OH NO! Your Tricycle Wheel Is Off the Ground! What To Do When Your Trike Wheel Comes Off the Ground

What to do when one of your wheels comes off the ground on a tricycle? Hey everyone, I'm Dustin, I'm nearly 20 years experienced in the bike and e-bike industry. Today we're going to talk about what to do when one of the wheels on your tricycle comes off the ground. All right, I have the EZ Transit electric trike from Sixthreezero. A great stable tricycle, with 16-inch wheels, stays very balanced and easy to ride. Many people have tipping fears on tricycles, because of having two wheels in the back, if you lean too much in either direction, you can sometimes have one of the wheels come off the ground. Now, if you can learn how to appropriately shift your body weight on trikes, you won't lean as much as you want to shift. Let's say you're taking a turn and you're turning to the left, and you're leaning your body this way, and the wheel on this side picks up off the ground like that.

So this is why on tricycles, I recommend when you're turning, let's say you're turning left, you want to be leaning to the right, or in the least you don't want to lean into the turn, keep your body upright as you turn, and if you have your weight distributed evenly on your butt or a little more to the right, you'll keep both wheels down. What I see for many people is when they come into a turn and they're not used to trikes, you want to lean into the turn like you would on a two-wheel bike. Now, if you come around a turn fast on a trike and you're leaning to the inside, you are going to pick up that outside wheel off the ground. Now, the other thing I will say is, if you're coming into a turn turning left and you're going fast and you're leaning to the right, you're going to pick up this left wheel. So, speed control is one of the most important things when turning on a tricycle. I always say slow down into the turn, then you can speed up out of the turn. So it's really about the appropriate weight distribution on a turn. So again, if you're turning left, I recommend trying to keep your body upright and weight evenly distributed.

Then you'll keep all the wheels down. If you're turning right, the same thing, or just slightly lean to the outside. Now, again, if you're coming around a turn flying at fast speeds and you're leaning to the outside, you're going to pick up the inside wheel off the ground. If that happens to you and you're turning and you feel a wheel pop up like the right side, you want to immediately shift your body weight back to the right. Now again, it's not just about leaning your upper body, right? Because leaning your body isn't going to put weight on the trike. It's about shifting your weight onto your buttocks as well. So if you're leaning like this and your butt is leaning, and I say leaning because if you just lean your upper body, you're not necessarily leaning your butt, right? So you want to make sure you can shift your buttocks, and I can shift my butt without leaning my upper body. So that's another trick of getting to learn a trike if you can learn to shift your butt, you can keep your body actually in an upright straight position.

So if you're taking a turn, I recommend not jerk the handlebars back necessarily. If you're going on the wheel pops up, just shift your body weight, and then you can gradually straighten out the bars if you want, or if you're turning and the wheel comes up, just shift your body weight, but keep into the turn. Now, again, slowing down also. So slow down. Shift your body weight, and the wheel will settle back down. So, the most likely cause of any time a wheel comes off the ground is you're coming into a turn too fast, so staying slow into the turns. And again, if this wheel comes up, shift your weight over to that side and try to gradually straighten the wheels. You don't want to be in a situation where you shift your weight too much and you turn. Now you're going this way so Easier said than done if you're freaking out. But if you feel your weight, your tire comes up just a little bit, it's not a big deal. I would say, honestly, it's not uncommon for a lot of trike riders to feel a real rear wheel come off the ground a little bit in some situations.  So if you feel like coming off this ground, this much off the ground, you can most likely just ride through that and then shift your weight down like this.

Now, if you've got the wheel up like that, something has drastically gone wrong with the rider, because if you're really coming in like this and it's tipping that much, speed is the number one cause of that issue. So again, let's say you're flying into the turn and you're leading this way like that, immediately shift your body weight and start to gradually pull your handlebars straight, right? So again, you don't wanna jerk them, you just wanna gradually straighten out. Remember, it's not just about your upper body, it's about the distribution of the weight on your actual butt and how you slide and move your weight on turns. If you've never ridden a tricycle, it's very different than a two-wheel bike, and for a lot of riders, it takes a little bit getting used to. Once you have the hang of how you shift your body weight and your butt on the seat and you you work out that distribution of weight it becomes second nature but for all of us that started riding we started most of us well many of us maybe started when we were very little on a tricycle but we learned to ride a two-wheel bike and from there we never looked back so all of our tendencies how we lean and do things is how we would do it on a two-wheel bike those habits don't correlate to a tricycle because you don't need to balance a tricycle. You just need to keep it stable.

So balancing it and keeping it stable requires two different types of movements and body weight shifting. So that's important to know. Last thing you're turning, always shift your body weight in the direction of the wheel that's off the ground, and gradually slow down and straighten out the wheel, and that will bring the tire back down to the ground. So you can make sure you're safe with all three wheels down. Now, if you have any other thoughts, questions, or comments on the topic, please reach out to us at theteam@sixthreezero.com or call us at 310-982-2877. In addition to that, we offer a 30-day test ride of 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 out of your pocket. In addition to that, we warrant all of our trikes for a year. If anything goes wrong in the first year, we take care of it, parts and labor. And lastly, join our Facebook group called Sixthreezero Pedalers. There are thousands of members in the group. Join the group before you purchase to talk to existing riders to ensure you're making the right choice. Then, when you have yours, post in the group, make friends, and finally download our app to track your rides and compete on the leaderboard. So thanks for sticking around, and don't forget, it's your journey or experience. Enjoy the ride.