The Work Bike
 

http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z...s/Workbike.jpg

I got back from my trip to south Texas, and brought this with me. Not even sure what it is.

It was on Craigslist as a Schwinn Heavy Duty. There's no headbadge on it (looks like a tag was removed there), and I don't see any name brand or insignia anywhere. The little circle on the chain guard says "Industrial Strength".

Of course, Schwinn more or less went defunct, Pacific bought the name. Several months ago when I was researching industrial bicycles, they still showed the Schwinn Heavy Duty on their website, but it seems to no longer be there.

From this website:
http://bicyclesports.us/re___schwinn...al_bicycle.htm
I find the following quote:
"When this giant (Schwinn) fell so did it's quality. In fact, the "newly redesigned" PACIFIC Heavy Duty was black balled by several large oil companies because the flimsy chain guard caused injuries. Sadly, the giant has fallen and with it so has it's quality....As this happened, a regional supplier contacted the company who manufactured the Original Schwinn Heavy Duty and negotiated a deal. We now offer you The Original Schwinn Heavy Duty as the Summit Workhorse."

So it appears that maybe the Schwinn Heavy Duy was manufactured by Schwinn, then for Schwinn, then by Pacific Cycles overseas, then essentially the same bike was produced by Summit. Mine could be any of the three, or maybe some anonymous knock-off that I've never heard of.

This bike does have a "Made in Taiwan" sticker on the headtube. This bike differs from the current Summit bike in the shape of the forks, among other things. The seat is a Summit seat, and the basket liner is a Husky liner.

I probably paid too much for this, and could perhaps have got it cheaper or for free if I lived in the right area. But what I like is the character. It's got the name of "James" stenciled on it, has Trent's name on stickers. The fenders are painted pink, with "Pipefitter" stenciled on one. Both wheels are bent slightly (they are lighter than the wheels on my Worksman, and may or may not be the original wheels). It is geared higher than my Worksman, which to me indicates the rear sprocket may not be original. The wheels still rotate, and I may or may not be able to true them up. The basket is bent to one side, and probably some strong-arm treatment would restore that. Surprisingly, the frame has brazeons for water bottles, and a couple of little nipples on the seat stays that I'm not sure what they're for. I guess the water bottle thingy was so if you got thirsty while riding from one block in the chemical plant to the next.

Someone asked a while back why you don't see any old Worksman bikes for sale if they have been around so long. I think this kind of answers that question. This bike is probably not over 20 years old or so, not really "vintage" in that sense (although the frame is an old style), but it's obviously seen hard use. I can replace the wheels and handgrips and tires and tubes and have a perfectly good bicycle out of it, but will have invested more than it was worth (may do it anyway!). I would guess that most of the industrial bikes that make it to this condition just get scrapped, instead of being sold to some out-of-towner.

I love it. All guts and grease. It would make a fine pub-crawler or pizza-runner. Good save!

I just worked on the rear wheel. It was out of true in a general sense, and I was able to true it up pretty well. The nipples all still turned, which was one thing I wasn't sure of. Bearings seemed to be in good shape, and I re-greased them.

The front wheel is out-of-true as well, but seems to have more of a definite "bump" in it, as opposed to just being in on one side and out on the other, so I don't know how well it will true up, but I'll try it.

The handgrips are old hardened plastic that if anything seem to be older than the bike, and they say "Schwinn" on them, so it may be an honest-to-goodness Schwinn Heavy Duty, albeit made in Taiwan. The coaster brake arm is a Shimano with some numbers, no markings on the hub itself that I see.

One thing kind of odd is that the front sprocket seems to be unusually lop-sided. The chain is noticeably loose on one half of a crank turn, tight on the other half of the crank turn. The crank bearings don't seem too out-of-whack, though I haven't disassembled the crank bearings to see.

I've wondered how they maintain these at chemical plants. Is it every man for himself? Or do they have a couple of guys that just spend their day going from bike to bike checking on bearing grease and whatnot?

At the plant I was at last year it was a hit or miss proposition when it came to maintenance on the fleet bikes. Some of the bikes had never seen service IMHO. Others were serviced regularly. Typically the ones that belonged to the maintenance people were in the best shape followed by the ones ridden by supervisors. FWIW based on the rusting of unprotected steel around there it is amazing that anything lasts very long. The plant I am at now banned bikes several years ago after someone crashed and it caused a Lost Time Work accident. Plant manager banned them.:( So now we all drive around the plant site in full sized pickups:twitchy:

Aaron:)

nice industrial bike. i have had a few chainring problems like you described with this one, and i either trued up the chainring (cuz it got bent somehow, and thats all it takes) or slapped on a new one. it looks like a schwinn heavy duty, but i just can't bring myself to put schwinn and made in taiwan in the same sentence (although.. i just did). now all i need is a heavy duty lookin basket like that for my commuter.

I think that is Wald's "Giant Delivery Basket", at least it measures the same dimensions. I assume the liner is a separate item sold by Husky.
Basket: http://waldsports.qbsoft.com/index.c...157basket.html
One source: http://www.niagaracycle.com/product_...oducts_id=5766

I don't think it's a Heavy Duti. Lines are all wrong.

Check the top photo on this site, which is the Schwinn- as far as I can tell, the lines of mine are just like that:
http://bicyclesports.us/schwinn_heav..._workhorse.htm
I assume Schwinn changed the lines as they went along. For example, I find some photos of a 1964 Heavy Duty that don't look anything like this.

I find a Craigslist ad that shows: "Vintage Schwinn Heavy-Duti bike (ca 1965)...built as an industrial bike (not the same as the Heavy-Duty)" http://huntsville.craigslist.org/bik/920807539.html

This page shows a recent Schwinn Heavy Duty:
http://www.industrialbikes.com/detail.aspx?ID=3564

Another listing here:
http://www.bikepedia.com/QuickBike/B...Duty&Type=bike

Here's a photo of the "Heavy-Duti" from 1978, different frame. http://oldroads.com/pqdb_img.asp?p=f...ti&mak=Schwinn

I ran across this page showing specifications from 1998. The fork type spelled out matches mine, I think. The style of wheels and rear sprocket do not- which I think is an indication that the wheels are not original.

It looks a lot like some of the Atlas bikes I have seen. But who knows, as long as it is ridable....:thumb:

Aaron:)

It may be an Atlas, but at least it is not the current Atlas industrial bike. The site is here, click on "Cruiser" then "Atlas" to see a photo of their current bike: http://www.sunbicycles.com/sun/index.html
Note that on the current bike, the lower bar intersects the upper bar, and doesn't go all the way back to the seat tube.

Now, a question here. On the front fork, it doesn't have the little lawyer-tab thingies. Instead, the axle holes on the fork are not cut the full width, so you can't just lift the axle out of the fork. I assume you just spring the fork out to the sides, however far that takes, to get the axle out? Sort of a pain. I'm thinking I'd be better off to file those slots so I could just slide the axle out next time?

schwinn seemed to offer quite a few "heavy duties" back in the 60's for a few different models. my schwinn is an american (or wasp?) and has the "heavy duty" package on it, as i remember heavy duties with frames like yours.

i love my "heavy duty" schwinn and just put on a quick release basket to make it even more versitile. in over 20 years and 80 some odd bikes, this is the first front basket i've owned.

My friend tom and me once rode into a gas refinery on bikes and we came across
30-40 schwinn heavys all lined up and the paint all worn off in that good way.
We just stood there in awe of their durability until the guy in the security truck
Came and got us