FAT TIRE ETrikes: Are They The Best Kind of Electric Trike? The Truth About Tire Size on E Tricycles

Are fat tires on an electric trike better?

Hey everyone, I'm Dustin. I have 20 years of experience in the bike and ebike industry and today I'm going to answer the question, are fat tires on an electric trike better? All right, so right here I've got the EVRYjourney Rickshaw ETrike that has fat tires on it, I've also got the Easy Transit Foldable ETrike, which has smaller 16-inch tires on it. Both these are linked in the description below if you want to learn more about them. Now, etrikes, at sixthreezero we are experts in electric trikes, I've done hundreds of test rides with riders on different types of electric trikes, got their feedback, and witnessed firsthand people choosing the etrike that was right for them. Fat tire etrikes are popular out there and the question pops up, are fat tire electric tricycles better?

Well, the short answer is not necessarily. They are right for some people in certain scenarios, but not all scenarios. Now, you can see on the rickshaw right here, that the beauty of having fat tires on a trike is obviously for the stability. You've got more rubber that is touching the pavement between all three wheels, so in theory, it's going to grip the road a little bit better. Now, the fat tires aren't going to have an impact on the potential of tilting a trike, that risk is always going to exist if a rider gets reckless and takes a corner too recklessly or too fast or something of that nature. But having the fatter tires is nice, you can feel more grounded, there is more grip on the pavement, and in some regards, it does feel more balanced. Now we have passengers that can come on the rickshaw, and without a doubt, having the four-inch tires is going to create a safer, better ride.

Now this trike is also set lower in the back here where we have 20-inch wheels in the back and a 24-inch to keep this lower to the ground in the rear, keeping the center of gravity lower. So, in some scenarios for some riders, the fat tires will feel more balanced, in reality, they should be more balanced and more grounded to the ground. Now, with that said, most people riding trikes aren't going very fast. Now if you want to go fast or as fast as you can on a trike, having the fatter tires is your best bet because, again, with more rubber on the ground, it's going to be able to steer a little bit better, grip the road a little bit better. If speed is not something you're concerned with, then I would opt out of fat tires because there are other benefits to having smaller tires.

Number one is the ease of steering. Now this trike, the easy transit with the tinier wheels can steer so much easier, and more nimble. So if you want to bring it into tight spaces or even just take turns, and just generally speaking, there's less effort required to steer the handlebars on a trike like this versus a trike like this. Now, we've got other videos showing tons of videos of riding both of these, and actually, the rickshaw is surprisingly very easy to turn, but I'm just saying this trike is even easier to turn. So with the fat tire, again, you're having to turn more rubber on the ground, so there's going to be more restriction just in general, the easy transit with the smaller wheels is way more nimble. Now, with the fatter four-inch tires, they are going to absorb a lot of the bumps and a lot of the bruises that you won't feel in your body because the rubber will be absorbing them.

So, not to say that these tires... Because these are still two-inch wide tires, and two-inch wide tires are still typically wider than a normal tire, they're going to absorb a lot of the bumps too. But again, if you're traveling at a faster pace, having the thicker tires will absorb more shock than the smaller tires. And I would say this easy transit is not meant to be going at very fast speeds, right? You could probably travel faster on this trike if you so choose more comfortably. Now they're the same actual motor size if you didn't know that, this is 750 watts as is this one. So both are going to be... This one is 20 miles an hour at top speed, this one's limited to 16 miles an hour. Now, touching on this one, with the 16-inch tires, you've got a very low center of gravity back here, and the stability is good on this trike as well.

So I would say stability on these is about equal because we've made up for it by doing a smaller tire and keeping the rear very low to the ground with a low, low center of gravity. So we've got a little bit bigger tire here, higher off the ground, but we've made it wider to make up for the stability that we get by having a lower center of gravity on this trike. So you can see it's not always a benefit to have the fatter tire, you can make up for the certain aspects you benefit from with the fat tires by changing some of the other specs and coming up with different ways to get the same benefit of the fat tire. Now, typically the fat tires are going to mean a higher price for most trikes, especially when you start to go three-inches, four-inches are going to be more expensive.

In this case, the rickshaw is more expensive than the easy transit, so you have to think about that from a budgetary perspective as well. The other thing too is when you start putting these fat tires onto a trike, you're going to want a more powerful motor and a bigger battery because more rubber on the road means you're going to drain the battery faster, it's more resistant and it's more work that the motor has to do. So typically with the fat tires, you're going to find bigger motors on the trike, so again, you have to ask yourself, is that worth it to you? And if you like pedaling without the motor assistance, with fat tires it's going to be challenging because you have to power the bike with the fat tires. Riding on this trike without the motor is much easier than riding on this without the motor, so something to consider if you plan to ride without the motor turned on, and if you want it to double as a manual trike, a fat tire trike is not going to be a good option.

In most scenarios, you're going to want to have this trike, at least in pedal assist one to make it easier, even though it does come with seven speeds. They both come with seven speeds like on a bicycle as well. So, again, things to consider. So, summarizing, are fat tire etrikes better? Not necessarily. They're great but there are options too that also can accommodate different riders based on your needs, based on what you want, based on what you like. If you need any help sorting that out and finding the right electric tricycle for you, please reach out to us, at TheTeam@sixthreezero.com or call us at (310) 982-2877.

In addition to that, we have a 30-day Test Ride your electric tricycle 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, we're going to warranty everything on your etrike for the first year. If anything goes wrong, we'll take care of parts and labor to ensure you can keep riding. Lastly, join our Facebook pedalers group, you can go in there... It's our Facebook group called sixthreezero Pedalers, there are thousands of members in there. Ask questions of the other riders, see what they like about their fat tire trike or their non-fat tire trike, and get their opinion first. Then after you have yours, post in the group, and make friends, it's tons of fun. Lastly, then you can download our app, track your rides, and compete on the leaderboard, which is also really fun. So thank you for sticking around, and don't forget, it's your journey. Your experience. Enjoy the ride.