Before you get concerned about “gender appropriation,” “Worksman” is not a marketer’s dream word – like Sear’s (R.I.P.) “CraftsMAN” or “LeatherMAN” – but recalls the company’s founder, Morris Worksman. He began building local delivery cycles in New York City more than 100 years ago.
“Our Goal is to bring a more efficient, reliable and healthful transportation to modern industry” – Morris Worksman, 1898.
If you were in NYC during the days before “electric motorcycles” as delivery vehicles, you may well have seen a Worksman or two zipping around the streets with deliveries or chained up at a green grocers ready to go.
In fact, you may have been lucky enough to get a Good Humor Ice Cream treat or a hot dog from a Worksman cargo bike or cart. Another use for Worksman cycles is ferrying workers, parts and supplies, and tools from and to work stations in industrial settings. A Worksman “look-alike” was spotted at the College of St. Rose in 2013.
Typically, the cargo box for trikes rested either between two steerable wheels with conventional chain power going to a single rear dive wheel or between two powered rear wheels with a single front wheel for steering. The two-wheel bicycle had a small front wheel that left room for a cargo box above the wheel and a swing-down front wheel stand.
Worksman Low Gravity – Model LGB – $609
Worksman Front Loader – Super Delivery Trike, Model SUD – $1,699
A quote from the company president, Wayne Sosin, suffices to establish their “Made-in-America” bona fides. “We make the frames, we weld the frames, we powder coat the frames, we assemble the wheels, we weld the rear axle sprockets that are actually made in the U.S. The handle bars are USA, the stem is USA, the steel fenders we use are USA-made.” Most manufacturing is now in S. Carolina although the Ozone Park plant still produces the hot dog and food vending carts.
Nevertheless, and all that aside, what’s available for the recreational or personal transportation cyclist? Worksman has a supplementary line of street-ready cruisers (for bikeshare and rentals), folders, and trikes.
Worksman Port-O-Trike PT2FJR – $485
Worksman Folding Bike 3 Speed FMB3CB – $409
This posts sample folder speaks for itself with its photographic portfolio. It features a smooth shifting Strumey-Archer 3-speed hub, coaster brake, and 20 X 1.75”, 35-50 psi tires. This is not a compact fold and will benefit those with a low lift-over to their vehicle’s trunk area. The Chain card carries the company’s slogan, the down tube sings it praises, and the head badge shouts its lineage – “Pleasure Cycles – Ozone Park.”
Ready to ride –
The fold –
RESOURCES: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worksman_Cycles and https://www.americanmanufacturing.org/blog/entry/manufacturing-means-business-for-american-made-worksman-cycles
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Albany Bicycle Coalition 