Worksman bicycle

[DougC]

Mike, I have a Yahoo account but I could not access your page link.
Yahoo told me I had to enable something called "Web Access" that I don't need for any of the other groups that I visit occasionally--and then when I gave my email and signed in again, it seemed to be signing me up to start another Yahoo group.... ?!?!? I cancelled out of that, and never saw anything of yours....

-------

Anyway.
I bought a new Worksman, and ended up cutting the frame up.
The double top-tubes makes the frame stiff, but then, also may cut down on the room you have for an engine in there (The large/20-inch frame I have is *mostly* still in one piece, but I only have a GEBE rack-mount kit so I don't have any idea if a frame-mount would fit). I could measure it if anybody wanted to know how big it was.

Also the problem with the Worksmans is that there's no good brake options. The Worksman rims are awesomely-thick rolled steel, but because of the rounded sides you can't use rim-brakes on them at all, and the frame lacks any way to mount disk brakes. I have the Worksman front drum brake and the Shimano 3-speed coaster brake rear hub and they work well enough on flat terrain, but they are not as good as disks or even good rim brakes would be. I would bet they would overheat easily if you coasted down a mountain road.
~

 

[uncle_punk13]

Nope. The Worksman brakes are solid units. Never had a lick of trouble with 'em. You just gotta make sure you keep up your maintenance on the coaster, a bit moreso than if you were just pedaling it around, granted, but...
I use heavy duty lithium wheel bearing grease (for autos/motorsickles) and have great luck with it. The front drum is very low maintenance with sealed bearings, just the occasional adjustment.

 

[DougC]

Nope. The Worksman brakes are solid units. Never had a lick of trouble with 'em. ....

It could be you have an older Worksman, and they were different.

The front hub brake on mine seems rather flexy (both the cable-stop arm, and the drum brake arm) and I would bet that if I tightened the cable enough, I could break one of the two arms off just by squeezing the brake lever one-handed. Coaster brakes are well known to overheat if used on long grades.

In terms of overall stopping power, disk brakes are best and rim brakes are #2--but there's no disk mounts on a Worksman frame, and the Worksman rims have rounded sides and {I'd bet} won't work with rim brakes at all. (-the fork has a hole through the crown, if you could find MTB-sized center-mount brakes anywhere.... and I don't think the seatstay bridge is even strong enough to bolt a brake to-)

On my two other (non-motor) bikes I have disk brakes--and the weakest link in them is the cable itself. The brake calipers and disks don't flex one bit, you can squeeze as hard as you like. The cable is the only part that stretches.

I mostly intend to ride in flat, rural areas, and for that the Worksman front drum and rear coaster brakes work well enough in my opinion--but if I had to ride in urban traffic much, I'd be using a MTB frame that supported disk brakes.
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[smitty]

Thanks for the info folks. I was thinking Worksman because I like the double top tube. I want to build a gas tank to fit in there. I'm thinking board tracker and I want to find an engine that looks more the part.( Something that looks older than the 80cc Chinese engine.) I thought about a 48cc because of the round cylinder, but I want as much power as I can get. Any suggestions?

 

[STUARTBRANDT]

Hi folks,

I have owned four Worksman bikes they are bulletproof but if you ever have to peddle you are in for some trouble.
The worksman bikes are very heavy, very strong, and very crude is some ways they are a truckbike, I would sell some but the wholesale cost is over 200.00 for the basic INB plus 50.00 shipping to my house, I can buy other bikes for 150.00 shipped.
The worksman are the best for what they do.

Stuart Brandt

 

[smapadatha]

Also the problem with the Worksmans is that there's no good brake options. The Worksman rims are awesomely-thick rolled steel, but because of the rounded sides you can't use rim-brakes on them at all, and the frame lacks any way to mount disk brakes. I have the Worksman front drum brake and the Shimano 3-speed coaster brake rear hub and they work well enough on flat terrain, but they are not as good as disks or even good rim brakes would be. I would bet they would overheat easily if you coasted down a mountain road.

