E-Bikes & Bikes Customised to You
Dustin Gyger
Updated On: October 26, 2024
How does a reverse trike corner differently than a conventional trike? Hey everyone, I'm Dustin. I have 20 years of experience in the bike and e-bike industry. And today I'm going to show you and explain to you how a reverse tricycle corners differently than a conventional tricycle. All right, a reverse-y trike, which I have over here, is a trike with the Two Front Wheels, two wheels in the front, two front wheels. Different than conventional trikes, which have wheels in the back. Now, not all two front-wheel or reverse trikes are created equally, we have two front wheels that have leaning, tilting, and steering. Now, what does this mean exactly? It means that this tricycle is going to corner and be nimble much differently than a conventional trike. Now, the one thing about that is it's not going to balance on its own the way that a conventional trike will. Now, can it balance on its own? The answer to that is yes. Let me find the balance point here. It can. Now, the basket up here is causing, let me get it off this hill here, just to show you that it actually can balance. I've done it before. There we go. So the two front wheels do add stability in the front, but the driver will have to keep the handlebars straight to keep it upright. But the two front wheels do provide assistance. Now, this tilting allows the rider to take very aggressive turns and cornering much different than a conventional tricycle. So if you're somebody switching to a trike, you still have some sense of balance, but you'd feel safer if you had the two front wheels to help you out. This is a great option. Now, if you don't want to have to do anything to balance, a conventional trike is a much better option. So when you turn, you can see it's going to lean. So this rides very similarly to a standard two-wheel inline bike. So when people go from a standard inline two-wheel bike to this feels very natural. When they go from a standard two-wheel bike into a three-wheel conventional trike, it feels much different. So I'm going to set up over here and show you exactly how these two types of trikes corner differently. And what each one of them is capable of. I'm not going to utilize all the trikes back here, I'm just going to pick one I'm going to use our Easy Transit, which is comparable to this one, both having the 16-inch wheels, well, in the front anyway, because it's a 20 inch in the rear on the, reverse trike here but I'm going to show you differently how I can take the turns faster, and also what the strategy is and how it difference differs between the reverse e trike and the conventional. So I'll see you over there. All right. I'm all lined up on my reverse trike here. I'm going to show you how I can corner now on this one. It's the same as a two-wheel bike in that I'm going to lean into the turn. I'm also going to keep my momentum throughout the turn. Now you can slow down and use the throttle, but you can see I can come in pretty aggressively and lean into that turn. And I'll make a U-turn here and show you.
Coming back the other way as well. Now, when I'm coming around this way too, I can come in fast. Now in a perfect world, I'm still going to slow down a little bit. Let me show you. I probably want to regulate my speed, but I can still come in. I got the throttle down. Now you want to lean with the turn on this trike as well into the turn to get the lean of these two in these tilting wheels. Like so. Now I'll show you with pedal assist as well. Put it in level two. And I can pedal in. Pedal assist is even easier. As I'm pedaling, I'm keeping the momentum going. And if I'm coming this way, pedaling, pedaling, pedaling, pedaling, pedaling, really leaning right into the turn. Very sharp pedaling. Sorry, sharp turning. Let's up the ante on the pedal assist here. See if I can't go a little faster. I'm gonna go a little wider and cut it even narrower. Leaning, leaning, leaning, leaning, leaning, leaning, really sharp turn. So just when you think you've gone too far on this trike, you can push the limit of your lean because of how these tilts. Now you have to find out what's comfortable. Please don't push the limits. And in an ideal world, you slow down a little bit into the turn, but enough to keep the momentum. I'm trying to show you how aggressive you really can be. So I'm going to try one more time. I'm going to take it very wide turn here. OK, I got the throttle. I'm going to come out here. And you can see how fast I can come around that corner. And I probably could have leaned into it a little bit more, but I want to stay as safe as possible. All right, so there you go on the reverse e-trike. Now let me grab the conventional e-trike and show you the difference in how I corner on that. All right, now I've got the Easy Transit conventional, the two wheels in the back. This has 16-inch wheels, and also 750-watt motor. Now I'm going to show you my approach to cornering on this versus the reverse trike. All right, so I got the throttle down. Now on this one, I can't come in quite as fast, and I want to lean. There we go. So not too bad all in all. Don't mind the squeaking on the brakes. We just got to wear those in with the brake pads with the new rotors. So the strategy on the conventional, I did lean into it, but actually... What I want to do is you want to lean out while you steer this way to keep the outside wheels down on the ground. So you can't come into the turns nearly as fast on the conventional e-trike that you would... because when you lean in, you're going to risk going like that, right? Now let's do pedal assist. Again, I'm going to come slower and lean a little bit to the outside.
And you want to lean to the outside because as you're turning. Now, let me show you. If you're coming in this way and you're taking a turn and you're leaning too much like that, you're going to pop those wheels up, right? So you want to kind of lean just a little bit like that. Now, it's a little counterintuitive, so it gets some getting used to. But the other thing I'll say on a conventional trike is if you just regulate your speed into the turn, which is more important on the conventional, just regulate your speed, you don't have to do much leaning. Riding an electric trike or a regular trike three-wheel bike is really about how you regulate the speed in and out of turns and turning, and that's what's going to keep all three wheels safely on the ground at all times. Now, again, on the two-front wheel reverse, you want to regulate your speed as well. But with that steering, you can come into the turns much faster. Now, pedal assist. Again, if I'm at a good pace, I can just come right in here. And you can see I could pedal right through the turn. Now, again, I can't go nearly as fast as I went on the reverse trike. I'm going to come around this way. I can go a little bit faster. Then when you get out of the turn, you accelerate. So I know a lot of people have fears of tipping tricycles. You just have to get comfortable with the speed control, and how you utilize your speed in and out of turns. The big difference between a conventional trike and a reverse trike is you need to come into a turn slower on the conventional trike. Also, you want to steer into the turn and shift your body weight to the outside to keep your rear wheels down on the ground. Now, take some getting used to. I tend to even lead to the inside as well, but that's going to keep the outsides down on the ground. If you lean too much in my pedal system, I turn that off.
You're going to pop up those outside wheels. So speed regulation, and body weight transfer, no problem if you can figure that out on the conventional trike. On the reverse trike, you're going to lean into that turn the whole way through as you would on a two-wheel bike, and that'll keep all the wheels down. And you can lean pretty aggressively, and you saw how fast I could come around those turns. So if you have any other questions at all about how to corner on an E trike, please reach out to us at theteam@sixthreezero.com. And we offer a 30-day test ride on your e-trike policy. If you don't love your e-trike in the first 30 days, send it back. No questions asked. No money is out of your pocket. In addition to that, we're going to warrant you everything for one year. If anything goes wrong in the first year, we take care of its parts and labor. Lastly, be a part of our community. Our sixthreezero Facebook group called sixthreezero Pedalers has thousands of members in it. Join the group. Before you purchase get comfortable making the right decision. Then when you have yours, post in the group, and make friends. And lastly, download our app and compete on the leaderboard. It's a lot of fun. So thanks for sticking around and don't forget, it's your journey, your experience. Enjoy the ride.