Re: mini motos
 

As I understand it those mini bikes are not legal on the public highway and you cannot tax or insure them to make them legal. They can only be ridden off rode and then only with the permission of the land owner.

However if the police do catch one on the road it is confiscated, held as evidence and crushed after due process.

However the problem could be solved at a stroke if it became illegal to manufacture or import them. Sadly that is unlikely to happen and I cite the case of CB radios. It was only illegal to use the AM CB’s but not illegal to own or import them. Silly really! I mean why would anyone want to own an AM CB just for the sake of it? Of course there will always be someone ready to flout the law and smuggle a bike into the country.

Re: mini motos
 

Crack-down promised on illegal mini-moto riders
THE Government is now involved with the menace of the illegal mini-motos, with the Home Office issuing regulations of how they can be used within the law, Alan Tilbury discovers.

Those flouting the regulations can have their machines confiscated and crushed, but can also be fined and have penalty points added to their driving licence.

Should the rider be too young to hold a licence, the points can be applied to them in advance, making it difficult to obtain a driving licence when they reach the legal age.

It is illegal to ride unregistered mini-motos and similar off-road vehicles on roads, pavements and in parks, and of course canal towpaths.

They can only be used on private land where permission has been granted for them to be ridden.

Home Secretary John Reid warned:

"Misuse of mini-motos is dangerous and is causing misery in too many of our local communities.

"These vehicles are not toys and I want to see irresponsible drivers stopped and if necessary their bikes crushed."

It is estimated that 100,000 of the machines were sold last year, a leap from an estimated 10,000 in 2002.

£200,000 is to be shared between 28 areas of England and Wales, to step up enforcement, with Police receiving a step-by-step guide on how to tackle illegal riders.

Mini-moto rider dies
NOT only are the mini-motos proving dangerous to towpath users, but they are also proving very dangerous to their riders, Debbi Figueiredo reveals, as they burst into flames.

An 11 years old boy was badly burnt when a mini-moto he was riding burst into flames, and though he was taken to hospital, he subsequently died.

Michael Rickman died on Saturday in the burns unit at Broomfield Hospital in Chelmsford, Essex, where he was taken after the accident on some three weeks earlier.

Another boy on the bike, 12 years old Michael Bonfield, also suffered burns in the accident, and is still seriously ill in the same hospital, though he has now left intensive care.

Michael's mother, Anita Bonfield, has spoken out about the dangers of mini-motos, urging parents whose children had mini-motos to 'think twice about letting them ride it or even be a passenger on it'.

Re: mini motos
 

200k aint going to do much and besides parents will still buy these machines to keep the kids from nagging. Is there no kind of training for kids on how to use these machines? Its sad that it takes deaths to get someone of their butt to try and solve this problem when it should have been dealt with several years ago.