75 and Feeling 16 Again: Don's Hill-Climbing eTrike Test Ride in San Clemente

A 75-Year-Old Walks Into the Showroom

Don Nunari is 75 years old, and he did not come to San Clemente to sit politely on a display model and nod. He came to ride. Standing at sixthreezero headquarters with a relaxed-position electric trike waiting beside him, he introduced himself on camera, laid out the plan in one breath, and then got straight to it: up hills, down hills, and let's go.

That plan is about as honest a product test as you can get. There is no spec sheet in his hands, no checklist, no list of talking points. Just a man who has been riding bikes for a long time, a three-wheeled machine he has never pedaled before, and the very real hills of a coastal Southern California town. Whatever happens next is going to tell you more about this eTrike than any brochure ever could.

What happened next was about six minutes of footage that mostly consists of Don laughing. He gets surprised, he gets outpaced, he turns around, he climbs, he comes back with a grin, and by the end he is telling anyone watching that if they want to feel 16 again, or 21, this is the bike. It is a short video. But it raises a question a lot of people quietly ask themselves somewhere after 60: is riding still for me? Don's answer, delivered without a single pause for thought, was yes.

This article walks through his ride from start to finish, then steps back to look at why an electric trike with a relaxed riding position made such an impression, and what to think about if his ride has you looking at the electric tricycle lineup for yourself.

Most bike reviews come from people who ride for a living. They are fit, they are young-ish, and they evaluate a bike against hundreds of others they have tested. That kind of review has its place, but it does not always answer the question an older rider actually has. A 35-year-old reviewer telling you a trike climbs well is not the same as a 75-year-old discovering it climbs well while his own legs are doing part of the work.

Don is the person this kind of trike is built for. He is active, curious and clearly not interested in slowing down, but he is also at an age where balance, joints and stamina all get a vote in how a ride goes. When a rider like that hops on something for the first time and his first real reaction is surprise at how quick it feels, that tells you something useful. It means the machine is not intimidating. It means the assist is doing its job. And it means the riding position is comfortable enough that he can pay attention to the road and the scenery instead of fighting the bike.

There is also something in the way he talks. He never once describes the trike in technical terms. He describes it in feelings: fast, fun, a blast, like being a kid again. For a lot of people shopping in this category, that is the real metric. Nobody buys a trike at 70 because of a torque figure. They buy it because they want to get outside, ride with friends, handle the hill at the end of the street, and enjoy themselves while doing it.

If that sounds like you, it is worth browsing sixthreezero's electric trikes for seniors with Don's ride in mind. The point is not that every rider will react exactly the way he did. The point is that an honest first ride from someone in your shoes is a better starting place than a list of numbers.

The First Pedal Strokes: "Wow, This Thing Is Fast"

The ride starts the way most first rides do: a few cautious pedal strokes, a moment of getting the feel of the steering, and then a little more confidence. About twenty seconds after rolling out, Don says what a lot of first-time eTrike riders say, and he says it with genuine surprise. Wow, this thing is fast.

It is worth unpacking that reaction, because it is not really about top speed. On a conventional bike or trike, getting moving takes effort. You push hard on the first few pedal strokes, the machine slowly comes up to pace, and if there is any incline at all you feel it immediately in your thighs. With electric assist, that early effort is shared. You press the pedal, the motor adds its push, and the trike moves off more briskly than your body expects. For someone who has spent decades calibrating their legs to unassisted bikes, that difference reads as speed.

For older riders, that quick, smooth start is more than a fun sensation. The first few seconds of a ride are where a lot of wobbles and awkward moments happen, especially when pulling away from a curb or starting on a slight slope. A trike already removes the balance problem, since it stands up on its own. Add assist, and you also remove much of the strain of getting going. Don simply rolled away and kept rolling, which is exactly what you want.

A few moments later he gets a second surprise. You can hear it in the footage: he starts to describe something, cuts himself off, and lets out a stunned "you got to be kidding me." Whatever he had just felt, whether it was the trike picking up pace on a straight or simply how easy it all suddenly was, it pulled the review right out of him. That is the kind of moment that is hard to fake and easy to recognize if you have ever had one yourself.

