How to Brake on a Tricycle | Sixthreezero Trike Guide

Hi, it's Alana here with sixthreezero, and today I'm going to show you how to break on a trike or adult electric tricycle. So before getting started, you want to be familiar with which handbrake operates which brake, the front, and the rear. So you can do that by simply engaging them before you even get on the bike. So here I'm squeezing the right-hand brake and it engages the rear brake, and the left, I can see, engage the front brake.

Now, from here, you're just going to want to walk the bike and engage the brakes to get a feel for it. So that's the rear, that's the front. Now, like with the bike, there is a specific order in which you want to apply the brakes. The rear brake is always going to slow you down. So, as you can see, if I engage the rear brake, I can still move a little, so it doesn't bring you to a complete stop, but it will slow you down.

To come to a complete stop you're going to need the front brake. No movement there, but the reason you want to apply them in order is, because if you're going really quickly and you only apply the front brake for a stop, you might tip forward. Not too much with the case with the trike, but it's just good to know in case you ever transition from a trike to a bike.

So, to recap, rear brake, and then front brake. Rear brake to slow down, front brake to come to a complete stop. So let's see how that looks in action.

So there, if you practice exercises you can do, just to get a feel for the brakes and get used to using them in that order. What I like to do and what I recommend, is picking a wide-open space. In this case, we have a pretty empty street. It's actually a cul-de-sac, so we don't get too much traffic here. And you can just pick a landmark. If you have cones, you can set them up as kind of your finish line.

And what you'll want to do is practice breaking to the finish line, applying the brakes in order, rear, and then the front, and working on stopping exactly where you aim to stop. So at first, you might not get it right on the dot, but as you practice, you'll get better at stopping in exactly the right spot.

So, hopefully, you found that helpful. It's definitely an important skill to have, whether you're using a trike or a bike, just, you definitely want to know how to break before getting out there, to avoid any sort of accidents or injuries. And we have a few different trike videos that go through the different aspects of riding a trike, including turning, mounting. So make sure you watch those too.