worksman trike

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I picked up this Worksman trike over the past weekend. The chrome rims and chain guard are probably too rusty to clean up.It probably will just be a rider and not a restoration project. One thing that has me puzzled is the brakes. The front drum brake has no cable attached to it. The caliper brakes are working. Photos that I have found show these bikes with both brakes hooked up, with a lever on each side of the handlebars. Did they have both brakes originally?
 
I paid less than the sales tax would be on $700. When I first spotted it I thought that the brake drum had been put on from another bike. Then I realized that the tire and rim matched the rears, so maybe the drum was original to the bike/trike. I wish that I had the correct basket for the rear.
 
I have had 3 of them.Pretty cool little rides. 2 brakes isnt necessary IMO. That front drum wheel just adds unneeded weight. Calliper up cront will stop it all day long.

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I thought that the front drum brake would be something I could use on a build , then learned that it "belongs" on the trike. If I find 3 20" rims I might replace the rusty ones on it now. We"ll see.
 
FWIW, not all port-o-trikes have the front drum. It seems like they put it on the singlespeed ones without a rear coaster brake, and if you got a single- or three-speed coaster brake model, you could spec it with the front drum as an added-cost option. One of the guys on my team rides a port-o-trike with a Sturmey-Archer 3 speed coaster out back, and a caliper in front, but no drum. Came from the factory that way (I know b/c i'm the one who assembled it....)
 
I gave 60.00 for this one in near new cond. The SA 3 spd hub had issues so I tossed it and installed the 20t factory freewheel. 10 bucks on Ebay and was good to go.

FYI Worksman seats are horrible. Big but hard as a rock. You will be squirming after the first mile.



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The seat on mine is not the original one for the trike. It is a Ross, I think. Maybe partly because of the angle of view , but yours appears to have the front fender mounted like mine. The front is closer to the tire than the rear lower edge. What pedals are on yours? Mine don't match , and I don't know which one is the correct one.
 
I have a large black seat that I took off an exercise bike that I will put on the trike.
 
i had the same trike at one point and i believe it was all original when i got it. it had the same set up as yours, a front caliper and a front drum. the caliper brake had a lever on it that had a built in parking brake type thing, you could lock the brake. if you search worksman trike post by me you will see pictures and some talk about the brakes. i might even have that lever still kicking around.
 
They tell me plastic front fenders started in 2012. Pedals are just plastic like any Wally bike. I install longer mtb cranks making pedalling MUCH easier. I wrench tighten all the folding joints and adjustments making them rock solid.

Heres a free one before and after a cleanup.






Gave 25.00 for this one in perfect shape.


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As for the exercise bike seat I just put one on my Trailmate and threw away the tractor factory seat that hurt the back of your legs.Will post a pic tomo.



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I'm glad to see a thread on the Worksman Trikes here, thanks for the discussion. I've got a couple of them and a couple of Camping World Adventurer trikes - will post some pix here eventually.

One of them is the older style single speed with no bracket for a hub, black with Trifecta markings. This one is pretty ratty - rust in all the usual places, particularly the rims and hubs. Somebody painted the wheels (and tires) black and painted the handlebars with aluminum paint to try to hide and/or inhibit the rust. The frame appears to be lugged at the head tube, not reinforced like the newer models.

Despite looking really ratty, that old trike runs pretty nicely. Had both the caliper and drum brakes, neither of which worked very well. I removed the drum brake wheel and installed a Bionx kit taken from another Ebay bike, and replaced the brake pads, tuned it up, and it's a blast to ride. Did 20 mph with the Bionx, but that blew out and it's in the shop to see if it can be fixed.

The other Worksman is a maroon metallic one speed, newer model with reinforced frame at head tube. I've installed a three speed sourced other than from Worksman, and that's complete except for installing the fixed drive cog to make the coaster brake work.

Comparing the two Worksmans, the axle thicknesses are different as are the means of securing the drive wheels. The old one uses the three pronged axle end that mates with holes in the hub. The newer one uses a keyed shaft. I believe the older one has a 5/8" axle and the newer one has a 3/4" axle - so parts are not necessarily interchangeable if you gather a few up of these and try to rebuild from scrounged parts.

Does anybody know how to look up serial numbers to see how old they are? I've been searching for that info for a while and found nothing promising except to contact Worksman directly. I'd love to find a history of these that accounts for model and parts changes.

The Adventurers seem at first glance to be better appointed trikes, but as you work on them a little, it seems they are a crappy knock-off of the Worksman. The ones I picked up were poorly assembled, or else the parts just didn't fit together well.

One of them runs pretty well but the other one seems to have maybe been bent - like maybe the rear end, the tubes through which the axle runs - is out of alignment so the rear axle bearings bind a little bit. If you block the trike up off the floor so the wheels are off the ground, and give the drive wheel a spin, it will barely do a complete revolution. The other one will spin a little, but also seems a bit resistant. These bikes were very clean, garage kept, and obviously barely used at all. I can't imagine that this problem is due to lube or dirty/worn bearings.

I took the rear end of the resistant one apart, except for removing the axle from the frame. I loosened and re-tightened nuts on the bearings, took the chain off the hub, etc, trying to determine where the resistance was coming from, and got nowhere. My only guess is a slightly bent frame, putting the rear axle bearing out of alignment.

