Three Miles to the Store: A 69-Year-Old Rider Tests the Relaxed Body Electric Trike

Three Miles From Everything

Victor Martinez lives up in the foothills of the San Fernando Valley, north of Los Angeles, and the nearest store is three miles away. That's the kind of distance that sounds trivial until you live with it. It's too far to walk with a bag of groceries in each hand, especially on a warm afternoon with hills between you and your front door. But it's also too short to justify the whole ritual of the car: finding the keys, backing out of the driveway, waiting at the light, circling for a parking spot, then doing all of it again in reverse just to come home with one item.

"It's getting old," Victor says, and anyone who has made that run more than once in a day knows exactly what he means. He walks plenty. He isn't looking for an excuse to sit still. What he wants is something in between: a way to cover a few miles on short notice without the hassle of driving, and without turning every small errand into a workout he didn't plan for.

That's the gap an electric tricycle is built to fill, and it's why Victor spent an afternoon riding the sixthreezero Relaxed Body, a 750 watt electric trike designed around comfort, easy mounting and everyday hauling. He went in with honest expectations. He figured there would be a learning curve. He assumed a three-wheeled electric machine would feel more like a golf cart than a bicycle, and that he would have to adapt to it rather than the other way around.

By the end of the ride, he was saying things like "way more than I expected" and "a child could use this." This article follows his test from start to finish: how the trike felt the moment he sat down, how it handled turns, how the brakes behaved, what happened on the way down a hill and on the way back up, and why he came away convinced that more people should know these machines exist.

If you've been circling the idea of an electric tricycle for errands, light exercise or simply getting out of the car more often, Victor's experience is a useful one to hear. He's not a professional reviewer. He's a guy with a hill, a store and a wife who occasionally forgets the tomato paste.

It helps to know a little about the rider before hearing what he thought. Victor is 69 years old and stands 6'2". He introduced himself with his height and then, deadpan, added that his eyes are blue, which tells you something about the spirit he brought to the test. He's active, he walks regularly, and he says he doesn't have any mobility issues yet. Then he adds, with a laugh, "but I'm getting there. Believe me, I'm getting there."

That combination makes him a good test case for a few reasons. First, height. Tall riders often have a hard time with trikes and comfort bikes because so many of them are built low to the ground, with seat posts that top out before a long-legged rider gets proper leg extension. A trike that cramps a 6'2" rider's knees is a trike he won't want to ride for long.

Second, attitude. A lot of active people in their sixties and seventies quietly assume that a tricycle is something for "someone else," someone older or less capable. Victor walked up to the Relaxed Body with some of that same assumption. He thought it would feel foreign and that he would need to learn a whole new way of riding. Hearing someone with that mindset come around to the idea carries more weight than hearing it from a rider who was already sold.

Third, his use case is completely ordinary, which is the point. He doesn't need to commute twenty miles or race anyone. He needs to get to a store three miles away and back, sometimes more than once a day, with a few bags in tow. That describes a huge number of people, especially those living in hilly suburbs or on the edges of town where everything is "just a few miles" away.

If you see yourself somewhere in that description, whether it's the height, the age, the hills or the errands, it's worth taking a look at sixthreezero's electric trikes for seniors. And if you're unsure which frame and size would suit your body, the fitting consultation is a sensible first step. Fit matters more on a trike than most people realize, and Victor's first impression proves it.

The first thing Victor noticed was the seat height. "This sits high up," he said as he settled in. "Nice for a tall guy like me." For a rider his size, that alone counts for a lot. A seat that rises high enough lets the legs extend properly at the bottom of each pedal stroke, which means less strain on the knees and more efficient pedaling when you choose to do some of the work yourself.

He also remarked that the Relaxed Body felt more like a standard bicycle than he expected. The riding position is upright and familiar rather than slung low or reclined. You look out over the handlebars the way you would on a classic cruiser, which gives you a good view of the road ahead and makes you visible to drivers and other riders.

Then there's how you get on. Victor put it simply: "You don't mount these bikes. You step right into it." That's one of the most underrated qualities of a well-designed trike. On a traditional diamond-frame bicycle, getting on means swinging a leg over the top tube or the back of the saddle, which takes balance and flexibility that not everyone has, and that tends to fade with age. A step-through frame removes that move entirely. You walk up, step through the low part of the frame, sit down and go.

Victor said he got the feeling he could get on and off quickly, and he noted that this is true of all the trikes in this style. That matters for exactly the kind of riding he does. On an errand run you're getting on and off constantly: at the store, at the mailbox, at a friend's driveway. If every stop involves an awkward dismount, the whole trip starts to feel like a chore. When getting on and off is as simple as standing up from a chair, you stop thinking about it.

