Into Production: BBR MM12P - Riding Impression

The power delivery starts low, awakes with a roar and scorches to the end of any feasible minibike track straightaway. The power was easily strong enough to seat-bounce me over technical MiniMoto SX obstacles, and the suspension dug in nicely, too. In fact, at 175 pounds I was worried the little bike would start to give. But it didn't. It simply held its form and responded with big-bike-like manners. The only oddity was with its steering radius. The little BBR seems to hit the steering lock early and that meant diving to an inside rut was done more with a rear wheel slide than a front wheel dive.

Photo shoots are hell on bikes-especially little bikes with modified motors. We shoot a corner, turn around, shoot the corner again, turn around, shoot the corner again...you get the idea. Bikes usually get overheated in a hurry, and with an air-cooled 150cc ripper like this, you can really worry about stressing the system. This bike held up great, though. The clutch on the brand-new bike seemed like it needed some laps to break in properly and resist grabbing. I stalled the MM12P a lot since it wouldn't fully disengage at first. About an hour of photos and testing had this little guy purring without hesitation. The bike seemed to free up considerably, especially in the transmission during our test, and the clutch issues slowly disappeared as well.

In all, the bike proved to be a solid ride that is worthy of a positive endorsement. And to say that in this market, without going full-factory and over-the-top, is saying a lot. This might be the bike the minibike faithful have wanted all along. After all, if you were to build this bike on your own, with similar components pieced together, you'd be looking into the $8000 range, minimum.