(The photo of this post has been corrected to show the actual minibike in question.)
One of my cousins had a minibike that looked very similar to this except his bike didn’t have brakes this exact minibike, still without brakes. My cousin would fly up and down the road and leave bits of shoe sole all around the neighborhood. On two occasions I directly interacted with the minibike and neither occasion ended well.
The first time, my cousin decided it would be a good idea to hook my little red wagon to the back of the minibike and he would pull me down the road. As an 8-year-old boy, this sounded like a great idea so we made it happen. We tied the wagon to the minibike and headed towards his house. We started out on the road but as we were going, a car met us headed in the opposite direction. For some reason my cousin decided we needed to be in the ditch so he veered off into the ditch, taking me with him. The minibike went into the ditch just fine but my wagon got hung up on the slope of the ditch and then the wagon flipped over on top of me. My cousin wasn’t looking behind him so he kept chugging along as I wound up underneath the wagon and was dragged along in the ditch for several yards. No major injuries on my part but I was a little ticked off.
My second incident with the minibike was when my cousin actually let me ride it by myself. I was so excited. We took it back to the little apple orchard my parents had in the backyard and my cousin went over the basics with me. I nodded my head and hopped on, ready to feel the wind in my hair. I yanked on the throttle and I was gone… for about two seconds before a branch from one of the apple trees smacked me in the face. I leaned backwards but didn’t fall off. Unfortunately, now I couldn’t see where I was going and I had the throttle wide open. My little jaunt ended when I hit a fence and the minibike fell over. Again, I escaped without injury but the minibike was laying on its side with the throttle stuck in the ground and running wide open. That little engine was running hard and going nowhere. This time, it was my cousin who was a little ticked off.
