It's people having good jobs and having pride in what they do,' he said. They've been doing it forever, they know what they're doing,' Shapiro said.īut whatever is being built, Sosin said he's proud that 80% of his workforce lives within 5 miles of the factory.

'They have all these old machines and the ability to make and build everything. Now, entrepreneurs come with used delivery trucks asking Sosin's team to convert them into mobile eateries.ĭavid Shapiro, who operates the wildly popular falafel truck Taim Mobile, said he was impressed with their work. Generations ago, the 113-year-old company would supply ice cream vendors with simple pushcarts. One segment of Worksman's business that often goes overlooked is its food cart operation. He used to fix tractor tires in his native Guyana, so cranking out hundreds of wheels over the course of the day is 'fun' and 'easy' for him, he said. Wrapping rubber tires around the steel rims is the only job that he has held since he came to the U.S. 'It's quite a challenging process - it keeps your brain active,' said Lenny Rashid, the production supervisor who guards against misalignment by scrutinizing every angle and cut of the custom-made cycles.īruce Weinreb, who led the Daily News on a tour of the factory, said a year's supply of their speciality wheel rims are always on site.Īfter the rims are laced with spokes and pressed through a hulking machine that they received when the Schwinn company went overseas, Ashref Khan, 'the tire man' takes over. We're the last of the Mohicans,' joked Sosin, 57.įrom the outside, the factory's three-story, nearly 100,000-square-foot digs look dilapidated.īut inside, the sounds of the sprawling plant are an orchestra of precision: The clang of Usmane Yatte bending pipes, the crackle of welder Errol Barrett fusing together axels and the clatter of Devin Velaidam putting the gears into place. 'We're the last of a breed but we have no intention of dying. The Worksman Cycle plant in Ozone Park was the location for the first installment of 'Crafted in Queens,' a new series that explores manufacturing in the borough and the expert craftsmanship involved.Īt a time when most bicycles are made overseas, company president Wayne Sosin and his crew of more than 50 employees still construct recreational and industrial bikes without the aid of high-tech computers or assembly lines. This Queens bicycle factory leaves no spoke unturned with its deliberate attention to detail.

Worksman industrial cycles