Much like the company's Scrambler bikes, the Scorpion has a fat-tire, low-rider feel that is sure to appeal to fans of the 1970s-era taco minibikes.
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And he wrote dozens of books on subjects as diverse as the space program, drag racing, minibikes, the fastest humans, the X-15 rocket-powered aircraft, the pitcher Catfish Hunter and the basketball star Bill Walton.
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A minibike is a two wheeled, off-highway recreational vehicle popularized in the 1960s and 1970s, but available continuously from a wide variety of manufacturers since 1959. Traditionally, minibikes have a four-stroke, horizontal crankshaft engine, single- or two-speed centrifugal clutch transmissions with chain final-drive, 4" or 6" wheels and a low frame/seat height with elevated handlebars. Commercially available minibikes are usually equipped with engines commonly found elsewhere on utilitarian equipment.
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So popular and simple was the design, the June of 1967 Popular Mechanics magazine included an article with plans that could be made with proper tools and supplies."Build Yourself A Minibike" June 1967, p160, Popular Mechanics As the market for minibikes developed, a variety of cottage and major industries offered models, including Arctic Cat, Rupp, Taco, Heath, Gilson, and Fox. Traditional motorcycle manufacturers also released models inspired by aspects of minibikes, most famously Honda with the Z50A, though this style is affectionately known as a Monkey Bike, a slang-term due to its street-legal demographic requiring a seminarian riding position. Sales peaked in the 1973, with 140,000 units between manufacturers.. By 1976 the bubble had burst and less than ten manufactures continued to make minibikes.
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Mickey Rupp sold the company in 1973 when it ran into financial trouble. Although the company would continue to produce dirt bikes, minibikes and snowmobiles, they would never regain financial stability and by 1978 went bankrupt.
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Due to the diminutive size of the machines, and the origins of MiniMoto racing, Pocketbikes have been informally and inaccurately referred to as Minibikes. While the machines share certain attributes, Pocketbikes are more akin to Sport bikes than Minibikes, and are wholly their own machine by construct. The differences include frame manufacture and material, fairings, controls, engine placement and overall design. The misconception is likely due to two factors; The introduction of Pocketbikes into North America as inexpensive models not recognized for there intended competitive purpose, and being seen as toys rather than unique vehicles.
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On 21 February 2007, under the General Product Safety Regulations Act 2005, Trading Standards Officers in Oldham ordered Vance Miller, again trading from Maple Mill, to immediately withdraw four types of minibikes from sale. The products failed national safety provisions.
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The Michrina Brothers would create the first commercial minibikes by drawing inspiration from this Pit Bike, delivering 3 prototypes to Troy Ruttman to sell through his dealership. The Michrina brothers are credited with creating the minibike but failed to patent the design or trademark the term when founding their Lil Indian brand in 1959. Lil Indian would go on to manufacture tens-of-thousands of minibikes in their 40+ years. From the mid-1960s into the 1970s, the popularity of said machines would see over a hundred manufacturers attempt to market machines, an inexpensive venture due to the absence of patents.
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Azuma began racing minibikes at an early age in the Japanese national championships. He was the Japanese National 125cc Champion in 1993 and 1994. He made his 125cc World Championship debut as a wildcard at Suzuka in 1996 and finished an impressive 6th.
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Linfoot has been racing since 2002, when he began his racing career on minibikes, before progressing through to geared bikes in 2003. From 2003 to present, Dan has progressed from 125cc bikes to Superbikes, riding in MotoGP 250cc, World Supersport 600cc, and British Superbikes.
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Melandri was born in Ravenna. He was introduced to racing by a former rider Loris Reggiani at the age of six. He came through the ranks from minibikes, motocross and then the Italian and European 125cc championship. In 1997, Melandri won the Italian 125cc championship, also finishing 4th in European 125cc championship.
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By the 1950s Simplex's designs were primitive, leading to the end of Servi-Cycle and Automatic production in 1960. Simplex continued to make minibikes and karts using proprietary small engines until 1975, when Simplex went out of business. Treen had sold the company three years earlier, in 1972. Simplex was the only motorcycle manufacturer located in the American South.
