How to Ride a Reverse Tricycle: Tadpole E Trike Rides Like A Two Wheel Bike & Balances Like a Trike

How to ride a tadpole trike, also called a reverse trike.

Hey everyone, I'm Dustin. I have nearly 20 years of experience in the bike and e-bike industry. And today I'm going to show you how to ride a tadpole trike, also called a reverse trike. This is the two-front-wheel reverse e-trike, foldable e-trike from sixthreezero. Super cool tadpole reverse trike with a tilting front steering. And today I'm going to demonstrate to you how to ride a reverse trike, tadpole trike because it is different than a conventional trike. And I'm going to walk you through step by step exactly how you will approach riding this. Now, our reverse trike has a tilting steering up here. That means, oh, don't worry about that. That means that the wheels are going to tilt in the direction you turn. This allows for better balance and turning now it can balance, let me put the kickstand on, it can balance on its own, so you can see you're still getting stability and balance by adding the two front wheels, but you do have the tilting capability up here. Now, this differs from a conventional trike that has one wheel in the front and two in the back, because it balances on its own and doesn't have tilting steering, so even if you nudged it, it's not going to tip over.

In the tilting steering case, if you touch it a little bit, the trike will start to go over. So riding this is different than conventional in that on a conventional trike, you're more concerned with counterbalancing the rear wheels and keeping them on the ground. On the two-front wheel, you're leaning in a very similar fashion to riding a two-wheel bike so feels more similar to a two-wheel bike than a conventional trike. So I'm going to put my helmet on here and then I'm going to walk you through step by step exactly how to ride this reverse seat trike. Okay, first and foremost, obviously before getting on to any trike, you want to, you know, size it correctly. So on our reverse trike, we've got a double seat post here. So can accommodate riders 4'11 to 6'4. So you want to find your perfect height. Got the low step through, right here, and get on. so that feels pretty good for me thus far. Okay, now with the handlebars, let's go ahead and see. Bring them up just a touch here. Okay, that's much better. Okay, now, this is electric, so I'll start just by riding it without the electric on. Now, you can see we do have a kickstand on here because, again, with the tilting steering you need to keep the wheel straight. to keep it balanced. So that's the one difference. Now, just like on a two-wheel bike, you need to ensure that you're keeping your front wheel straight.

Now, the benefit of the two wheels, it's going to balance easier. But if you are riding this, it is up to you to keep these wheels straight and in line. If I were to just roll like this and let go, well, actually, you can see it does stay. So that's good, but if you were to go into certain, you can see now my front wheel is turning a little, there it's turning. So you need to keep your hands on the wheels to keep it straight, okay? Now, to practice, you can put one foot on your pedal here and you can push down and roll and practice and see how it's going to stay balanced. And this is very similar to just riding a two-wheel bike as well. So put your foot here. And I always like to keep one hand up by the brake, especially if you're learning how to ride, just to be ready for that. Push. Okay. And balance. Now, ideally, as you're learning to get the balance of the two wheels, what you can do then is try to make it at least, let's say, five feet like that. or three to five feet, right? OK, so push. All right. OK, good. Now, from there. Come back. From there, as I get my balance up, I can pick up my foot and start pedaling. Now, I don't have the motor turned on. OK, now again, you can see. On a two-wheel or a reverse trike, you do want to lean into the turn. A big difference from a conventional. On the conventional trike, you're going to lean to the outside of the turn because you're more concerned with keeping the two wheels down in the rear. On this one, you lean into it like on a standard bike. So actually what I see is a lot of people that transition to this trike that need balance assistance, this is a much more natural transition than a conventional trike with two wheels in the back because a conventional trike with two reels in the back feels and rides much different than a reverse trike. So, make sure you've got control here and your leaning and your turning are identical to a two-wheel bike. So push, push my feet up. Start going.

