Pocket bikes can be used for both recreation and competition. While it was the Japanese that invented the pocket bike form, they did not become serious racing machines until the arrival of the first Italian models from Polini. Depending on the model and HP, performance varies. The smaller industrial-motored models used by Junior class racers are capable of speeds of over 35 mph, the average 4.2 hp and 6.2 hp racing models achieve about 40-45 mph, and open class machines reach speeds over 50 mph. These speeds become even more impressive when you consider the size of pocket bikes. The average length of a pocket bike measures approximately 47 inches, and the average height is 18 inches. Indeed, these small machines are capable of great speeds and impressive racing performances.

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Whitey now pedals that bicycle — and another much more contemporary Schwinn belonging to Barbara — an average of 42 miles a week, including an eight-mile round trip three times a week from his and Barbara's Pleasant Pointe apartment to the local... Whitey had always wanted one, and at Christmas, 1997, he was given one by Barbara, who wed him 53 years ago. It's a single-speed Schwinn bike that debuted in 1955 and was sold for only two years. That illness triple-threat knocked him for a loop and when he began dialysis to cleanse his blood five years ago, he "was in a wheelchair and laid around on the couch all day. In fact, it gets credit for saving the life of Henderson resident Wheeler "Whitey" Dotson, who declares that without the Phantom, "I wouldn't be alive today. The 73-year-old Air Force veteran and retired trucking company owner is a cancer survivor, but has failed kidneys, diabetes, and high blood pressure.

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