at 100mph.”
However, Jasper is keen to point out that, unlike in America, the machines are not touted as children’s toys and their sales are restricted to adults. Jasper insists that pocket bikes should only be ridden on racing circuits or on private land rather than on public roads.
Earlier this month Kalum McGowan, 8, suffered serious head injuries when he crashed a pocket bike into a brick wall in Blackpool. “Any motorised vehicle that can travel up to 40mph should only be available once a test has been passed,” says Mary Williams, chief executive of Brake, the national road safety charity.
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The legal situation concerning the use of such machines on the road is fairly clear: it would be illegal to ride almost all pocket bikes and motorised skateboards since they have not passed “type-approval regulations”. This means they could not be licensed or have an MoT. Whether they can be used in parks and on beaches and footpaths would depend on local bylaws, so the law is far less clear.