![iron horse bike early registration iron horse bike early registration](https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/21/2019/03/sundayteam09-f9e485f.jpg)
![iron horse bike early registration iron horse bike early registration](https://venturebeat.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/shopify-3d-models.jpg)
There are no turn signals or brake light. The gas tank holds half a gallon - enough to ride 75 miles, Bhagat said. For stopping, there's a disc brake on the front wheel and a rim brake in back. Twisting the throttle on the right handlebar engages the clutch and moves the bike forward at a single speed.
![iron horse bike early registration iron horse bike early registration](https://files.bikeindex.org/uploads/Pu/396978/20210204_114330.jpg)
The engine starts with a pull cord, like a lawn mower. "I'm not ready to say that, yeah, we're going to start renting them to guests, but we certainly have drummed up a lot of interest and a lot of questions," Smith said. It also occurred to him that he might want to have a couple of the vehicles available for guests to rent and figured a display would help him gauge consumer feeling. Tim Smith, general manager at the Pfister, said he thought the bikes, with their retro look, fit well into the hotel's historic lobby. At the moment, he's been concentrating on a local marketing approach that takes advantage of the curiosity the bikes generate - striking deals to display them at the Pfister and Iron Horse hotels, and in the Rodizio and Sail Loft restaurants.Ĭheata will be featured July 7 at the Iron Horse's weekly Bike Night. ".The entire design of the bike is pretty cool."īhagat hasn't yet ramped up production enough to commit to any dealership relationships. "Everywhere we go we've had a lot of people look at them because of the uniqueness of it," he said. The bikes have "performed flawlessly" and drawn lots of attention, said Kumar, a business owner who is interested in opening what could become the first Cheata dealership. He and two friends have been riding them around the Daytona Beach area for the past few months. But other people he has spoken with, he said, "are a little bit turned off by the price."Īnother early customer is Vivek Kumar, a Florida resident who found Cheata online, came to Milwaukee to see how the bikes are put together and bought three. ".Definitely an eye-catcher."ĭix thinks the bikes are well-built and has no problem with the $2,900 each that he paid. "They're awesome," said Dix, president of Infinity Benefit Solutions, a downtown Milwaukee firm that puts together employee-benefits packages for companies and organizations. Two of those, both matte-finish Goliaths, went to small-business owner Brian Dix, who loves them. "Let's just say we've sold several," he said. The company currently offers two models - the Varuna, which starts at $1,599, and the higher-end Goliath, which starts at $2,499. With three full-time employees and four part-time, Cheata began production earlier this year. "Everybody wants to sort of stand out," Bhagat said, "and these things really stand out." Gasoline-powered bicycles also can offer throwback design that calls to mind the very first Harleys of the early 20th century - a not-incidental point. He had noticed many firms making bicycles with electric motors, but thought gasoline engines had the advantage of greater range at low cost. Performance Coatings in Oconomowoc finishes off the aluminum frames with multilayer paint jobs.Ĭheata modifies the engines to provide better throttle response and more torque, and bores out a drain on the front to make oil changes easier, Bhagat said.Ī former quality-control technician with an aerospace company, Bhagat knows his way around tools. An Oak Creek company machines the sprockets for greater precision. The wheels are built and trued in South Milwaukee. The motors and frames come from China, but the bikes are assembled with extensive local input. There, in a former Bucyrus-Erie building Bhagat owns, a small crew puts together bicycles that feature both working pedals and a 49-cubic-centimeter, four-stroke gasoline engine.
#Iron horse bike early registration professional#
"People literally chase us down."īhagat, 53, is casting a line into a small but potentially rewarding pool, applying professional machining and finish - and a price tag of $1,600 or more - to the sort of hybrid vehicles garage tinkerers have been building for decades.Īfter a couple of years marked by fits and starts, Cheata has set up production in South Milwaukee. "That happens every time we ride these things," Bhagat said a moment later. Then he added a few details: The bicycles, he said, will go 30 mph, get 150 mpg, and are built locally. Where, she wanted to know, did he get that thing?Īs the founder of Cheata Bikes Corp., Bhagat was only too happy to explain that it came from his company. Ravi Bhagat had just pushed off on his motorized bicycle in front of the Pfister Hotel in downtown Milwaukee when a middle-aged woman stopped her white Mercedes on Jefferson St.