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Rupp Industries was a Mansfield, Ohio based manufacturer of go-karts, minibikes, snowmobiles and other off-road vehicles founded by Mickey Rupp in 1959. Rupp Industries operated from 1959 until bankruptcy in 1978. Rupp vehicles are known for their performance and bright red coloring, particularly the snowmobiles and off-road vehicles. They have since become extremely collectible.
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Powell's City of Books, seen in the background, at left. Though many riders bring their own bicycles, the participants maintain a "Zoobomb pile". This is a tower of minibikes anchored to a bicycle rack at the Zoobomb meeting point. These are spare bikes that are used as loaners for would-be Zoobombers who don't have their own bike.
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The first Rupp minibikes were called Dart Cycles and were made starting in 1962. They featured a 2 1/2 HP, 4-cycle Lauson horizontal shaft engine with a Fairbanks- Morse clutch (an optional 3 HP was available for an extra charge). The bikes came with front suspension and rear drum brakes. They were advertised in Cycle World and other magazines.
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Mini choppers in Ballard, Seattle, Washington, May 20, 2009. Mini Choppers are scaled-down versions of custom-built motorcycles known as choppers. Commercially available Mini Choppers are available from various retailers, some utilizing similar production methods to Minibikes, while others use Scooter, Moped sourced parts/engines. Custom Mini Choppers are generally constructed from 1" steel tubing or 3/4" steel black pipe.
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The Honda Z50A was the second generation of Honda's Z50 Series of minibikes. Though its predecessor, the Z50M, was available in Europe and Japan a few years previously, in 1968, the Z50A-KO "Hard Tail", sometimes referred to as the "High Bar" or the "Slantguard", was the first of the Z50 series to be released to the American market. Upon its release, this bike was considered to be a significant leap in technology in comparison to other minibikes on the market at the time. This was partly because of its efficient single-cylinder four-stroke overhead cam engine with semiautomatic transmission. Street-legal lighting and lowered bars were added on the 1969/70 K1 "Short Tail", the 1970/71 K2 "Long Tail", and in 1972, after frame cracking became a growing issue, Honda incorporated rear suspension on the bike.
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Lazair II ultralight aircraft's JPX PUL 425 engine, equipped with a recoil starter. Rope start (also called pull start or rewind start) is a method of starting an internal combustion engine, usually on small machines, such as lawn mowers, chainsaws, ultralight aircraft, small outboard motors and portable engine-generators. Also used on some small vehicles such as small go- karts, minibikes, and small ATVs.
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Rupp Industries was born in 1959 when Mickey Rupp began assembling and selling go-karts from his basement. Originally Rupp Manufacturing, the name Rupp Industries was adopted by 1971. In that year Rupp employed 400, with 23 engineers in the R&D; department and sales in the millions. In addition to their popular go-karts, Rupp began producing minibikes and snowmobiles in the early 1960s.
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Rupp introduced their next line of minibikes in 1964 called the Continental. The 1964 Continental was rolled out with a 3 1/2 HP, 4-cycle Lauson engine as well as front and rear suspension. For the first time in 1964 Rupp also outfitted the bikes with a head and tail light. A chrome chain guard and chrome fenders were added features of the Continental.
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The game encompasses several modes: Motocross, Opencross, Supercross, Supermoto, Endurocross, Free Ride and Minibikes, among others. The player has a relatively wide choice of vehicles, from monster trucks, to trophy trucks, to ATVs to motorbikes. In some modes, gameplay takes place over two motos, or qualifying events. The player's finishing position in the first moto determines who gets gate choice in the second moto.
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Abe was born to , an Auto Race rider, in Tokyo. When he was eleven, Abe began racing minibikes and spent his earlier career competing in motocross. He turned to road racing when he was fifteen and also competed in the United States. In 1992, Abe was the runner up in the 250 cc category for the domestic National A championship.Norifumi Abe profile at www.f1network.
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His "career" started when he was three years of age and drove his Yamaha PW50 around his parents' house in America. His fascination with everything concerning motorcycles was the basis for his later driving of minibikes. When he was nine years old he was given special permission to drive in the "heaviest" class in this sport. He entered in the 2000 season and ended up finishing second.
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With a championship in the Junior B class he finished his career in the minibikes. Before that he drove in the European championships minibike in Italy, finishing 17th in a strong field and 6th in the Czech Republic. In 2009 his career ended abruptly. After a heavy crash on the Hengelo circuit he tore four nerves in his right arm causing paralysis of this arm.
