The Shocking Truth About Adult Tricycles vs. Two-Wheel Bikes Revealed: Trike Information to Know

Hey everyone, I'm Dustin. I have nearly 20 years of experience in the bike and e-bike industry, and today we're going to answer the question, is riding a tricycle different from riding a two-wheel bike? Stick around to find out.

All right, so today we're going to answer the question, is riding a tricycle different from riding a two-wheel bike? Well, before we get into it, hit the subscribe button below. 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 of course new product releases. All right, let's say you're in the market for a tricycle and you've been riding a two-wheel bike your entire life, or let's say you've just never ridden a bike period, two wheels or three wheels, and you're going to jump into it. That won't affect you as much because your first experience will be on a three-wheel bike, so you won't know the difference between a two-wheel bike.

But let's say, like I said, you've been on a two-wheel bike your whole life, and all of a sudden you jump on that tricycle and you're like, "Whoa, wait, what? This feels different." The answer is that it is different. And I see this in the countless test rides I've done where people get on a tricycle and all of a sudden they think, "What's wrong with this? Why is it pulling? Why is it going in this direction?" The answer is, it's not doing any of those things. Well, to some extent it is, but to a lot of it, it's in the mind of the rider. And it's because riding a two-wheel bike is much, much different. A two-wheel bike requires balance and it requires more weight shifting, right? So when you ride a two-wheel bike, to turn, there's a little bit more leaning involved.

Now, you do have to turn the wheel, but it's far less usually, right? It's a turn and you lean and the bike goes. The other difference is when you ride two wheels, you want to keep the pedals moving in a lot of cases because you want to keep the wheels moving to keep the bike upright. And over years and years and years, if we start to learn to ride a two-wheel bike, we start to develop these unconscious habits with how we lean on the bike, how we turn the bike, how we balance the bike, until eventually we're doing these things automatically, we're not thinking about it at all. So then when you come from this to a three-wheel bike and all of a sudden we're like, "Why are the things that I was doing on the two-wheel bike not translating to the tricycle?" Because the tricycle is different. It has three wheels, and the way you shift your body weight and the way you turn on a tricycle is completely different.

A tricycle requires you to turn the wheel. You have to turn the wheel to go in the direction you want to go. Leaning will do nothing on a tricycle because you have two wheels back here. Leaning isn't going to move this back wheel or send you in any different direction. When you want to move a tricycle, you have to turn the wheel in the direction that you want to go. In addition to that, the tricycle is always balanced, so you don't have to worry about that. I see a lot of people when they turn are scared it's going to tip over. It's not. You just turn the wheels and the tricycle stays balanced. Now, you can't travel at super high speeds and take turns and do crazy things on a tricycle, because if you do that, then yes, it could tip over. But in essence, it's always balanced. You can turn the wheel and go.

So when you get onto a tricycle, you almost have to just tell yourself this is different and allow yourself to relearn. Now, it's not difficult. Riding a tricycle as an adult is not difficult. It just takes time and getting used to it. Again, we've done hundreds of test rides with riders that have never been on a tricycle, and the first time they found it challenging, but after five minutes it was no problem. You can get into a parking lot, you can practice, you can get a feel for it. The other thing too with a tricycle is, as you're taking turns, you want to lean, if you're turning this way, you want to lean your body weight to the outside so you're counter-shifting your weight.

On a two-wheel bike, you're going to lean into the turn, right? So on a tricycle, you don't want to lean into the turn. You want to keep the weight on your right side if you're turning left, that way you're keeping these wheels down. So it's the opposite of what a two-wheel bike is. Two-wheel bike, lean into the turn, tricycle, lean to the opposite direction of the turn. So that can be a little bit confusing for people as well. But I think the number one thing I've seen is just the fact that you have to steer the tricycle and trust the tricycle, and when you make turns, you have to turn the wheel completely. You can't just turn it a little bit and lean.

So tricycles drive differently than a two-wheel bike. However, if you were to pick up both of these at the same time, having never ridden a two-wheel or a three-wheel, the three-wheel of course is going to be much easier to get to riding right away because it's balanced. That's why we start our young children on tricycles and they go from that point, and then we teach them how to do a two-wheel bike. But if you've been riding a two-wheel bike your whole life, to go to a three-wheel bike, there's an adjustment period. And the one thing I've tried to tell people too is if you think the bike is pulling or it's taking you in a direction, try to relax and tell yourself, "No, it isn't. Just keep my steering wheel straight." Don't turn it in if you don't have to. Just keep the wheels straight, just like a car.

If you're steering a car, keep the wheel straight. I repeat this because I've seen it countless times where people get on, they're like, "Why is it pulling me in this direction?" I'm like, "Well, no, it's not. You're steering it in that direction. Just keep the wheel straight." So just know you're not alone if you're feeling that when you get onto a three-wheel bike. I've seen it many, many times, and the answer to the question is yes, three-wheel tricycles drive differently than two-wheel bikes.

If you have any thoughts, questions, or comments on the topic, please put them below. Love to start a discussion so other people can share their thoughts. And if you want to, you can email us at theteam@sixthreezero.com or call us, at 310-982-2877. We've got an awesome selection of three-wheel bikes and e-bikes on our website, sixthreezero.com.

I'm going to link this three-wheel bike in the description below and a couple of other ones we have. So check it out there. We also offer a 30-day money-back guarantee. If you don't love your e-bike or bike in the first 30 days, send it back, no questions asked, no money out of your pocket. Also one-year warranty on everything. If anything goes wrong, we'll take care of it. Lastly, join our Facebook Pedalers group. We have a group of thousands of our existing riders. If you're looking to get into a three-wheel bike or even a regular bike, you can join there, and ask questions of existing riders before you purchase. Then once you have your e-bike, it's a whole community of friends. You can post photos, find riding buddies, tons of fun. So thanks for sticking around and don't forget, it's your journey or experience. Enjoy the ride.