Worksman Bikes

[Axlerod]

Or is this a worksman???

This bike is called The “Worksman Mover” it’s the workhorse of their lineup. You can haul an incredible amount of weight on the back of that thing. Nice start to your project!

 

[Squiggle Dog]

Arizona post offices use Worksman Low Gravity truck bicycles. I often see them strapped to the backs of postal vehicles. I used to make bulk package deliveries to the post offices at night, and you wouldn't believe the boneyards!

Back in the 2000s I placed an order for a new Worksman bicycle. The was right at the time when they changed the fork style from "heavy British" to "tubular mountain bike", so that was disappointing. The frame also didn't come with a headbadge. I had also ordered the fenders to be painted black like the frame, and they were chrome-plated.

So, Worksman had me send back the bike and they sent out another one. This time it had a headbadge, but the fenders had been rattle-canned! black over the chrome and it looked absolutely terrible. They had also painted over some of the protective plastic which hadn't been fully removed. I wasn't happy with the bike, so I ended up returning it. It was way too much money to spend on a bike that looked like it was cobbled together out of doctored used parts.

 

[COB]

 

[bikemonkey]

My experience with Worksman was in the early 1980s in Va. Beach. Our shop was moving a lot of cruisers and Worksman industrial bikes became quite popular with a subset of our cruiser clientele.

We modded these per customer request just ae we did Schwinn Cruisers with tubular forks, Super Jet bars. etc. The Worksman bikes had 120 Ga. spokes on dimpled double wall steel rims. They were industrial strength. Color choice was no problem if you liked basic black, red or yellow...at least for awhile.

During this time period the shop owner and I met the plant manager of Worksman, Wayne Sosin, at the annual NYC trade show. He commented about the sizable orders we we sending in and wanted to know about our market. It was not long after that chat that Wayne came down to our shop to see for himself what we were doing. After that visit Worksman modded the "beach cruiser"/newsboy bikes we bought even to the extent we had custom color choices (think pink, electric green, purple). If you see some of these old Worksman bikes with flamboyant colors don't dismiss them as repaints - they could very well be factory paint. I can't recall if they modded the fork or swapped out 4 bolt BMX stems for our market (like Schwinn eventually did) but some other easy component changes were made per our request like Super Jet bars, whitewall tires, etc..

I recall we had a number of frame failures at the top tube/headtube lug due to the customers bunny hopping curbs, etc. and the significant front wheel weight helped fatigue the joint. Up to that point, Worksman rarely had any frame failures and Wayne said they had no idea what these were cruisers being used for in our market (bunny hopping, etc.). That lug area was strengthened/improved soon afterwards and all of the bad frames were replaced/no questions asked.

Saw Wayne a decade or so ago at the Vegas Interbike and he was the same genial person who loved what his was doing.

Worksman bikes would never win a beauty contest but they certainly had a following back then.

 

[Farmboy1895]

Yep, My father in law worked for Boeing Aircraft also. This was in the Philadelphia Pa. ( Vertol Plant). He had his own dedicated Worksman Bicycle to ride from one end of the plant to the other as an inspector.

 

[KingSized HD]

Here’s my Worksman “Industrial Bike” I picked up recently from a fellow CABEr. Safety Yellow. It was used at the United Airlines maintenance facility at SFO. I’m not sure of the year but it has the older style fork. And what must be the biggest bike seat in the world!

 

[Schwinn lover]

I like there heavy duty wheels with the drum brake.
There great for a motorized bike.

 

[vincev]

So after almost 6 years what is the answer to the question.

 

[KingSized HD]

My two cents: I just picked up an older one (based on it having the older style, non-unicrown fork) and it's what, a 90s bike, maybe '80s at best. Others have said there don't seem to be any OLD specimens around (like '50s at least). The CABErs don't seem to have much interest in 80s-90s bikes so that's the first thing, then you throw in the lack of great styling and the "worksman" type look.... Well, until the industrial look really takes off they're probably relegated to just an oddball collectible that's sorta cool in a funky, "I tour industrial plants on vacation too" way but hard to find and not all that desirable to a lot of collectors.

Something interesting to me though; the Schwinn American King Size was an adult sized bike made for the same market of industrial plants, Hollywood lots, refineries and airports and there seem to be a fair amount of those still found, even though they only had a four year production run. Makes me wonder if they were better built and lasted longer, produced in greater numbers or why old Worksmans don't seem to be around.

 

[sue12]

Hey king size, it is a moot point as the chi town schwinn stopped production. If you want an apple for apple comparison then schwinn would have had too last as long AND worksman would have had to compete on the open market more. These are not the case. Btw I have a 62 king size Hd and the black worksman in this tread still and love em both.


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