Eight-time world motorcycle champion Valentino Rossi has created a new line of two-wheel funsters – except these bikes have no motors.

Rossi teamed up with Italian company Cicli Adriatica to develop a line of children’s bicycles – the VR46 bike collection. With this line of children’s two-wheelers, you can now blame your child’s skinned knee of the famed Fiat Yamaha rider!

The announcement of the VR46 bike collection came complete with a press release and a couple of photos of the bikes, complete with training wheels.

An excerpt from the press release after the jump.

Even though Tiger woods started paying golf at age two, this story of a three-year-old boy from New Delhi, India is probably just as impressive, maybe more.  Azeem Khan, photographed on the Royal Enfield Bullet above, has been granted a special license by judges in India allowing him to ride his motorcycle on side roads but is not allowed out on the main roads by himself.

The world is getting more and more paranoid about safety for children.  Sure, this can be a good thing in some aspects but in others it’s just ridiculous.

In America, the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act became a law which allowed congress to ban products that could be harmful due to traces of lead found in them.  Sounds like a good idea on paper but it seems that this could be doing more harm than good.

Youth motorcycles and ATVs may contain a small amount of lead in some parts of these vehicles such as the alloy used to connect AZ batteries terminals.  Because of this, the CPSIA can ban all of these recreational vehicles from children. The Motorcycle Industry Council claims that this amount of lead and the way it might ever interact with a child (ie: not swallowing it) would never cause any harm.

Banning toys with lead in them was to make sure that if a child happens to put a toy car (for example) in their mouth, they wouldn’t get lead poisoning from such an innocent act (we’ve all put toy cars in our mouths at some point as kids!).

Motorsport can be and is a family sport.  I remember going to a motocross show as a kid with my friends and family, marveling at the high-flying dirt bikes.  Most, if not all of the professionals out there on bikes probably got their inspiration under the same scenario.  They saw those amazing feats and exciting races and had to get on a bike.

And they did, and at a very young age.

With the ban of these recreational vehicles catered to kids, where will the new batch of racers come from?  Can the sport even survive without giving young enthusiasts a chance to try it out?  Will youth riders start riding adult sized vehicles and be in even more danger?

My real question is: Does the tiny amount of lead found in the alloy in some small bits of metal (that will never get ingested) even matter when kids are now using cell phones, staying indoors to play video games, sitting at computers all day, eating junk food and doing tons of other things that can do more harm than good?  Would denying them the fun, excitement, experience and even the education of riding be better when the alternative might be picking up a video game controller instead?

Could the industry avoid this whole ordeal by improving and developing parts to not include that lead?

What do you think about the ban of youth motorcycles and ATVs?

The Motorcycle Industry Council (MIC) is out to stop the ban and by golly they are giving it their best shot!

See the rest of the post for a few videos about the ban.  Head over to MIC to sign a petition and read up on their cause.  Follow them on twitter to stay up to date (we have!)

After moving from L.A. to Salt Lake City, Doug Premo, a general contractor, found that there just wasn’t much construction opportunity in Utah so he decided to change his career and start making wood toys after being inspired by the Orange County Choppers TV show.

The handmade rocking motorcycles range from $350-$450 and can be purchased though his etsy.com page. Premo also makes dump trucks, cement trucks, lumber trucks, airplanes, cars and dinosaurs that are all made of pine. Check out the video.

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The Baby Ride S650 from Givi is made for children ages 5 to 8 and is suppose to fit most scooters.

I can’t see this being legal in your state but its obviously legal in Italy where they are sold, I know for sure the helmet that kid is wearing would not pass any inspection in the U.S., those Europeans sure know how to live on the edge!

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My parents never indulged my fascination and passion for motorcycles as a kid, hoping it was merely a passing phase that I would grow out of like wetting the bed. Well nearly 30 years later, I no longer sleep on plastic sheets, but I am just as crazy about motorcycles as ever. If you don’t want to make the same mistake with your kids, Peg Perego has developed a Streetfighter for little ones. Recommended for children aged three and up, the Ducati Monster Motorcycle was made with permission and cooperation from Ducati.

Feeling trapped within the crippling grasp of winter? The Harley-Davidson Museum is helping to warm things up with Winter Chillabration, running now until the end of February.

One of the many highlights is the giant XR1200 Harley-Davidson Sportster that has been hand-carved from ice and snow by the USA Snow Sculpting Team, on the corner of 5th and Canal Streets. Learn about the XR1200 Sportster at a special display featuring its inspiration, the famous XR750 dirt track racer, straight from the Museum’s collection.

Those darned teenagers and their troublesome ways could use some motorcycle-inspired gifts for the holidays. And although you may not understand the mind of a teenager, you can at least massage their brains a bit by imposing your motorcycle hobby onto them.

Here are 5 awesome motorcycle gift ideas for pesky teenagers:

Capcom’s MotoGP 08 Video Game

Recommended Ages: Rated E for Everyone
Who Has It: Anyone who sells video games should have it ( BestBuy for example )
How Much: $59.99

They’re not old enough yet to be speeding around a track at ridiculous speeds but at least they can pretend to be and MotoGP will put them in the riders seat. Capcom just released this video game this fall so it should be on any gamer/rider’s radar.

Features include:

• Intuitive Arcade controls complement Intermediate and Simulation handling modes, making this a highly accessible racing experience for all audiences
• Ride as yourself and compete against riders from the world’s premier motorcycling championship
• Challenge three engine classes, including 125cc, 250cc and MotoGP™ classes
• Selectable CPU AI allows custom matching to skill levels
• Pit your riding skills against players from across the globe in intense online multiplayer modes
• New 2008 season adds both night racing in Qatar and the Indianapolis circuit

As long as you have an Xbox 360, or Playstation 2/3, or even a capable PC, you can immerse yourself in this riding simulator and flip out on a rain soaked track safely and soundly. Motorcycle.com will have a review up for it soon, so keep an eye out on their video game section.

Check out 4 more gift ideas after the “jump”

Wow, is it that time already?

Time to drink eggnog and be merry until I get my credit card bill and then I’ll be drinking eggnog and trying to forget how broke I am.

As we all know the most difficult part of the holiday season is the stress of shopping for gifts. I thought I’d try to help out, you the reader, by providing some motorcycle themed gift ideas for children, teens and adults. Yes we know you love motorcycles, so why not try to spread that love to your loved ones.

Think of it as brain washing!

So here are 5 awesome motorcycle gift Ideas for kids this holiday season:

The Dark Knight Batman Stealth Launch Batmobile Vehicle

Recommended Age: 4 – 8 years
Who Has It: Toys R Us
How Much: $27.99

I think I want one. I had a plethora of batman toys as a kid but none of them shot the bat cycle out of them. With the amazing success of The Dark Knight movie that came out this summer, kids are still going bananas over Batman. And why wouldn’t they? He’s got all the cool toys and now the kids can have them too.

If having the Batmobile shoot out plastic missiles at the touch of a button wasn’t enough, how about launching Batman himself (or a reasonably plasticized facsimile) out of it too! I remember in toy commercials they always had the toy missiles shooting down walls of toy blocks, now it seems the heroes just drive through them as demonstrated by Batman on his Batpod in the commercial:

The Dark Knight Batman Stealth Launch Batmobile Vehicle Commercial

Read more great gift ideas: