"A bike that has an engine:" The Milwaukee-made retro bikes of the future

MILWAUKEE -- It started as a way to get around Milwaukee's MATC Campus -- now, it's a locally made product that's sold around the world. Brian takes you for a ride on a Cheata Bike.

It's not a bicycle, an electric bike, a moped, or even a motorcycle.

Cheata Bikes

"They're motor bicycles is what we call them. Cheata Bikes are, we consider them, to be a form of urban transportation," said Ravi Bhagat, owner of Cheata Bikes.

Bhagat built his first model on a bike frame for his son. Now, at his business in South Milwaukee -- he and a small group of employees assemble each bike by hand.

"Technically, it is a bike that has an engine sort of added to it," said Bhagat.

Which happens to be reminiscent of another local company's early designs.

Cheata Bikes

"When you take a look at Harley, back in the early 1900's, that's where they started, they took an engine, put it on a bicycle and of course the engines grew bigger, they lost their pedals and it's the Harleys we see today," said Bhagat.

Ravi knows his Cheata Bikes aren't as well known as Harley-Davidson motorcycles -- but he's created a motor bicycle that's truly in a call of its own.

"They provide efficiency, they do 150 miles per gallon, they're 30 miles an hour, and they're fully legal in a bike lane and the roadway," said Bhagat.

Cheata Bikes

About Cheata Bikes (website)