Now as I lean into the turn, it's just like a two-wheel bike. And you can make steeper turns on this reverse e-trike than you can on a two-wheel inline bike. Because I have the added balance. So I can almost make a zero-degree turn. So... Keep your wheels straight. Lean. And make sure on a reverse trike, this is another piece of advice. Let me come around here. I can lean into it just a touch. Okay. Now, one other piece of advice is Usually on a conventional trike with two wheels in the back, I recommend not pedaling while you're turning. You want to pedal into the turn, make your turn, and pedal out of a turn. Actually, on the reverse trike, it's the opposite of a bike. You should pedal through the turn. That's going to keep your momentum going and keep the trike upright. So if you make a turn on this trike and you stop pedaling, you have a higher likelihood of tipping over. So That's a big difference between a conventional trike and this because this rides very much like an inline two-wheel bike. In inline two-wheel bikes, you want to keep your momentum and keep the bike upright as you make turns. The same is true on this. So let me demonstrate. So and I've seen this in a lot of first-time riders you're coming here for a turn, right? Some people stop, they lose their momentum and they tip over like this. So same would be true on an inline two-wheel bike, right? So the way you turn on a reverse trike with the tilting steering is you want to turn, keep pedaling. And you have to get comfortable with that because it rides differently than a conventional trike. So make your turn, pedal through, pedal through, pedal through. There you go. As long as you do that, you've got to trust that you've got these two wheels up here to keep you balanced and you can make very aggressive turns.

Let me just do another one. Okay. Okay, so rides like a two-wheel bike keep your momentum into turns also when you're riding you have to make sure that you keep the wheels straight having the two wheels it's going to balance easier than an inline two-wheel bike but as a rider, you do have to keep these wheels hold them in the straight position you'll have the assistance, again, the balance assistance because you have the two wheels. So this rides somewhere in between an inline two-wheel bike and a conventional trike. You have the nimbleness and agility of an inline two-wheel bike, but you have the balance of having three wheels. So if you want a trike that is more sporty, easy to turn, and nimble, this is a great option. Also, the heights that this can accommodate. It's foldable. You can bring it with you. So, I can show you also like riding no hands on a reverse trike would be very difficult with the tilting steering. Because as the rider, see if I can even do it. I don't think you can. So that's why it's really important that you always keep your hands on the wheels to keep the wheels centered and in line. So a little bit different than a two-wheel bike and a conventional trike as well. Conventional trike, you can just sit there and regardless, the bike will balance. Now, also, just sitting here without the kickstand, it's going to be very hard to balance because of the tilting capability of the front forks. Now we are working on some technology to be able to dampen that and adjust it, the tilting, and also to lock it out. That may come in future renditions. Now for the electric part, I'll just show you quickly. If you have an electric, I like to use the throttle to get started because you can just push it and pick your foot up.

So a good way to learn is if you do have an electric ease into the throttle. So one thing is don't ever, you know, push your throttle all the way down. It's going to jump out on you. So you can ease into this a little bit and then you can kind of just start to get a feel for picking your feet up like that, right? Then as you get comfortable, just pick up and accelerate. And what's interesting for me is turning left is much easier than turning right. I don't know if that's because... Once you begin to trust that you've got the balance, you can really see how sharp of turns I can make. Let's see how sharp I can go right here. Yeah, pretty good. Now that's my bad side. If I were to turn to my left, I could probably go even sharper. Oh, I went a little too far trying to find the limits. There we go. Okay, let me back up here a little bit. Okay, so a couple of tips just to recap on how to drive, and ride a reverse trike. Number one, make sure to keep the handlebar straight when you get going so you can keep the wheels balanced. Number two, you're going to want to lean into your turns. Now, make sure you find the range of how much of a turn is too much or too little of a turn. You'll get comfortable as you start to ride, just like you did on a two-wheel bike. But again, also lean into the turn. Also, pedal yourself through the turn. Keep the momentum through the turn. If you've got momentum and you can coast into the turn, then you don't have to pedal, but I recommend pedaling a little bit just to keep it moving and keep it upright. And then from there, as you ride, make sure to always keep two hands on the wheels. Don't try to go no hands on a reverse trike. It's not going to work like on a two-wheel bike. Also on a regular trike, of course, it'll balance on the reverse trike. You have to keep your hands on the handlebars to ensure that you keep both these wheels in line. It's really easy. It's really fun.

If you want some balance assistance, this is an awesome trike to take a look at. And we've got some other videos of first-time riders. And you see people who want to transition from a two-wheel bike to something with more stability take to this style very naturally. So check out the other videos on our YouTube channel. If you have any questions at all, please reach out to us at theteam@sixthreezero.com or call us at 310-982-2877. And we have a 30-day test ride, your e-trike 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 for one year. Within the first year, if anything goes wrong, we take care of parts and labor. No questions asked. Lastly, join our Facebook group, sixthreezero pedalers there are thousands of members in there. Join the group in advance of purchasing so you can ask existing riders how they like their bike before purchasing. Then when you have yours posting the group, make friends. It's tons of fun. So thanks for sticking around and don't forget, it's your journey, your experience. Enjoy the ride.