Don described the trike as the relaxed-body model, and that phrase gets at something important about how this style of eTrike is designed. On a traditional road bike, the rider leans forward, puts weight on the hands and wrists, and tilts the neck up to see ahead. That position is efficient for speed but hard on backs, shoulders and necks, and it gets less comfortable with every passing decade.

A relaxed position flips that around. The rider sits more upright or slightly reclined, with the weight carried by the seat and the back rather than the arms. The handlebars come back toward the rider, so there is no reaching. The head stays level, which makes it easier to look around and enjoy the view. Knees and hips move through a gentler range. The overall effect is closer to sitting in a comfortable chair than perching on a narrow saddle.

If you want to see how far that idea can go, sixthreezero's recumbent electric trikes take the reclined position further, while the most comfortable electric trikes collection groups models where seat shape, posture and ride quality are the priority. The right choice depends on your body. Some riders love being low and laid back. Others prefer to sit taller so they can see over parked cars and step off easily.

What matters for Don's ride is that he never mentions discomfort. He climbs, descends, turns around and keeps going for several minutes, and the only thing he talks about is how much fun he is having. When the position is right, you stop noticing it. Your attention goes to the road, the people you are riding with and the hill in front of you, which is exactly where it should be.

Taking On the Hills of San Clemente

San Clemente is a beautiful place to ride, but it is not flat. The town climbs away from the ocean in a series of rises that can turn a casual outing into a workout in a hurry. Don knew that going in. His whole plan, stated in the first thirty seconds of the video, was to go up hills and down hills. He was not looking for an easy loop around a parking lot. He wanted to know how the trike handled the kind of terrain that actually stops people from riding.

By the end of the video, he sums it up simply: they went up a huge hill, and he had a blast doing it. Think about how unusual that sentence is coming from a 75-year-old. For a lot of riders his age, a huge hill is the reason they stopped riding years ago. It is the part of the route they plan around, the place they get off and push, or the reason they leave the bike in the garage.

Electric assist changes the experience of climbing in a way that is hard to appreciate until you feel it. You still pedal. You still feel the slope. But instead of grinding down to a crawl and running out of breath halfway up, you keep a steady, manageable pace. The motor fills in the gap between what your legs can comfortably give and what the hill demands. On a trike, there is the added benefit that a slow climb is never a balance problem. If you slow right down near the top, the trike stays upright. There is no wobble, no foot down, no risk of tipping over at walking speed.

That combination is why hills come up so often when older riders talk about eTrikes. It is not that the hills disappear. It is that they stop being a wall. Don's ride captures that shift better than any explanation could: the hill was the exciting part, not the dreaded part.

What goes up has to come down, and descents deserve as much attention as climbs, especially for older riders. A downhill on two wheels asks a lot of you: steady hands, good balance, confident braking and quick reactions if something unexpected appears. Plenty of riders who are fine on the flat get nervous once the road tips downward.

A trike handles descents differently. With three contact points on the ground, it does not lean or wobble the way a bicycle does, and you are not relying on balance to stay upright as speed changes. That does not mean you can ignore physics. Trikes should be taken through turns at sensible speeds, and riders need to brake before a corner rather than in it. But the basic feeling of stability on a slope is far more reassuring than on two wheels.

Braking is the other half of the equation. If descents are part of your regular routes, it is worth looking at electric trikes with disc brakes, which tend to give strong, predictable stopping power and hold up well on long downhill stretches. Combined with a relaxed seating position that keeps your weight settled and centered, good brakes make the trip back down as enjoyable as the climb.

In the video, the descents are where the fun really starts to show. Don's comments get shorter and his laughter gets louder. That is usually a good sign. When a rider is nervous, they go quiet and grip the bars. When they are confident, they start enjoying themselves. By the time he rolls back toward the starting point, he is clearly in the second group.

Turning Around and Keeping Up

A little past the three-minute mark, there is a simple instruction in the footage: turn around. It is a small moment, but anyone who has ridden a long trike knows that turning around is not always simple. A wide turning circle, an awkward stop-and-reverse, or an uneasy feeling at low speed can make a basic U-turn feel like a chore.

Don handled it without fuss and carried on. If tight turns and maneuvering matter to you, because you ride narrow paths, park in tight garages or simply do not want to wrestle the trike, it is worth thinking about how you will move it around off the road as well as on it. Some riders find a reverse gear electric trike genuinely useful for backing out of a driveway or a parking spot without climbing off and pushing.

