Worksman Bicycles

[Tightwad]

I'm going to take a chance to guess that this forum also includes bicycles so here goes....

I just ordered a new (been waiting to buy one for 5 years) Workman cruiser bike built to my order....AND THE SUSPENSE IS KILLING ME!!

Ordered it on line to be built to match my Workman PAV Trike. Yellow with an internal hub gearing 3 speed on the trike, 7 speed on the bike, alloy wheels with stainless 11 ga. spokes , and kevlar tires.

These bikes are an industry standard being built like tanks for decades of rough hard service. The "civilian" version like mine is considered to be the Humvee of bicycles that will go anywhere and do anything and come back for more. Worksman are not bicycles for sissy's.

Weight weenies would NOT like these bikes since they often weight in at around 50>80 pounds dressed out. But oh Lord the ride!! With that kind of weight your ride is going to be butter smooth!!!!!!

I've already bought a few items to "customize" the bike when it gets here to match the Worksman I rode at my job for 35 years to clone my work bike. Oh Lordy, I can hardly wait !!!!!!!

Oh yes, I did the motorcycle thing in the 70's > 80's riding a BMW all over the central U. S. but I found that to be sooooooo darn boring and time consuming always having to keep the bike up. Always did prefer the simplicity of bicycle since they are such elegant machines. :yh_worshp:yh_worshp

http://worksmancycles.com/shopsite_sc/s ... isers.html

[gmc]

they often weight in at around 50>80 pounds dressed out.


I take it there are no hills where you live?

[Snowfire]

I quite like the old fashioned look of that bike. I have a Claude Butler mountain bike which gets locked up in my shed for far too long. It needs an airing. The saddle is far too small for a rear end the size of mine. The one on that Worksman looks about right

[Odie]

I quite like it as well, nothing beats the oldies.

we want a pic when you get it.

[Tightwad]

gmc;1324103 wrote: I take it there are no hills where you live?


Yes, there are hills where I live but not where I ride.

[along-for-the-ride]

Sharp looking bike, TW.

[Tightwad]

The pedal adapters that let me put wide pedals on the bike and my stainless steel fenders are here ready to go on. Now where's my bike????? Damn, it's taking forever to deliver the bike.

[gmc]

Spent the weekend mountain biking with a teenage nephew. I feel really really unfit.:-5

[Tightwad]

IT'S HERE!!!! My new bike was delivered 8/20/10 at 11 am!! Now , after unboxing it, all I have to do is put it together with all the custom parts I bought for it!!

One thing that makes me sad is that somewhere down the road I'm going to have to re-paint the entire bike. Oh, I'm not mad about it really. You see when my bike was being built it was super,super hot in New York City and air dry paint don't dry or spray worth a damn in that kinda heat. Worksman's only choice would have been to shut the plant down until the weather cooled but as we all know in this economy that would have been very bad for business overall. The paint on my Worksman trike is beautiful but it was built in the early spring of 2004 when the weather was cooler.

All that said, I'm very please with my new bike and plan on many hours of riding and tinkering with it over the years.

[gmc]

Tightwad;1328587 wrote: IT'S HERE!!!! My new bike was delivered 8/20/10 at 11 am!! Now , after unboxing it, all I have to do is put it together with all the custom parts I bought for it!!

One thing that makes me sad is that somewhere down the road I'm going to have to re-paint the entire bike. Oh, I'm not mad about it really. You see when my bike was being built it was super,super hot in New York City and air dry paint don't dry or spray worth a damn in that kinda heat. Worksman's only choice would have been to shut the plant down until the weather cooled but as we all know in this economy that would have been very bad for business overall. The paint on my Worksman trike is beautiful but it was built in the early spring of 2004 when the weather was cooler.

All that said, I'm very please with my new bike and plan on many hours of riding and tinkering with it over the years.


That doesn't make any sense. Surely putting out bikes that haven't been painted properly would be even worse for business.

[Tightwad]

gmc;1328595 wrote: That doesn't make any sense. Surely putting out bikes that haven't been painted properly would be even worse for business.


In this case it does. Worksman's main market is industrial bikes where pretty doesn't count as much as it does for most other bikes. Worksman is a tiny company that has been in busisness since 1898 due to the fact that no one makes bikes as tough as they do. Their paint process is also not high tech to hold cost down so they use an simple paint and air dry process which is very hard to do in the summer heat since the paint won't layup or flow as it will under more cool temps. Most folk's who buy a Worksman know the products from previous experience at a factory or other industrial plant so they know that they are buying tough not pretty. THAT is exactly what I wanted to get the cadillac ride of a heavy bike.

[hoppy]

I have a Worksman three wheeler, three speed low gear ratio, front and rear baskets and puncture resistant tires. Like tightwad says, they are tough, not pretty. Built like a tank.

[gmc]

We do have delivery bikes that are fairly solidly built, they are a rare sight nowadays with the demise of deliveries from local grocers and greengrocers. Used to work for one as a teenager, I still have fond memories of the occasional idiot that bought half hundredweight bags of potatoes and lived at the top of a hill.

My perspectives are perhaps coloured by the salient fact that I can't go half a mile without there being a hill and a trike would be completely impractical for normal road use. You do see them occasionally and the hatred from all the drivers stuck behind them is almost palpable.

The ones that get flummox me are recumbent bicycles

YouTube - Riding The Reynolds T-bone Recumbent Bike

I can safely say I have little or no urge to try one - well I would try one but I think they are too dangerous in heavy traffic - I like to feel you can get off quickly if you need to. I happen to live in one of the most congested places in europe

[FourPart]

Before my epilepsy was controlled I used to be use the standard racing models. However, each time I had a minor attack took a fall, if the bike hit anything the handlebar upright (or whatever it's called) would rupture, thus writing off the whole frame.

In the end I had an all terrain bike custom built for me, using the Triple Triangle frame (a new concept at the time) & front suspension (also totally unknown at the time.

Bear in mind that this was before Mountain Bikes had come into being as a design genre in themselves. BMX bikes were the latest thing at the time, and I need something with the sturdiness of a BMX, but with the practicality of a road bike, so I had one built for me to my own specifications, costing me £800. These days you can get practically identical models off the shelf at Tesco for less than £100, with more advanced extras at that (such as front & rear suspension & disc brakes (mine were only centre pull cantilever).

30 years later I still have the bike, and it's running as good as new. Apart from a new set of tyres & tubes, due to simple perishing of age, and a new titanium chain (which still has problems locking onto the 7th sprocket - 21 gear), and having lost the plastic cap to the left (front) gear switch (cosmetic only), it's still running as good as new.

Even though it cost about 10 times more than I would expect to pay these days - not even taking inflation into account - I still believe it was a brilliant investment. Far cheaper than having to replace a cheaper racing bike every 6 months or so.

[AddictedToYou]

nothing really beats vintage cruiser bikes

[FourPart]

This is what you call a REAL Workman's Bike (my Grandad).