Mini Bikes

As if the fear of being mowed down by giant SUVs and hulking Hummers on the road doesn't make us crazy enough, now we also have to contend with pocket bikes, vehicular threats so tiny they look like toy motorcycles, ranging from 15 to 20 inches high. Don't be deceived by how cute they look. These screaming machines can reach speeds of 40 miles per hour.

Authorities continued their investigation Thursday into the cause of an explosion that killed one person and left three others injured in a South Los Angeles building. The blast tore through a business by a small market in the 2500 block of South Grand Avenue about 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Los Angeles Fire Department officials said. Four people were injured in the blast — two critically — and one of them later died, they said. "I heard a very big explosion. I heard girls screaming, 'Help!

In the last year in many cities, miniature electric motorcycles have been banned and confiscated and their half-pint owners ticketed. But all of this has done little to stop the joy ride of the firm that makes Minimoto bikes, privately held West Los Angeles-based Toy Quest. Sales of its bikes and other electric vehicles are expected to exceed $200 million in 2005, even as negative headlines appear in newspapers around the country.

In the last year in many cities, miniature electric motorcycles have been banned and confiscated and their half-pint owners ticketed. But all of this has done little to stop the joy ride of the firm that makes Minimoto bikes, privately held West Los Angeles-based Toy Quest. Sales of its bikes and other electric vehicles are expected to exceed $200 million in 2005, even as negative headlines appear in newspapers around the country.

The walls of Don Sercombe's Glendora scooter shop are lined with candy-colored miniature motorcycles, like rich kids' toys but with enough gusto to top 70 mph. A year ago, Sercombe was selling the petite gas-powered bikes at an average of three per week. Now he's moving them out daily -- by the dozens. His clients include preteens and adults, all of them in search of a new joy ride.

Authorities continued their investigation Thursday into the cause of an explosion that killed one person and left three others injured in a South Los Angeles building. The blast tore through a business by a small market in the 2500 block of South Grand Avenue about 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Los Angeles Fire Department officials said. Four people were injured in the blast — two critically — and one of them later died, they said. "I heard a very big explosion. I heard girls screaming, 'Help!

Rising insurance premiums have canceled a national YMCA program that takes troubled youngsters off the streets and puts them on off-road mini-bikes. The national headquarters of the Young Men's Christian Assn. told 110 program centers in 33 states to cancel further activities and lock up the mini-bikes by Friday. "Our negotiators are still hoping to put something together," said Solon B. Cousins, the YMCA's national executive director. "But at this stage we have to notify all of the deadline."

* Rosie O'Donnell said she would try to recover $8 million in legal fees from her battle with the publisher of her defunct magazine, now that a judge indicated that neither side would win damages. * General Motors Corp. said it would take a fourth-quarter charge of about $1.2 billion before taxes to cover costs of employee payments it agreed to make in its new contract with the United Auto Workers union. * The Tisch family, which controls Loews Corp., disclosed that it owned a 5.

As the opening band in the San Clemente Fiesta Parade burst into music at 10 a.m. sharp Saturday, Pat Sperry, a high school teacher from Dana Point, leaned back in the lawn chair she had parked at the edge of El Camino Real and exclaimed: "That's why people go to parades! All that brass. Isn't it beautiful?"

Fernando Ruelas, who with his brothers founded Duke's So. Cal, considered the world's oldest continuing lowrider car club, and expanded its reach beyond Southern California during his years as president, has died. He was 60. Ruelas died of cancer Friday at his home in La Habra, said his brother Ernie. FOR THE RECORD: Fernando Ruelas obituary: A news obituary on Fernando Ruelas in the Oct. 27 LATExtra section said the Ruelas brothers founded Duke's So. Cal car club. One of the brothers, Rene, is not involved with the club.

As if the fear of being mowed down by giant SUVs and hulking Hummers on the road doesn't make us crazy enough, now we also have to contend with pocket bikes, vehicular threats so tiny they look like toy motorcycles, ranging from 15 to 20 inches high. Don't be deceived by how cute they look. These screaming machines can reach speeds of 40 miles per hour.

The walls of Don Sercombe's Glendora scooter shop are lined with candy-colored miniature motorcycles, like rich kids' toys but with enough gusto to top 70 mph. A year ago, Sercombe was selling the petite gas-powered bikes at an average of three per week. Now he's moving them out daily -- by the dozens. His clients include preteens and adults, all of them in search of a new joy ride.

They're crazy with the skyscrapers here in downtown Chicago, where we're visiting for a week. At least three are going up, including one shaped like a 2,000-foot corkscrew. In no time, the tour guides say, you'll be able to see all the way to Indiana from these new monsters of the midway. They never say why anybody would really want to. But it's a glorious town, Chicago is. Chicago is about comfort food, soaring spires, Da Bears and constant repairs to the Dan Ryan Expressway.

As he approaches 28, a moderately advanced age for a professional motorcycle racer, Chris Carr is learning how to turn right on two wheels of his Harley-Davidson at about 150 m.p.h. Carr, the 1992 American Motorcyclist Assn.'s Grand National dirt track champion and five-time runner-up, has spent his professional career turning left on dirt bikes. This year, he has entered road racing, riding a Superbike on asphalt.