Right after the turn, there is another exchange that says a lot about the ride. Someone riding with Don pulls alongside, and he laughs and tells them, "You're faster than me." Then, almost in the same breath, he says he loves this one. It is a great snapshot of how group rides work on electric trikes. Speeds even out. Nobody gets left behind gasping on the hill. A rider can be a little slower than their companion and still be in the conversation, still enjoying it, still part of the ride.

That social side is easy to overlook when people talk about eTrikes, but for many older riders it is the main reason they buy one. Riding with a spouse, grandchildren or a group of friends is more fun than riding alone, and electric assist is what makes those mixed-ability rides work. A quick "see you later" as someone peels off, a cheerful "there he is" as a rider rejoins the group: those little moments in the video are the heart of what this kind of riding is about.

Around the four-and-a-half-minute mark, back near the start, Don stops and says what is clearly on his mind. This is fun. He feels like a kid again. It is the line that sticks with you after the video ends, and it is worth taking seriously rather than treating it as a cute sound bite.

There is a reason riding makes people feel young. For most of us, a bicycle was our first taste of freedom. It was how we got to a friend's house, explored the neighborhood and stayed out until the streetlights came on. The feeling of air moving past, the slight thrill of speed, the sense that you can go anywhere under your own power: those memories are deep, and they come right back the moment you start rolling again.

What tends to take that feeling away later in life is not a lack of interest. It is friction. Balance becomes less certain. Hills become harder. Getting on and off becomes awkward. A ride that used to be easy starts to involve worry, and worry is the enemy of fun. An electric trike with a relaxed riding position removes much of that friction at once. You are stable, you are comfortable, the hills are manageable and the effort is under your control. What is left is the fun part.

That is what Don was reacting to. He was not discovering something new so much as rediscovering something old. At 75, after a ride that included a huge climb, he came back laughing and talking about being 16. You could argue that is the best review any bike can get.

"This Is My Favorite": What Made It Stand Out

Near the end of the video, Don makes a comparison. This is his favorite, he says. That suggests he has spent time on other models and has a sense of how this one stacks up. He does not go into a feature-by-feature breakdown, and he does not need to. His reasons come through in everything else he says.

First, it felt quick. Several times he comes back to speed and pep, and for a rider who wants to keep up with others and enjoy a bit of liveliness, that matters. Second, it climbed. A huge hill did not ruin the ride; it was a highlight. Third, it was comfortable enough that he could ride for several minutes over varied terrain and talk only about the fun. And fourth, it made him happy in a way that is plain to see. He keeps saying it was awesome and that he loved it.

Notice what is missing from that list: any complaint. No sore back, no wrist pain, no struggle to get on, no moment of feeling unsafe. For an older rider testing something new, the absence of problems is half the story. The other half is the presence of joy, and Don had plenty of that.

If you are trying to figure out which model might become your favorite, the answer depends on your body, your routes and how you plan to use it. Sixthreezero's ultimate bike buyer’s guide is a good place to start sorting through the options, and the Bike Advice blog has more rider stories and practical how-tos

It is worth stepping back from Don's ride for a moment to look at why electric trikes have become so popular with riders in their 60s, 70s and 80s. The reasons are practical, and most of them showed up somewhere in his six minutes on camera.

The biggest one is balance. A bicycle only stays upright while it is moving, and it relies on the rider to keep it there. At low speeds, when stopping, starting or turning sharply, that balance is at its most fragile, and that is exactly where many falls happen. A trike does not have that problem. It stands on its own at a standstill, at a crawl and on a slow climb. That single difference removes a lot of the fear that keeps people off bikes.

The second is mounting and dismounting. Swinging a leg over a high frame gets harder with stiff hips or knees. Many trikes use a low frame you step through rather than over, and sixthreezero groups these as easy-to-mount eTrikes with a low step-thru. If getting on and off is the hardest part of riding for you, start there.

The third is the assist itself, which turns hills, headwinds and longer distances from obstacles into ordinary parts of a ride. Some riders also like a throttle for getting moving from a stop or giving tired legs a break, and there is a dedicated collection of electric tricycles with throttle control for that. Finally, trikes are useful. A rear basket turns a ride into an errand, and it is hard to overstate how much more often people ride when the trike can also carry groceries home.

