THOSE LITTLE BITTY BIKES

I don’t want to grow up! And, from all appearances, these fans of kiddie-sized motorcycles are proof that you don’t really have to. Every weekend, welder Cliff Brady and his friends take over a parking lot next to a small airport in Torrance and, with a few traffic cones, transform that humdrum reality into a pint-size race course with 10-gallon thrills. This has been going on for five years and shows no signs of stopping. Called Pocket Bikes, the contraptions that so entrance Brady and his cohorts weigh 32 pounds, are three feet long and pack a 1.98 horsepower engine. With a ground clearance of only two inches, they zoom along at up to 40 m.p.h. That close to the ground, the bikes feel like full-size racing machines.