Do You Need Gears on Your Tricycle or ETrike - Adult Tricycle with Speeds Necessary or Not?

Hey everyone, I'm Dustin. I have nearly 20 years of experience in the bike and E-bike industry, and today I'm going to answer the question, do you need gears on your E-trike or tricycle? Stick around.

All right, so today I'm going to answer the question, do you need gears or speeds on your tricycle or electric tricycle? Before I get into it, hit subscribe. Stay in touch with us here at SixThreeZero. Be the first to know about all the new content we're putting out, giveaways we do, and new product releases. So hit subscribe.

All right, so you're in the market for an electric trike or a tricycle and you're wondering, do I need gears? Do I need speeds? Great question. I see a lot of tricycles out there. Single speeds. I see a seven-speed. This is a SixThreeZero Every Journey 250-watt electric trike. We have a seven-speed derailleur system on this. It's not linked to the actual electric, it's just seven-speed, so you can ride it as a normal tricycle without the electric.

The answer to this question is it depends on the type of riding you're going to do. A single-speed tricycle, if you're going to do riding under three miles an hour and zero hills on very flat ground, a single speed would suit you just fine in those conditions. The one caveat is you're only going to have one gear. And when I say that, I mean you're only going to have one rear cog and one rear chain wheel in the front here, meaning you've only got one level of pedal resistance. So whoever manufactures that tricycle is going to try to put together the one gear that they feel is optimal and will provide the optimal resistance on the pedals to provide the best riding experience. The configuration of the front cog and the rear chain wheel is what's going to set the resistance and dictate how easy or hard is it to pedal, and also how fast can you get the tricycle going at that one speed.

Typically on a bike, the harder it is to pedal, the faster will allow you to go as you build up momentum. The easier it is to pedal, you're going to be pedaling faster, but you are going to be not getting as much resistance, meaning you're going to go slower. So first gear is usually easier to pedal and it's ideal for hills. The higher gears are usually harder to pedal, your pedaling slows down, but you've got more resistance and it's going to allow the bike to go faster. So if you're relying on a single speed, you're hoping the manufacturer finds that one gear that they think is best for you.

This is why I like three speeds or seven speeds, at least three speeds because it gives you some range variation. You've got one gear, first gear, that's going to be easy to pedal. So if you're just getting going or you're doing slight hills, you can put it into first and it's easy to pedal, making it easy on you, easier on you to get uphills, things like that and then you have a seventh gear. So as you build momentum on flat ground, you're hitting top speeds, and you can put it into seventh. Again, if you stick to the single speed, which is under three miles an hour, basic, paved riding, it should be okay, but as I said, you're relying on the manufacturer that they're going to hit that exact gear that they think is right for you. With a three-speed or a seven-speed, you have options and you can choose at any given moment. Do I like the three-speed or the third gear? Do I like the fourth gear, fifth gear, sixth year, or seventh gear?

More than likely you're going to like one or two or three gears. If you have a seven-speed, you may not use all seven speeds. You may use the first gear for your basic starting up or just getting going or uphills. And as you work your way up, you may land in a four or five gear for your around-town basic riding. And then as you start to want to go faster, you probably end up in seventh gear.

Let me just do a quick demonstration here and I'll show you. So right now as an example, I have it in fifth gear and you can see in the higher gears it's a little bit harder for me to get going, so I'm going to shift it down into first, and now once I put it into first, it becomes really easy to pedal and there's less resistance so I can just start moving my legs real fast. And then once you get going, that's when you start to put it into the higher gears. Now I'm in seventh and gets a little harder, but I can start picking up the pace. I don't have a lot of runways here, and in this case on the seven-speed, it's a very simple process. I can just twist it down to shift down and you twist it up to shift up. And I like first gear for starting. So you can see in first gear.

And another thing I want to point out is just if a bike has one speed, it doesn't mean that the one speed is going to be the same as the first gear here. Usually, that one speed's going to be like some combination of a one, four, five because they're trying to find that middle ground speed that's going to be good for all purposes. So the one-speed on a seven-speed's going to be easier to pedal than a one-speed cruiser.

So you can see when I put it into first, it's just so easy for me to get my pedals moving easily on my legs, and then again, as I get moving, shift it up and I can put it in a level four to just do my cruising. And then one thing I like to do when I come to a stop gets it down to first gear so for the next time when I get going, it's already in that easy gear because you can't shift bikes with an external derailleur when you're stopped. You have to be shifting while you're moving because the chain changes sprockets, that's how it shifts gears, and it needs to be moving in order to shift the chain, to move the chain. So if you shift gears while you're stationary when you start riding, it's going to be really clunky and the chain's going to try to move, and sometimes that creates the chain falling off and can cause other issues. So downshift before you stop, get it in the gear you want, so the next time you get riding, it's all set up for you.

So that's why I believe three-speed or seven-speed's a great option for a tricycle or an electric tricycle. If you have any other questions at all, please comment below or shoot us an email at theteam@sixthreezero.com or you can call us at (310) 982-2877, and you can find the SixThreeZero Every Journey electric Trike 250 watt on our website right now, sixthreezero.com. And if you're in the market for a bike or an E-trike or a trike and you don't know what you're looking for, take the proprietary body fit quiz on our website. Answer a few questions about your body and your life, we'll recommend the perfect bike, E-bike, or trike for you. And we have a 30-day test ride your bike policy. If you don't love it in the first 30 days, send it back, no questions asked, no money out of your pocket.

In addition to that, join our community, our Facebook Pedalers group, and download our app. Great places to connect with other riders before you purchase. Ask them questions about SixThreeZero products or other bikes, and you can get familiar with what will be right for you. Then after you have your SixThreeZero, join the groups, make new friends, and track your rides on the app. It is a ton of fun. So thanks for sticking around and don't forget, it's your journey, your experience. Enjoy the ride.