Features Worth Looking At If Don's Ride Got You Thinking

Watching someone else have a great time on a trike is one thing. Picking one for yourself is another. Here are the features that tend to matter most for riders in Don's age group, and where to find them on the sixthreezero site.

Comfort and posture come first. If your back, neck or wrists complain on an upright bike, look at the recumbent models or the comfort-focused trikes instead. A seat with real support and handlebars that come back to you make longer rides possible.

Next, think about where you ride. Sandy beach paths, gravel and rough pavement are smoother and more stable on wide tires, which is the appeal of fat tire electric trikes. If your neighborhood looks anything like San Clemente, prioritize good brakes and strong assist for the climbs. If you ride with a passenger or a pet, or you are a larger rider, there are dedicated collections for trikes built for passengers and trikes with a high weight capacity.

Then think about daily life. A large rear basket makes the trike part of your routine instead of a weekend toy. If you have limited storage or plan to transport the trike in a vehicle, folding electric trikes are worth a look. And if you like the idea of two wheels in front for steering feel, check out the tadpole-style front-wheel eTrikes.

Finally, do not skip the basics. A good helmet belongs on every ride, no matter how stable the trike feels, and sixthreezero carries helmets alongside its other accessories.

One of the reasons Don's ride went so well is that the trike suited him. That is not luck. The right fit is the difference between a trike you ride every day and one that sits in the garage after the first month. Seat height, reach to the handlebars, how easily you can get your feet down and how the riding position feels on your hips and back all come down to matching the trike to your body.

Sixthreezero offers a personal fitting consultation that walks through exactly these questions, with separate paths for eTrikes and eBikes. The idea is simple: instead of guessing from photos, you talk through your height, mobility, riding goals and the kind of terrain you deal with, and come away with a shortlist of models that actually make sense for you.

It is especially worth doing if you have any specific concerns. Maybe you have a knee that does not bend as far as it used to. Maybe you are recovering from a hip replacement, or you want to ride with a partner who is much taller or shorter than you. These are the details that a general product page cannot account for, and they are exactly the details that decide whether a trike feels like Don's did, comfortable enough to forget about and fun enough to keep talking about.

If you are leaning toward a two-wheeled option instead, the same thinking applies. The electric bikes for seniors collection focuses on models with step-through frames and comfortable geometry, and the fitting process covers those too.

Trying One for Yourself

Don had the advantage of riding right at sixthreezero headquarters in San Clemente, and if you live within reach of Southern California, you can do the same. The Visit Us page has the details on coming in for a test ride, which is the most direct way to have your own version of his experience: try a few models, take on a hill or two, and see which one makes you grin.

If a visit is not practical, sixthreezero's 30-day test ride lets you ride at home on your own streets. That is arguably an even better test than a showroom spin, because you get to try the trike on your actual routes, in your actual driveway, with your actual hills. If it does not work out, the company covers return shipping.

A few other practical points make the decision easier. Shipping is free nationwide. The trikes arrive mostly assembled, and there are assembly instructions and mechanics available to help with the rest. If you need service down the line, sixthreezero can point you to an approved mechanic near you, and the warranty page lays out what is covered. For riders who would rather spread out the cost, there is information on available financing as well.

None of that is as exciting as a 75-year-old laughing his way down a hill. But it is the kind of groundwork that lets you take a chance on something new without worrying about getting stuck with the wrong choice.

Strip away everything else, and Don's video comes down to a simple idea: age does not have to be the thing that ends your riding life. The right machine can give back what time has taken away, whether that is balance, stamina or just the confidence to head out the door.

In about six minutes, he went from introducing himself to telling the camera that anyone who wants to feel 16 or 21 again should get this bike. In between, he climbed a big hill, came back down it, turned around, got outpaced by a friend, laughed about it and declared the trike his favorite. There was no strain in his voice, no hesitation and no sense that he was doing anything risky. Just fun, the kind that is easy to forget is still available.

If you have been on the fence about whether riding is still for you, take Don's word for it. Find a trike that fits your body, pick a route with a hill you have been avoiding, and go see what it feels like. There is a good chance you will come back saying the same thing he did: this is so much fun.

When you are ready to start looking, browse the full range of sixthreezero electric trikes, book a fitting consultation, or catch more rider stories like this one in the Bike Advice video blog.