Can an Adult Tricycle Tip Over? The Truth About Riding a Trike for Adults

Can an adult tricycle tip over?

Hey everyone, I'm Dustin. I have nearly 20 years of experience in the bike and e-bike industry. Today we're going to answer the question, can an adult tricycle tip over? All right, one last thing. We've got three trikes here for amazing adults. Our Easy Transit Foldable trike, the Rickshaw trike for passengers, which is super cool, and our EvryJourney trike right here. All right, so a trike or a three-wheel bike or a tricycle for adults, they've got two wheels in the rear, one in the front. Now, they are easier to balance, more easy to balance than a two-wheel bike, but can they tip over? And the answer is yes. For any trike I've ever ridden on, there is some level of risk for the trike to tip over. Now, I've ridden probably 40, or 50 different regular trikes, and electric trikes, and I've experienced all of them. And I would say, you know, there are certain setups that make them a little more balanced and better for certain things, which I'll explain here in a second. But generally speaking, any three-wheel bike is going to be at risk of tipping if they're not steered and driven correctly.

So the number one reason for tipping a tricycle is that a rider is not appropriately respecting the three-wheel bicycle and how it should be ridden. And it's important to realize that three-wheel bikes for adults are not going to be ridden the same way as a two-wheel bike. And so if you're moving into riding onto a tricycle, you can't utilize the same principles from a two-wheel bike on a three-wheel bike. That would be one of the biggest reasons why somebody would tip over on a tricycle for adults. They would be trying to ride it like a two-wheel bike and simply it's just not going to ride the same way. And if you start to do the same kind of things and the leans and you travel at the same speeds that you were traveling on a two-wheel bike, you'll be at a high risk of tipping no matter what tricycle you are. And it's going to be a user error. So the reality of a trike tipping, it's only going to happen if it's a user error. And that's the key to it is if you're going to get on a tricycle or anyone's going to get on a tricycle, you need to know how to ride a trike. Number one, you cannot accelerate into turns. Bicycles, you can accelerate into turns and it helps the bike stay more balanced. On a tricycle, you do not want to accelerate into the turn. You want to coast into the turn, make the turn at a slow gradual pace, then accelerate out of the turn. that's gonna be the number one thing I see people come into turns way too fast on a trike and all of a sudden one of the wheels lifts off.

If you just slow down a little bit and steer at an appropriate speed, all three wheels will stay nice and balanced and you won't have to worry about a thing. The other thing too is if you're riding on hills perpendicular to the grade, so if the hill is going up this direction and you're riding this way, you are gonna risk tipping this way. I would just say generally. Don't ride perpendicular to the grade of a hill if you don't have to. If you do have to cross a major hill, might be better to walk your trike across it. Or, depending on how severe the grade is, you might have to aggressively lean your body into the grade of the hill to ensure you keep all three wheels balanced on the ground as you cross that hill. So, the risk of tipping does exist, but I will say the risk of falling over on a two-wheel bike exists as well. And just like riding a two-wheel bike, we had to learn the principles of how to shift and balance our weight to keep a two-wheel bike up. The same is true with a three-wheel bike. You have to learn the principles of how to shift your body weight, and how to move with the trike. Now the difference between a trike and a bike is on a two-wheel bike, the leaning of your body weight assists in the turning. The leaning of your body weight on a trike will not do anything to turn the trike, but it will help keep the rear wheels balanced. So when you come into turns on a trike, if you wanna prevent tipping, you wanna lean to the outside of the turn. So if you're turning to the left, you wanna shift your butt to the right, which is gonna keep this outside wheel down, and as you move through, you can shift your body weight to be even on both buttocks. So if you're taking a turn at a high speed and leaning into that turn, you're gonna feel, if you're turning to the left, you would feel this wheel come up. So if you're turning to the left, you shift your weight just a little bit, and it's not a lean, it's a weight shift. That's a big difference. Again, on a bike to turn, you're leaning.

I'm talking about just kinda shifting your body weight this way, right, so it'll keep this wheel down, and you can move through the turn. Now again, if you're going from a two-wheel bike to a three-wheel bike, this may not be a natural transition, but as riding on a three-wheel bike for adults becomes more natural, you will start to feel the same way on a tricycle as you did on a two-wheel bike. Just give yourself some time. When you learn to ride a bike, it isn't natural straight out you know straight away. Over time, it became natural. A trike is very much the same thing. I've done it a lot now. To me, riding a trike is natural. I can hop on a two-wheel bike and my brain knows what to do on that. I can get on a three-wheel bike and my brain knows what to do on that. And now my muscle memory will do just whatever is needed on a trike to keep it balanced and will do whatever is needed on a two-wheel bike. I've logged hundreds of hours on both trikes and bikes, and I've built that muscle memory over time. So don't be discouraged. Just remember, you've got to get time in the saddle to build that muscle memory. Get out into a parking lot and practice. Take turns slowly, and over time you will develop the habits that I promise will prevent tipping from ever happening to you. So with that said, tipping can occur on trikes. Most times it's just user error, and as you learn and get comfortable with riding on a three-wheel bike, you will be able to mitigate tipping when you go for rides.

So if you have any other thoughts, questions, or comments on the topic, please email us at theteam@sixthree.com or call us at 310-982-2877. And if you're in the market for a trike, check out all the videos we have on our YouTube channel about trikes, trike riding, and different trikes. We have everything you need to know, so check it out on the YouTube channel. In addition to that, we have a 30-day money-back guarantee. If you buy a trike, within the first 30 days, send it back, no questions asked, no money out of your pocket if you don't love it. Secondly, we're gonna warranty everything for a year. First year, if anything goes wrong, we'll cover parts and labor to make sure you're still up and riding. And lastly, we have a Facebook Pedaler's Group with thousands of members. Before you make a purchase, join the group, ask questions, and see how they like their trike so you can get comfortable before making a purchase. Then once you have yours, post in the group, make friends, and then download the app to track your rides, and you can compete on the leaderboard. It is a lot of fun, and it's fun to compete on the leaderboard and see how much you start to progress and how many miles you log per week. So thanks for sticking around, and don't forget, it's your journey, your experience, and enjoy the ride.