And because it's a trike, there's no balancing act while you're stopped. You don't need to put a foot down or hold the bike upright while you sort out your bags. It just stands there, waiting for you. If an easy step-through design is high on your list, sixthreezero has a whole collection of easy-to-mount eTrikes with low step-through frames worth browsing alongside the Relaxed Body.

Once he was moving, Victor's biggest surprise was how natural the Relaxed Body felt. He had braced himself for something clumsy. "I thought this was going to be a challenge," he said. "I thought I'd have to adapt, you know, because it is electric. No, it handles like a bicycle, but it gives you the power of an electric motor."

That line captures what a good electric trike should feel like. The motor is there to help, not to take over the experience. You still steer, pedal, shift and brake the way you would on a regular bike. The difference is that the hard parts, like starting from a stop, climbing, or carrying weight, get noticeably easier.

He also commented that the Relaxed Body "turns a little better" than he expected, adding, "it is, after all, a tricycle." That's worth unpacking for anyone who has never ridden one. A trike doesn't corner the way a two-wheeler does. On a bicycle you lean into a turn. On a trike, the frame stays upright and you steer through the corner instead. Riders coming from bicycles sometimes find that strange for the first few minutes, especially if they take a corner too fast and feel the trike want to push to the outside.

The fix is simple and becomes second nature quickly: slow down a bit before the turn, steer smoothly, and let the trike do its thing. Victor seemed to settle into that rhythm early on. At one point during the ride he can be heard reminding himself to take the corner when he's ready rather than rushing it, which is exactly the right instinct. There's no reason to hurry a turn on a machine like this.

The payoff for that small adjustment is stability. Three wheels mean you don't wobble at low speeds, you don't tip when you stop, and you don't have to worry about keeping your balance while you look over your shoulder or reach for a signal. For riders who have drifted away from cycling because two wheels started to feel a little uncertain, that stability is often the thing that gets them back out the door.

Victor summed up his early impressions with a compliment you don't often hear about a piece of equipment: "This puppy's really well made. It's got enough get up and go."

Brakes came up again and again during Victor's ride. "The brakes are really good," he said early on. "They feel like a bicycle brake." Later, rolling along a flat stretch, he repeated it almost word for word: "Again, the brakes are really good. Feels just like a bicycle."

Why does that matter so much? Because braking is where a lot of riders' confidence lives. If the brakes grab too hard, you feel jolted and nervous. If they're too soft, you feel like you're never fully in control. And if the machine behaves unpredictably when you let off the power, you spend the whole ride tense. Victor specifically contrasted the Relaxed Body with the feel of a golf cart, where letting go of the accelerator can bring things to an abrupt halt and stepping on the brake can stop you harder than you wanted.

That's not what he experienced here. When he released the throttle on a climb, he noted that the trike "comes to a very gradual stop." No lurch, no sudden deceleration. The power simply eases off and you roll to a halt or keep coasting, depending on the terrain. Then, when he squeezed the brake levers, they responded the way his hands expected them to, with the familiar progressive feel of a bicycle brake.

For riders returning to cycling after years away, this familiarity is a big deal. Your hands already know how bicycle brakes work. You don't have to unlearn anything or build new reflexes. You squeeze, the trike slows, and you squeeze harder if you need to stop sooner.

A quick practical note: whenever you get a new trike, spend a few minutes in a quiet spot practicing stops at different speeds, including a few firm ones. Learn how much lever pressure brings you to a gentle stop and how much brings you to a quick one. It's a small investment that pays off the first time a car backs out of a driveway unexpectedly. If braking performance is a priority for you, you can also compare models in sixthreezero's collection of electric trikes with disc brakes.

One of the things Victor kept coming back to was choice. The Relaxed Body has gears, a motor and a throttle, and together they let the rider decide how much of the effort to contribute on any given day, or any given block. "You decide how much you want to pedal on your own and how much you want the bike to do the work itself," he explained.

He described the full range. On one end, you can ride it like a regular bicycle: pedal along, shift through the gears and get a real workout. "I could pedal entirely if I wanted to," he said, "save a little battery or just get a little exercise." On the other end, you can let the motor carry most of the load. And in between, there's every combination you could want.

Victor painted a picture that will make a lot of married readers smile. Maybe you've already ridden to the store once today and pedaled hard for the exercise. Then it's "your third trip in the day to get something at the store because your wife forgot to get the tomato paste." At that point, nobody needs more cardio. "Well, okay," he said. "You can just kick back and get there."

He also made the point that some days you just aren't up for it. "Sometimes you've done enough cardio. You're not feeling well. This is your bike." That flexibility is what makes an electric trike genuinely useful rather than something that sits in the garage. A regular bicycle demands the same effort whether you feel great or terrible. An electric trike meets you where you are.

