Fox Mini Bike Catalog, USA, 1968
The first minibikes were homemade from all kinds of spare parts. They were first popularly used as "pit bikes", for drag racers to travel around in the pits during races in the late 1950s, and fitted easily in a trailer or a pickup. As racers brought them home and used them around their neighborhoods, many children liked the idea of having a "mini motorcycle" and started building their own. These early minibikes had a small four-stroke, horizontal shaft, flathead engine from a lawnmower. Soon a market for minibikes developed and in the 60's and 70's many industries, like Fox, developed to meet the demand.