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There is an emphasis on unusual bicycles, first and foremost the children's bicycles or "minibikes," but extending to tall bikes, swing bike, choppers, non-functional bicycles, skateboards, longboards, etc. The Zoobombers are made up of a wide demographic, with a tendency towards young adults. The event is treated in a very lighthearted fashion, including a large amount of socializing between rides. Riders often dress up in costume or decorate their bicycles.
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Blata learnt first hand how they worked, what was important for the rider and also what the rider actually wanted. He saw the positive as well as the negative aspects of each different machine. After some time he decided that he must do something with this knowledge. By the end of the 80's he had started to produce and sell scooters and minibikes under the Blata name.
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Bau raced 80cc minibikes until 1990, finishing in the top five finalists in every National Championship event she entered up until that point. In 1991, at the age of 14, Bau began racing with 125cc bikes. That same year, Bau won her first FMI (Federazione Motociclistica Italiana) Italian Women's Motocross Championship. From then on, Bau won seven of the eight FMI Italian Women's Motocross Championships from 1991 to 1998.
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Honda Z50M Honda Z50 MiniTrail The Honda Z series or Monkey Bike was a line of minibikes made by Honda. Though Honda's official model designations are typically Z50A, Z50J, Z50M, Z50R, and ZB50, they are commonly called the Monkey or Gorilla because of small frame's cramped riding posture, suggesting a simian crouch. Sales of the bike began in March 1964 with the Z50M model, and production ended in 2017.
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Each movie has a scene where Ghost Rider rides a highly tuned, turbocharged Suzuki Hayabusa. The Hayabusa in Ghost Rider: The Final Ride was tuned to , and the one used for the later movies was at . Although Ghost Rider's primary vehicle is a motorcycle, he uses a wide variety of other vehicles in the movies including different types of cars, bicycles, minibikes and even a snowmobile on public streets.
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Since then, Honda has produced a wide variety of Honda Z-series minibikes, with annual model updates still in effect. Starting from 2008, the well-known 50-cc engine will be adapted and fitted with an injection kit instead of a carburetor. Today, cheaper replica versions of this bike are being manufactured in China. Monkey bike is the name given by Honda to one of their small, low-powered motorcycles introduced in the 1960s.
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The Honda Z50R is a motorcycle produced by Honda, in the Honda Z series family of minibikes. It began production in 1979 as Honda's answer to the increasing demand for mini dirt bikes to be used on the track, as opposed to their traditional trail bike used more for leisure, such as the Z50A and Z50J. The Z50R quickly evolved into a light-weight mini racing motorcycle until 1999, when it was replaced by the XR50R in 2000.
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Lancelot Link, Secret Chimp had a "seven-figure budget" with location filming, props and costumes, and the laborious staging and training of the animals. The filmmakers made the most of the budget, staging multiple episodes with the same settings and wardrobe, occasionally reusing the more elaborate chase footage. Lance Link drove a 1970 Datsun Sports 2000 while villain Baron Von Butcher (and his chauffeur Creto) used a late-'50s Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud. The primates themselves rode Kawasaki MB-1 Coyote minibikes in a number of episodes.
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Poggiali began racing Minibikes in 1994, and made his first Grand Prix starts in 1998, also winning the Italian 125cc Championship that year. He went into the 125cc World Championship full-time in 1999, and showed promise over the next two years, scoring a first podium at Assen in 2000. In 2001 he improved to win the title on a Gilera. He remained in the class in 2002, scoring 7 podiums in the first 8 races but failing to defend his title, losing out to Arnaud Vincent.
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As a result of the raids four people, including Miller, were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud in what was one of Tradings Standards' biggest ever operations. The company was able to continue trading despite Trading Standards seizing property in a bid to pursue its case against the company. On 21 February 2007, under the General Product Safety Regulations 2005, Trading Standards Officers in Oldham ordered Vance Miller, again trading from Maple Mill, to immediately withdraw four types of minibikes from sale. The products failed national safety provisions.
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Tomizawa was born in Asahi City, Chiba. He started pocket bike racing at age 3 in 1994, and moved on to minibikes around 2001. While attending Sousa High School in Chiba, majoring in English, he started to fully participate in the 125cc class of All Japan Road Race Championship and gained 2nd place for 2006 season. Rookie of the Year was an added bonus to start the fast-paced career. Tomizawa appeared on both 125cc and 250cc class in the following year, finishing 3rd in the 125, and 8th in the 250 for 2007 season.
