This wasn't intended to be a Rat Rod, and I'm not even sure of the definition of a rat rod. It's a worker bike, and not a show piece. You may not can tell from the photos, but see it first hand and you'll recognize that I'm no craftsman.
This is a Worksman Front Loading Tricycle. I don't know the age, probably 25 years old or something. But Worksman still makes these, pretty much identical, and has been in business for a long time, so age is anyone's guess. I bought it used. It had been rode hard and put up wet, so to speak. There is some welding on the frame, and it's possible that two Worksman trikes were actually spliced together to make this one, not much telling. If so, it seems to be a decent job of it.
The deck on this was plywood and rotting, so the first thing I did was replace that. This also involved replacing some rusting bolts, and I spent about $20 on oddball hardware at the hardware store. ("Elevator bolts" are expensive!) I tried to use the same type of hardware as was on it (square nuts on the elevator bolts, for example), although I don't know if that was original to the trike. The rear wheel has a coaster brake. The wheel that came on it wasn't the original Worksman wheel (which is much heavier) and I could rotate the pedals a full revolution backwards before the brake kicked in. I swapped out rear wheels with an old Huffy tandem that I had, and that works better. Bendix coaster brake, if I remember right, on the Huffy wheel. The Worksman trike had a 22 tooth sprocket and put that on the Huffy wheel to keep the gearing low. I think the front sprocket is 32 teeth.
These are made with rear fenders, and mine didn't have one, so I got a generic cruiser fender from Niagara Cycles and put it on. I added the sideboard so I could haul groceries with it. The swivel joint was loose and I assumed the bearings there were just completely shot and ordered some new ones. Then when I tore into it, I found the bearings were good, just dry and loose, so I greased and adjusted them and all is well. The front wheel bearings were a little lose due to a spacer washer being missing, and I added the spacer washer and tightened them up.
I've added white reflectors under the front axle facing forward, some stick-on red reflectors on the back of the platform, a red reflector behind the seat, and some spoke reflectors on the rear wheel. I meant to add one reflector to each wheel, but they wouldn't fit the thicker Worksman spokes on the front wheels.
I've ridden this around the local bike trails a couple of times. I rode it on the 16 mile route on the Richardson Wild Ride. And my son and I took it and two unicycles and made it around White Rock Lake (about 10 miles) by trike and unicycle. Just this morning, I took the pictures here and then went to Walmart and brought $100 worth of groceries home on it with no problem.
I call this "The Thing" (name is on it, too) simply because nobody seems to know what to call them. Worksman has their name for it. I've seen them called parts haulers, cargo trikes, reverse trikes, bakfiets, etc. (My low gravity bike is now "Thing 2", named from the Cat in the Hat book with Thing 1 and Thing 2).
This is a Worksman Front Loading Tricycle. I don't know the age, probably 25 years old or something. But Worksman still makes these, pretty much identical, and has been in business for a long time, so age is anyone's guess. I bought it used. It had been rode hard and put up wet, so to speak. There is some welding on the frame, and it's possible that two Worksman trikes were actually spliced together to make this one, not much telling. If so, it seems to be a decent job of it.
The deck on this was plywood and rotting, so the first thing I did was replace that. This also involved replacing some rusting bolts, and I spent about $20 on oddball hardware at the hardware store. ("Elevator bolts" are expensive!) I tried to use the same type of hardware as was on it (square nuts on the elevator bolts, for example), although I don't know if that was original to the trike. The rear wheel has a coaster brake. The wheel that came on it wasn't the original Worksman wheel (which is much heavier) and I could rotate the pedals a full revolution backwards before the brake kicked in. I swapped out rear wheels with an old Huffy tandem that I had, and that works better. Bendix coaster brake, if I remember right, on the Huffy wheel. The Worksman trike had a 22 tooth sprocket and put that on the Huffy wheel to keep the gearing low. I think the front sprocket is 32 teeth.
These are made with rear fenders, and mine didn't have one, so I got a generic cruiser fender from Niagara Cycles and put it on. I added the sideboard so I could haul groceries with it. The swivel joint was loose and I assumed the bearings there were just completely shot and ordered some new ones. Then when I tore into it, I found the bearings were good, just dry and loose, so I greased and adjusted them and all is well. The front wheel bearings were a little lose due to a spacer washer being missing, and I added the spacer washer and tightened them up.
I've added white reflectors under the front axle facing forward, some stick-on red reflectors on the back of the platform, a red reflector behind the seat, and some spoke reflectors on the rear wheel. I meant to add one reflector to each wheel, but they wouldn't fit the thicker Worksman spokes on the front wheels.
I've ridden this around the local bike trails a couple of times. I rode it on the 16 mile route on the Richardson Wild Ride. And my son and I took it and two unicycles and made it around White Rock Lake (about 10 miles) by trike and unicycle. Just this morning, I took the pictures here and then went to Walmart and brought $100 worth of groceries home on it with no problem.
I call this "The Thing" (name is on it, too) simply because nobody seems to know what to call them. Worksman has their name for it. I've seen them called parts haulers, cargo trikes, reverse trikes, bakfiets, etc. (My low gravity bike is now "Thing 2", named from the Cat in the Hat book with Thing 1 and Thing 2).