The Worksmans seem significantly beefier, and both roll very well, despite the rather ratty condition of the older one.

What I really like about the Worksman and Adventurer trikes is the fact that the seat post does not require an additional support like the Sun and Desoto trikes. This allows the seat to be set high enough for me, at 6 feet, to ride these very upright with good leg extension, and makes it easy to stand on the pedals. A lot of other trikes have a tractor seat with a sort of sissy bar, so the rider sits back solid on the seat and you can't get the seat high.

If more people tried trikes that lend themselves to setting the seat high and being able to easily rise in to the pedals, I think more people would like riding them. The thing that really seems to creep people out when they first try a trike is the side-to-side wobble going over irregular surfaces, and the abuse they give your butt. The thing that aggravates trike-butt-abuse is the tendency for the rider to remain solidly seated, and not to support themselves with their feet.

I've found I can ride pretty fast on pretty rough surfaces if I just lift myself out of the saddle a little bit over the rough parts and let the trike wobble beneath me. It would beat the heck out of you if you remained planted solidly.
 
My first trike was an old 24 inch Worksman I got for free.Its was sad but a buddy trued up a back wheel as best he could and I rode it a bunch until I traded it off.


Heres another 24 that I paid 50.00 for. It was a 3 spd coaster brake. Badged Worksman "lite" trike it rode really nice.


Heres a tip. Most trikes use a 5/8 rear axle. Worksmans use 3/4 so finding a freewheel adaptor aint easy or cheap. On the blue porto trike I converted to a single speed I bought a freewheel with adaptor on ebay for 12.00 free shipping. I then took the adaptor to a local machine shop who bored out the 5/8 adaptor to 3/4 and cut a new keyway for 15.00. Lot easier and cheaper to do that versus buying a 3/4 freewheel only.

I have owned a bunch of trikes.Most recreational trikes claim their "out front" pedalling design is the way to go. I disagree. With the Worksman design you set atop the pedals like a bike giving you much more pedal power using your body weight not just your leg muscles. My Trailmate is a pain to ride more than a mile or 2.



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My first trike was an old 24 inch Worksman I got for free.Its was sad but a buddy trued up a back wheel as best he could and I rode it a bunch until I traded it off.


Heres another 24 that I paid 50.00 for. It was a 3 spd coaster brake. Badged Worksman "lite" trike it rode really nice.


Heres a tip. Most trikes use a 5/8 rear axle. Worksmans use 3/4 so finding a freewheel adaptor aint easy or cheap. On the blue porto trike I converted to a single speed I bought a freewheel with adaptor on ebay for 12.00 free shipping. I then took the adaptor to a local machine shop who bored out the 5/8 adaptor to 3/4 and cut a new keyway for 15.00. Lot easier and cheaper to do that versus buying a 3/4 freewheel only.

I have owned a bunch of trikes.Most recreational trikes claim their "out front" pedalling design is the way to go. I disagree. With the Worksman design you set atop the pedals like a bike giving you much more pedal power using your body weight not just your leg muscles. My Trailmate is a pain to ride more than a mile or 2.



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My wife an I have 2 of these Giant "Revive" bikes,
Revive-red_r.jpg

We bought them like 6 years ago. This was before I got re-obsessed with conventional bikes and had not rode any bike much for maybe a decade. They were fun for a while, but they are that same deal - Big padded seat and backrest and "out front" pedaling design. To me, even though this bike got me and my wife back into riding, I kind of hate them now, they ride pretty slow even with all the gears and oh boy! do your legs hurt the next day.:eek:
Kinda funny, when we first got them ( and they were not cheap!) we were total fans of their design - and now we only rode them once last year.
Probably should sell them to a newbie who wants to get back into riding - they are good for that!
 
Interesting to see that you two seem to agree that the pedal forward design is good for people who don't bike much, but not so good for someone able bodied who wants to ride further.

Also kills me that you guys are finding trikes so cheap while in other parts of the country they are hard to find, at all.

In SW Florida, there are always trikes on Craiglist, but a trike has to be really trashed to sell for $50 to $75 to be listed on CL. I see lots of trikes - Desotos, Suns, Worksmans, and a few off brands - $150 to $350 and even higher. Seems like people expect to get 50% to 75% of retail on even fairly rusty ones.

I see a Worksman trike listed a little north of me for $360, and this is a 3 speed Trifecta in average condition. (Good luck, eh?)

I would love to come across a Worksman Mover 20" but those only seem to pop up in areas where there are factories selling them off.
 
Interesting to see that you two seem to agree that the pedal forward design is good for people who don't bike much, but not so good for someone able bodied who wants to ride further.

Also kills me that you guys are finding trikes so cheap while in other parts of the country they are hard to find, at all.

In SW Florida, there are always trikes on Craiglist, but a trike has to be really trashed to sell for $50 to $75 to be listed on CL. I see lots of trikes - Desotos, Suns, Worksmans, and a few off brands - $150 to $350 and even higher. Seems like people expect to get 50% to 75% of retail on even fairly rusty ones.

I see a Worksman trike listed a little north of me for $360, and this is a 3 speed Trifecta in average condition. (Good luck, eh?)
I would love to come across a Worksman Mover 20" but those only seem to pop up in areas where there are factories selling them off.
A neighbor cleaned out his barn and sold me a pile of bikes - the only one he held onto was a Columbia 20" foldable trike.
 

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