Bines

Worksman makes a trike that looks like it will work for what I want, but they easily top $1,200. That may be a bit steep to sell the Purchasing Dept on.

Let's look at what I'm looking for.

I work at a wastewater plant.

*Tricycle
*Must carry at least 320 pounds so no one is prohibited from using it. I'll never sell the idea if it even appears discriminatory.
*Roomy rear basket that can carry at least 20 pounds. A weather tight box would be better.
*Small to medium front basket for small incidentals.
*Caliper brakes. Coaster brakes won't be accepted as safe enough. Unless maybe there's a coaster brake trike out there that can stop as short at the same speeds as a caliper brake. Disc or drum is also a possibility. Disc may be too pricey.
*Multi speed. We've some uphill roads in the plant. We tried fixed single gear trikes years ago. No go. Too difficult to pedal uphill. Especially with cargo.
*Must hold up to weather.
*Also consider the atmosphere in ww plants takes a toll on metal. H2S eats up exposed non stainless steel metal.
*Must hold up to rugged use. Some of our paved roads are rough. Most of our guys are even rougher.

Any ideas? Anyone use a trike at work?

Thanks.

plumberroy

I think workman trike is worth the price . I am down to 310 When I was working in a factory I was close to 350 . We have put pumps on the back that were over 100lbs plus 70lbs of tools. These were bikes were 30-40 year old on some bike

MichaelW

What is the alt transport? a golf buggy.
Why not select a mix of worksman heavy haulers and some 3-speed, step-through Kona Africa bikes.

fietsbob

that is Worksman's niche .. tool box Haulers.. Made in New York USA .. real Jobs, in this country.

why do you hate others having Jobs ?

(if its for a business it can become a Tax deduction)

Bines

Alt transport is six and eight cylinder pickup trucks. We do have a need, at times, for that kind of people and cargo hauling capacity.

We tried electric carts. They didn't hold up for the price, and we have two 24 hour departments. Keeping them charged and keeping good batteries in them was an issue.

We also have Kubotas and Cats. We can buy six cylinder pickups for nearly the same price and they require less maintainence.

Bicycles are straight out. Not stable enough. Not enough carry capacity.

Bines

American made is preferred. Tax write offs are for legal to determine. We're always looking for economically viable environmental solutions.

Murray Missile 

Used one like this for about 4 years and we put it through Hell. Everybody in the department used it and used it hard. Ours only had 5 spoke mags but they held up really well. I was 250Lbs. at the time and it held up to me just fine, I know bigger guys than me used it too. I used to ride it on 2 wheels when nobody was looking....... , that's why I know the wheels will hold up. When I left it was still going but we had just replaced the rear axle and BB bearings, chain and brakes. The shop was full of dust and metal shavings that got into everything. They were available with multi-speed, price wise they were about half the price of a Worksman but definitely not as sturdy.

2manybikes

Worksman is probably your best choice.

CliffordK

Does it have to be New?

Schwinn made a 3 speed trike (town and country) with a true differential. It could probably be upgraded to meet your specs.
Looks like there is a new version, but probably imported.

One of the problems with making a trike for everyone to use is finding a good seat adjustment. I suppose that might be an advantage of going modern which for some reason is much easier to adjust the seats than the old bikes.

fietsbob

It is mechanically possible to put a NuVinci CVR hub (and others) in as a Counter shaft , for a range of gear ratios ..

you use the disc brake mount to fit a sprocket on it , then that Cog drives the rear wheel drive shaft.

Cranks drive the right side, the hubshell is what the disc mounts onto on the left, so the gears are in-between.

StephenH

I don't know that there IS a good solution.
Worksman is great, but they are made for flat ground- gears and brakes are set up for flat ground.
They're carbon steel, in a corrosive atmosphere, you're going to get some rusting going on.
Disk brakes are great, but require occasional proper adjustment, which is one reason people use coaster brakes on these things. If you just leave a set of bikes or trikes out for all to use, there will be some with pretty much zero braking after a while.
Contrary to what you might imagine, a tricycle is LESS stable than a bicycle, not more. The reason being that if you go anything over a walking speed, you can tip it over going around a corner too sharp. You may never be able to sell short-sighted people on that idea, though.
There are, or have been, several other industrial-bicycle manufacturers/ brands around, but they generally will have similar products.
I was thinking in the past, I had seen an industrial bicycle with plastic/fiberglass frame, but googling that doesn't pull up anything.

Cyclosaurus

That is true. However, there is one model made to solve that problem

https://vimeo.com/79972861

fietsbob

never seen the Industrial shop floor or shipyard/ drydock that was Hilly.

Copenhagen is not Alpine, Either.

hoodat

Industrial trikes are Worksmans specialty so they know what they're doing in that field. A big advantage in this case is they are basic bikes; no fancy frills. That makes them easy to work on when it's necessary. You can get them with a Sturmey Archer 3 speed hub. You shouldn't need more than that for industrial use.
I like the fact that they are made right here in the USA. Brooklyn in fact. If you've ever tried to get service from a Chinese company you'll appreciate what an advantage that is.

wahoonc

I have worked in a lot of plants around the country over the years. Worksman is the leader hands down for a reason. They are damn near indestructible. Several of the plants I worked in had very corrosive atmospheres and even in those the Worksman stood up just fine. One plant had tried using Atlas, Caloi and Sun. They were in the process of replacing them with Worksman as the others crapped out. They still had Worksman trikes and bikes in service that had been there since the plant opened some 35 years earlier.

Sometimes you get what you pay for...

Aaron