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The Honda ST-series minibikes are known as the Dax in Japan and Europe, and the Trail 70 in Canada and the US. The ST70 was exported to Canada and the US as the CT70. This is an exception to Honda's usual practice of prefix letters indicating the bike family, followed by engine size. The CT70 is mechanically unrelated to other CT-series bikes such as the CT50 Motra, and the CT50, CT90 & CT110 Trail Cubs. The ST90 was sold in the US as the Trailsport, and was not given a CT designation.
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Marco Simoncelli was born in Cattolica but grew up and lived in Coriano with his family since childhood. He started racing minibikes at the age of seven in his hometown of Coriano, moving on to the Italian Minimoto Championship in 1996 at the early age of nine. He won the Italian Minimoto Championship in 1999 and 2000 while also became the runner-up in the 2000 European Minimoto Championship. The following year, he stepped up to the Italian 125cc Championship and he won the title in his rookie year.
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Larger, vertical engines up to 250cc, developed for the ATV and motorcycle market are also used. These engines are Unit construction, allowing for traditional multi-speed transmissions, and may feature either a semi-auto or fully manual transmission. Before the prevalence of inexpensive Chinese engines, industrial Briggs & Stratton or Tecumseh horizontal engines with Centrifugal clutches or Continuously Variable Transmission were more commonly used to transmit power to the rear wheel. This was similar to Minibikes or Go- karts, and were often not street legal without modification, due to emissions.
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A teen on a minibike in Thailand While the minibike had precursors in machines such as the Doodle Bug and Cushman Scooters, which share smaller wheels, tubular-steel frames, and air-cooled, single-cylinder engines, those vehicles had larger seat heights and lighting that allow them to be registered for road use as scooters. In the 1950s, minibikes were hand-made by enthusiasts. These were first popularly used as pit bikes, for drag racers to travel in the staging-areas during races. One of these "Pit bikes" was received by brothers Ray, Larry and Regis Michrina in early 1959 from a local car dealer and racer Troy Ruttman.
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Born in Kyjov, Kornfeil started racing competitively in supermoto from the age of eight years, winning the 65 cc championship in 2002. Championships at national and European level in minibikes followed, as well as the Czech Republic 125GP Championship in 2007, before Kornfeil moved into the Red Bull Rookies Cup in 2008. Kornfeil finished eight of the season's ten races in the top ten places, as he finished ninth overall, tying on points with Daniel Ruiz. His second season in the championship was more successful, with top-eight finishes in every race, with three wins in the final four races enabling him to overhaul Sturla Fagerhaug by just two points.
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The video features the band having a pool party in a garden, where they do random things such as playing with a beach ball, riding minibikes, throwing confetti, as well as having ketchup lowered from a helicopter, as Jay Kay sings the lyrics. However, the word "bomb" in "drop the bomb on me" is cut out, as it—alongside the radio edit—released a month after the 7/7 terrorist attacks in London. Kay changes his clothing seven times, representing the 7 days of the week, with one of the garments being a Peru- national-football-team-inspired jacket. The video ends with Kay on the ground, laughing.
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After a junior career in minibikes, he won a regional 250cc championship in 1994. He then spent 4 years in the main Japanese 250cc series, finishing 4th on a private bike in 1998. He entered the MFJ Superbike championship in 1999. He finished in the championship top 5 for the next 4 years, but came to international fame as a wild card in the Superbike World Championship round at Sugo, upsetting the regulars to win both races in 2001, and a further race in 2002, being the only rider other than Colin Edwards or Troy Bayliss to have won a race during the 2002 season.
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A deal with Honda was secured to produce a motion-based ride based on its Dax line of minibikes. The company also established a robotics division to produce robots for entertainment centers and festivals, such as those that distributed pamphlets, ribbon making machines, and a robot named Putan that solved pre- built mazes. In August 1973, American game company Atari began establishing a series of divisions in Asia, one of which was named Atari Japan. Its president, Tanashi Takumi, approached Nakamura in early 1974 in regards to having his business become the distributor of Atari games across Japan. Nakamura, already planning global expansion following his company’s success, agreed to the deal.
