off-road machines, The Royal Gazette can reveal.

For the Service has taken delivery of two new scrambler-style bikes suited for use over rough ground.

The new bikes will be used to tackle illegal scramblers and offenders who take to broken ground in a bid to evade the heavy-weight superbikes currently used by the motorcycle unit.

It is understood Police have found the larger Police bikes -- as big as 750ccs -- are unbeatable on the roads.

But their low ground clearance and heavy weight put them at a disadvantage to lighter machines when the going gets rough -- or soft.

A bike fan spotted one of the machines -- believed to be 400cc Hondas -- en route to Police headquarters at Prospect yesterday.

And he said: "If they'd had these things when I was a kid, I'd still be off the road.

"A lot of people are going to be surprised if they hit a beach or rough ground to escape being stopped,'' he said. "I think a lot of people know bigger bikes have disadvantages and they know how to exploit that.'' It is believed that owners of scramblers and other cyclists know their machines are hard to catch over certain ground conditions -- like rough or soft going -- and use the advantage to evade Police.

Scrambling -- which uses specially designed machines with high ground clearance, custom-designed wide tyres allied to a light frame and engine -- is becoming increasingly popular in Bermuda.

And lighter bikes like scooters can also use their wide tyres to escape over sandy or other soft ground.

A Police spokesman yesterday said the force did use 400cc machines for two-wheeled transport at one stage.

But he added they were phased out because they could not stand the pace of being used as hot pursuit vehicles.

The spokesman said: "One of the problems with 400cc machines is that the engines got knocked out very quickly.'' But he added bikes with larger engines were found to be better at handling the stresses and strains of Police work and the force moved over to them.