I have been thinking about building a GEBE-ified or Staton-ified truck bike. On various websites I've heard a number of negative comments about the Worksman, so I was thinking about using a similar Husky model: http://www.huskybicycles.com/Mercha...Code=160-104&Category_Code=bi&Product_Count=3

The brake situation on the Husky is the same as the Worksmans. However, I talked with a few framebuilders who said that brazing on brake posts for rim brakes wouldn't be a big deal. One of them said he knew a powder coat shop that would powder coat the frame for me after brazing for about $150, I believe.

I did not know about the rounded rims on the Worksman, and I don't know if the Husky has rims like that, however, I really wouldn't have a problem replacing both rims so that I could have V-brakes front and back. I wonder if it would be possible to weld tabs onto a Worksman front fork so you could hang a disk brake? You would still have to replace the front wheel, but for these projects that doesn't seem like an unreasonable expense.

-Sam

 

[MotorbikeMike]

Worksman and Husky wheels

Hi Smap, I have handled recently both the Worksman (Rolls Royce of bicycle wheels) and the Husky (so far my second choice).

I run the Worksman's exclusively, and my only recent problem was as follows
45 or so MPH
65miles or so run with the guys
my 100 lbs bike
my 275 lbs butt = boiling almost all the grease out of the Shimano Coaster!

I have since been given a tube of 400 degree melting point grease, which I have re-packed that same coaster with.

BTW I did contact worksman, as I was willing to replace that coaster if I needed to, it does have about 500 miles on it in my use on the 08 Racer, and now on the 09.

The Husky wheels are nice, I used the Shimano coaster rear, and the Sturmey drum front for a build. Spokes mic out at .117 as compared to Worksman's .120. The rims are a completely different matter. The Worksman is rolled, extremely strong, but will not accept any type of rim brake that I'm familiar with, the Husky seemed about the same thickness and quality as the standard Taiwan wheels I've used for years, regular straight sided rim, excepting that those spokes mic at .105

If you wanted to save some money, why not consider, that if you did weld tabs and posts, to mask off, and spray a black (or other color that goes nice) band on the fork leg?

I hope this info will help you.

Mike

 

[DougC]

I have a photo of a couple yardsticks next to the remnant of my Worksman frame:
http://www.norcom2000.com/users/dcimper/assorted/inanities/recumbent/general/stuff/common.html
I took the photo standing pretty much right over the front-half of the frame, so the angles you see is about what it is.
~

 

[DougC]

I have been thinking about building a GEBE-ified or Staton-ified truck bike. ....

I did not know about the rounded rims on the Worksman, and I don't know if the Husky has rims like that, however, I really wouldn't have a problem replacing both rims so that I could have V-brakes front and back. I wonder if it would be possible to weld tabs onto a Worksman front fork so you could hang a disk brake? You would still have to replace the front wheel, but for these projects that doesn't seem like an unreasonable expense.

As I see it, the only advantage the Worksmans have is the thick spokes and rims. If you choose to lose either one of them, then you don't need a Worksman at all.

The frame and fork are steel so brazing on them isn't a problem.
As far as adding a disk brake goes--you'd need to buy a non-brake front wheel and then drill out the spoke holes in whatever front hub you chose to use.

As far as using non-Worksman rims, I don't know about that. If you were going to do that you should probably just buy replacement wheels and use them instead.... The spokes need to be tightened enough that they stretch somewhat to work well, and the Worksman spokes are 11g steel, which is about twice the diameter of typical bike spokes. The thicker spokes need bigger holes drilled in the rims (!) and also, the thicker spokes would to be tightened more to pre-load them properly. I wonder if alloy rims would withstand spokes tightened that much? If no commercial bike companies sell bikes with 11g spokes on alloy rims, there's probably a reason.
~

 

[MotorbikeMike]

11 ga alloy rims

Hi Worksman makes alloy's but they are rolled, and mostly identical to thier steel rims, I have 6 of them.

Mike