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Numerous similar small motorcycles predate the Honda model, notably the World War II Welbike motorcycle used by parachutists, and limited numbers of minibikes powered by a repurposed lawnmower and chainsaw engines were produced in the 1950s and 1960s. This type of design did not become commonplace or popular until the introduction of the mass-produced Z series. The Honda Dax model (the ST series in the North American market) is generally not considered a Monkey, but rather a bigger, two-seat variant, with larger wheels and usually a larger engine. The Dax models have a monocoque stamped sheet-metal frame, similar to some other early Honda motorcycles.
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Taniguchi began his motorsport career when he was racing minibikes and won a Honda sponsored All Japan Mini Bike race, which took place at its Suzuka Circuit.Nobuteru Taniguchi » Driver Profile » Drift Japan Taniguchi would progress into four wheels and became interested in drifting when he acquired a Toyota AE86. He also worked at Takahiro Ueno’s car bodykit company, Car Make T&E; to supplement his racing career whilst competing in various one make series racing with the Toyota Celica and Vitz and participating in drift events. In 1999, he came into the attention of HKS when he won a Suzuka Clubman Race in a Honda Civic sponsored by Bride.
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Gábor competed in boxing, but started racing on minibikes made by his father at the age of 4. After successful seasons in the Hungarian and the European championship, he had his first full season in the World Championship in 2001, with the Racing Service team, on a private Honda bike. That year he scored 34 points, which earned him a place the next year on the Italjet team, but the change wasn't a real success, and during the season he had to switch to the PEV ADAC Sachsen team, where he could ride a Honda again. This change worked a bit better, and in Brazil, he scored his best result that far with a fourth place.
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Yamaha Passol model used in 2004–2008 circumnavigation Between May 1987 and August 1999 he journeyed several continents with a number of small motorcycles including a Honda Super Cub, 50 cc Honda Motra and Honda Gorilla utility minibikes, and a Honda Dio scooter. His 1995 trip around Japan was documented in his 1997 book The Original Bike Bastard Starving Around Japan. Between March 2004 and May 2008 he made a journey circumnavigating the world on a Yamaha Passol electric scooter, on a route including Australia from Sydney to Perth, Thailand, India to Lisbon, South Africa to Kenya, and America from New York to San Francisco (44 countries). It may have been the first global circumnavigation by electric two-wheeler.
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The ST50, ST70, and CT70 were introduced in August 1969 and produced through 1981. The larger ST90 was produced from 1973 through 1975. The ST50 was reissued in 1995, and produced through 2000. The CT70 was also sold in the US from 1981 through 1994 with a new serial number format: JH2Dxxxxxxxxxxxxx, rather than the CT70-xxxxxxx format used since 1969. These 'JH2D' bikes are not listed in Honda Japan's production figures above and are perhaps licensed production. A key feature of the ST-series is the pressed- steel "T-bone" frame that distinguishes it from Honda's other minibikes: the Z50 Monkey & Gorilla, the Ape, the CF50 & CF70, and the CY50 & CY80 Nautydax.
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The rapidness of law changes in the mid-2000s to remove previously undefined and unregulated Pocketbikes from public through-ways in American, due to safety concerns, lead to lawmakers hastily lumping Pocketbike in with Minibikes, Mopeds, and Motorized bicycle laws. Pocketbikes enjoyed a brief stint as recreational vehicles that did not receive citations when used on public roads, due to a lack of regulation. In North America, Pocketbikes have never been legal for use on Roads and Highways due to lack of safety features, height and visibility concerns. Laws are now in effect in most States and Provinces to cite those that operate Pocketbikes on Public through-ways or on Public Land.
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This race was most notable for Makoto Tamada's home victory starting from pole, as well as Nakano's third place podium for Kawasaki and Barros' climb up to fourth from tenth on the grid. One day before the race, on Saturday, Daijiro Kato's father presented two minibikes which will be sold this Fall in Japan. This was done to commemorate his son, who tragically died last year during the 2003 Japanese Grand Prix at the now scrapped Suzuka Circuit after a high-speed collision with the barriers at the Casio Triangle. After eleven rounds, Valentino Rossi is ahead of the rest with 209 points. Not far behind is Sete Gibernau in second with 180 points and third in the standings is Max Biaggi with 158 points.
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