Cleveland mini-chopper - cool pics

The Cleveland Cycle Werks Tha Heist 250 has chunky switchgear with a solid, positive feel in operation.

The Cleveland Cycle Werks Tha Heist 250 has chunky switchgear with a solid, positive feel in operation.

The 229cc single-cylinder engine is by Li Fan, one of the world's largest makers of small petrol engines.

The brakes are good if old-fashioned, with dual-piston sliding callipers front and rear.

The five-speed gearbox is notchy when cold and bloody horrible when hot.

The Cleveland Cycle Werks Tha Heist 250 has a small speedometer with a mechanical odometer and a neat chromed plate with separate warning icons for neutral, high beam and indicators. .

The Cleveland Cycle Werks Tha Heist 250 has chunky switchgear with a solid, positive feel in operation.

The Cleveland Cycle Werks Tha Heist 250 attracts enormous amounts of attention from children of all ages, many of whom find it difficult to believe it came out of the crate like this.

The seat is a ploughshare-shaped steel plate, mounted on two little spring struts and upholstered in black vinyl over what feels like about 3mm of low-density padding.

The foot pegs are mounted on a solid steel crossbar and the foot controls have needle roller bearings; there's absolutely no play in the gear or rear brake linkages.

The Cleveland Cycle Werks Tha Heist 250 is beautifully finished in two shades of black with sexy, stick-on graphics on the eight-litre peanut tank.