GILROY
– They look like tiny versions of grown-up sport bikes, but
these mini motorcycles have fewer rights to the road than a child’s
tricycle.
Zero rights, to be precise.
GILROY – They look like tiny versions of grown-up sport bikes, but these mini motorcycles have fewer rights to the road than a child’s tricycle.
Zero rights, to be precise.
These child-size cycles are newly popular to this area within the past few months, and police agencies are trying to inform people of a point that salespeople might be vague about – it’s illegal to take them out on the road.
The smallest electrically powered “Pocket Rocket” – made by Razor, best known for non-motorized children’s scooters – costs $200 and tops out at 12 mph. Gas-powered “pocket bikes” can cost up to $1,500 each and hit 40 mph. European racing pocket bikes, such as those that compete in an annual championship in Switzerland, can do 75 mph.
All are strictly for private property, according to the California Highway Patrol, Gilroy police and the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office. Even a public-access parking lot is off-limits, as are sidewalks and bicycle lanes.
“The bottom line is, pocket bikes are not legal to ride on the street – any street,” Capt. Bob Davies, commander of the Gilroy-Hollister CHP area, said in a recent prepared statement. “These new mini motorcycles … are becoming easy to spot in local stores, but information on their legality is hard to find in those same places.”
Is this deceptive marketing?
“Sounds like it to me,” CHP spokeswoman Terry Mayes said.
It would make the police department’s job easier if pocket bike sellers were more informative, Mayes said, but the CHP is not going after stores. Instead, the agency is trying to educate the public.
“When people buy these things, they just need to understand that they need to have some area for the kids to ride,” Mayes said. “They need to have a farm somewhere or something.”
Basically, you can ride your mini motorcycle on your property or if you have the owner’s permission. Otherwise, don’t try, according to Mayes.
Local Kragen employees declined to comment and corporate Kragen officials could not be reached for comment.
Buyer frustration
Guillermo Villagrana, of Gilroy, bought a Razor Pocket Rocket for his son 12th birthday and two more for his 6-year-old daughter and his godchild – a $600 purchase from Kragen Auto Parts on First Street.
The sales clerk didn’t say where the bikes could and couldn’t be ridden, Villagrana said, but the instruction manual noted that the bikes were not for highway use.
He figured a parking lot would be fine, but a city police officer told him otherwise.
Villagrana, 31, had packed his kids, their two mini motorcycles and helmets into his pickup truck and taken them to the ranch section of Christmas Hill Park to buzz around the empty parking spaces.
The officer didn’t issue a ticket, but he told them they had to stop.
“I didn’t think we could be harassed for electric (motors),” a frustrated Villagrana said immediately afterward. “Really, it’s not fair.”
“They want you to ride off-road,” said friend Ruben Chavez, 26. “This little thing is not made for off-road.”
“I would love to know where we could ride these,” Villagrana added. “It does sort of tick you off when you pay for these and can’t even take them out in a parking lot.”
The parking spaces the Villagrana kids were riding in were actually beside a road that leads through the park to a police community service building.
From the manual, Chavez and Villagrana said they didn’t think a “highway” included a neighborhood street. In fact, it does. According to the state Vehicle Code, a highway is any publicly maintained roadway.
The legal lowdown
The CHP says that, under the Vehicle Code, both electric and gas mini motorcycles are classified as full-fledged motorcycles – not “motorized scooters,” as they are being inaccurately marketed and sold, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
As a motorcycle, if one wanted to ride a pocket bike on the road, one would need to get it registered by the state Department of Motor Vehicles.
The DMV, however, will not register mini cycles because they are not made to street motorcycle standards and, therefore, do not have conforming vehicle identification numbers, the CHP reports.
If the DMV begins registering pocket bikes in the future, riders will need to have motorcycle driver’s licenses, wear helmets and use all required safety equipment.
“Our position is, these are way too dangerous to be used on roadways,” officer Mayes said. “They can’t be seen. … They sit so low. They don’t even come above the hood on most vehicles.”
Upholding these laws
Gilroy police are trying to avoid giving tickets to mini motorcycle riders.
“A lot of people don’t know what’s going on in terms of the legality,” Sgt. Chad Gallacinao said. Before we issue citations and enforce laws, we want to let them know first.
“I know there’s been some people who haven’t been too receptive to that,” he added.
At this point, Gallacinao said, city police won’t issue tickets for pocket bikes unless there is a blatant violation or if they become an ongoing problem in one area.
The CHP’s position is similar.
“While our officers can ticket riders … our primary goal is to make sure people know these small cycles are not only dangerous to ride on the street, but also illegal,” Capt. Davies said.
The CHP headquarters in Sacramento started warning police agencies about the mini motorcycles in May. Since then, city police have talked to numerous riders, Gallacinao said. The CHP has stopped the most pocket bike riders in San Benito County at the dirt-bike tracks of Hollister Hills State Vehicular Recreation Area.
So far, no one seems to be taking the tiny bikes on major highways. To Mayes’ knowledge, Gilroy-Hollister CHP officers haven’t seen anyone riding a mini motorcycle on anything bigger than a two-lane county road.
