Yesterday the Honolulu Police Department held a news conference to get the word out that pocket bikes are prohibited on public streets and sidewalks and in public parks. Officers were told this week that pocket bike riders can be cited and arrested. The impish bikes also can be seized, as on Maui, where eight have been taken in recent weeks for failure to have tax decals.

"We want to get the word out that they are illegal and there will be consequences," said Honolulu police Maj. Doug Miller yesterday. "There is too much danger, we feel, to the operators when they bring these out onto public roads."

Miller said he knows of no pocket bike accidents on O'ahu, but there has been at least one fatality on the Mainland.

Lt. Jeffrey Tanoue of the Maui Police Department Traffic Section said pocket bikes "are flying all over the place. They're dangerous because of the lack of visibility, even when adults are riding them." He said modified bikes can zip along faster than 75 mph.

Glenn Kajiwara, Central O'ahu district manager for the Department of Parks and Recreation, said in recent weeks the bikes have been seen in parking lots at parks and on walkways.

"We've been getting a lot of complaints from tennis players and park users who walk, ride their bike or jog," he said.

Signs banning the miniature motorcycles were posted last week at the Central O'ahu Regional Park and this week at the Waipi'o Soccer Complex; signs also will go up at Neal Blaisdell Park in Pearl City.

George Burmeister of Cycle Imports of Hawai'i on McCully Street said he gets 20 calls a day for pocket bikes, priced from $500 to $3,000. The bikes also are available at Checker Auto Parts, Wal-Mart and from Web sources for less than $300.

Many of the bikes being sold in Hawai'i are made in China, although Cycle Imports sells top-of-the-line Italian models. The miniature motorcycles operate on electric or two-stroke gasoline-powered motors that are 40 to 49 cubic centimeters in size. The average moped has a 50cc engine, Burmeister said.

Pocket bikes have been around for years, but became a hot item in Hawai'i and around the nation only in the past couple of months. "What's happened is that a couple of people in certain neighborhoods bought them, and all their friends wanted one, and boom — it exploded," Burmeister said.

He said he tells customers the bikes are for off-road use and that riders should wear long pants, gloves and other safety gear.

Still, there are going to be people who ignore traffic laws and common sense, he said. "People buy them and they don't know what they've got."

Honolulu City Councilman Nestor Garcia, chairman of the Transportation Committee, agrees the bikes are a safety hazard and the city was right to act quickly to ban them from public places. "You can't see these guys coming or going, they're so small," Garcia said.

The councilman acknowledged that pocket bike enthusiasts have a legitimate interest in using the vehicles — in the right places.

They'll have to find somewhere other than Hawai'i Raceway Park in Kapolei. Park operator Paul Giovanetti said he won't allow pocket bikes on his track. "Anytime you put somebody on something that small, it's too dangerous," he said.

Lt. Tanoue said Maui police are treating most brands of pocket bikes as mopeds, which require a tax decal and driver's license to operate. Pocket bikes are, in fact, ineligible to be registered as mopeds or motorcycles because they do not have a certification label or vehicle identification number, he said, nor do they meet federal motor vehicle safety standards.

Pocket bikes are not a common sight on the Big Island, said acting Sgt. Robert Hatton of the Hawai'i County Police Department. He said police had not received complaints or had much contact with the bikes on the streets.

But county prosecutors are checking to see which laws could be used to regulate their operation, Hatton said.