Worksman Disappointment.

[wheelhorseman]

Picked up my 4th Worksman Trifecta (porto trike) the other day. I love these things. Well this one had the drum/calliper front wheel and the bearings were noisy. Pulled the wheel and bearing balls went everywhere.Called Worksman who said they are not replaceable and you must buy entire wheel $$$$$$ Luckily I had a nice 20 inch front wheel from a junk kids bike.

Seems crazy you can service the bearings IMO.

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[peejus]

Picked up my 4th Worksman Trifecta (porto trike) the other day. I love these things. Well this one had the drum/calliper front wheel and the bearings were noisy. Pulled the wheel and bearing balls went everywhere.Called Worksman who said they are not replaceable and you must buy entire wheel $$$$$$ Luckily I had a nice 20 inch front wheel from a junk kids bike.

Seems crazy you can service the bearings IMO.

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Im of the opinion that they just want you to purchase a whole new wheel and the replacements are most likely standard and off the shelf.

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[wheelhorseman]

If I could find out who makes that drum hub I could probably get a parts breakdown. Wouldnt mind fixing it and putting back on.

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[SSG]

So you still have one bearing you can measure? I order pretty much all my bicycle bearings in bulk. They come in bags of 100.

 

[jamesdart]

chuck on here often has worksman front drums for sale

 

[peejus]

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...SxqlnJ9Y-hmwRE-7Q&sig2=VvTWdbCkU7XAUh0fMqRRKw

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[peejus]

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...SxqlnJ9Y-hmwRE-7Q&sig2=VvTWdbCkU7XAUh0fMqRRKw

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Seems to be a parts list as of 2013.... but im fairly confident that this stuff is pretty standard.

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[wheelhorseman]

That link is the factory parts list. Bearings arent available.Called Worksman back to see what brand the hub is and they dont know.

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[Bicycle808]

Lloose balls are standard-sized. Caged bearings can be replaced with the right number/size of loose balls if you can't find a caged retainer in the size you need. Do you still have one of the balls that fell out of your trike? Measure it up, and order accordingly... I bet you could rebuild that hub. In fact, i recall seeing a thread on UGV about repacking/rebuilding a Worksman drum hub.... i'd link it, but it probably has a lot of profanity in it.

 

[ind-chuckz]

Which drum is it the smaller. I have some rusty ones can mostly use the bearings. Bicycle808 is also right bearing can be matched and replaced.

 

[wheelhorseman]

It looks like the loose balls found in Walmart bikes to me. I have some junk wheels so I may try inserting the balls back in..Right now the alumin rim I installed with calliper brake works fine. Just hate to scrap a perfectly good drum wheel that only needs bearings. Worksman isnt impressing me with their poor customer service.

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[wheelhorseman]

Teah I believe regular loose balls from a junk Wally bike will work.

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[horsefarmer]

 

[squirreldh]

If they are loose ball or caged it shoul be easy to rebuild, just need to ensure you have the correct diameter ball! Most shops carry loose balls in bulk if you dont want to buy a package of 100.

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[Bicycle808]

Yeah, running just any junk bearings won't work, but if you match up the right size/quantity of balls, you're good to go. I like a lot of things about Worksman, but one thing i cannot stand is that they want to try and make us buy everything from them, and although they have a long parts list, they really want to sell you new "units" (eg, a whole new wheel) rather than parts needed to fix your existing components (eg, bearings for the old wheel...) They also use some proprietary sizes, and i think most of that is to mystify the owner and keep folks from wrenching their own bicycles....

 

[xray]

If anybody runs into this problem again, I've got a spare alloy front rim with drum brake taken off a brand new PortoTrike to install a motor wheel. It has literally less than a mile on it. First thing I did when I got the trike was take it apart after riding to make sure it was all good before I installed the motor. I'm not advertising it for sale, but I could part with it if somebody needed it.