The throttle is especially handy for starting from a stop, getting moving on an incline or giving your legs a breather. Pedal assist, meanwhile, rewards you for pedaling by adding power on top of your effort, so even a light push feels productive. Victor appreciated that he didn't have to fuss with any of it. "I'm very surprised that it handles so well and I don't have to fuss with the gears or anything," he said. He shifted down to first gear at one point to see how it felt, but overall he found that the system stayed out of his way.

That's an important distinction for anyone nervous about technology. The Relaxed Body has the controls if you want them, but it doesn't make you think about them constantly. You can ride it simply and still get where you're going.

Living in the foothills means every ride to the store has a hill somewhere in it, and usually two: one on the way there and one on the way back. So Victor made sure to test both directions.

Heading down first, he was relaxed. "So, we're going downhill. Handles it beautifully," he said, coasting without power. He noted that he might need to brake a little, and that the gears could help too. That's sound technique on any bike or trike. On a descent, you want to stay in control of your speed rather than let gravity make the decisions. A light, steady touch on the brakes keeps things calm, and being in an appropriate gear means you're ready to pedal smoothly when the road levels out.

A trike has an advantage on a descent that many riders don't think about until they try one: you're not balancing. On a two-wheeler, a sudden pothole or patch of gravel on a downhill can be unnerving because you have to keep the bike upright while you deal with it. On three wheels, the frame stays stable underneath you. You can concentrate on your line, your speed and what's ahead rather than on staying vertical.

That said, it's still smart to respect a downhill on a trike. Because trikes steer rather than lean, sharp corners at speed are where you want to be most careful. The rule of thumb is to do your slowing down before the bend, not halfway through it. Victor's approach, easing off and using the brakes as needed, is exactly right.

For riders in hilly neighborhoods, it's also worth thinking about what's carried on the back during a descent. A few bags of groceries change how a trike feels, adding momentum on the way down. It's nothing to worry about, but it's a good reason to start braking a little earlier when you're loaded than when you're riding empty.

Victor came off the downhill in good spirits, laughing at one point and remarking, "Yeah, this is more like a bike." By that point the golf cart comparison had clearly left his mind for good.

The climb back up is where an electric trike earns its keep, and it's where Victor sounded most impressed. "Now, for going uphill," he said, "don't feel it. I'm not feeling it. It's just great."

Earlier in the ride he had already noticed the power. "I'm surprised by the torque that it has," he said. "It has a lot of get up and go." The Relaxed Body runs a 750 watt motor, and on a climb, that strength translates into steady forward progress without the grinding effort a hill usually demands. For someone who has to tackle the same incline every time he comes home from the store, that changes the whole calculus of whether a trip is worth making.

He then did something that tells you more about a trike's uphill manners than any spec sheet: he stopped partway up and started again. "I don't feel the hill and it can stop," he said. "I let go. No problem. Picks right back up. And I'm going uphill." Starting from a standstill on an incline is one of the hardest things to do on a regular bicycle, and it's a common reason people avoid hilly routes altogether. On a two-wheeler you have to balance, clip in or find your pedal, and push hard to get moving before you tip over. On a trike with a motor, you just apply power and go.

When he let off the throttle on the climb, the trike didn't jerk or roll backward unexpectedly. As he put it, it "comes to a very gradual stop." That smooth behavior is what makes a rider feel safe stopping on a hill in the first place, whether it's to let a car pass, check on the cargo or simply catch the view.

There's a broader point here too. Hills are often the single biggest reason people give up riding as they get older. Knees complain, breathing gets heavy, and eventually it's easier to just take the car. A motor that flattens out the climb removes that barrier. Victor said it best when describing who the Relaxed Body is for: you can decide just how hard you want to work. On a hill, that means you can push if you want to and coast up if you don't.

Part of Victor's ride took place with someone coaching him along, and it produced some of the most charming moments of the test. "You ought to get me doing hand signals and stopping," he said, and soon he was running through them: "Left, right, left. Okay." A little later, after another round, he added proudly, "See, I'm learning."

It's a small thing, but it's worth highlighting because a lot of adults return to riding after decades away, and the rules of the road feel rusty. Using hand signals isn't just a formality. It's how you communicate with drivers, pedestrians and other cyclists so they know what you're about to do. On a trike, signaling is also easier than on a bicycle because you don't need to worry about losing balance when you take a hand off the bars.

If you're getting back into riding on a new trike, here are a few habits worth building from the first day:

Practice in a quiet place first. An empty parking lot or a quiet residential street gives you room to learn the throttle, the brakes, the turning feel and the gears without pressure. Twenty minutes of practice makes the first real errand run far more relaxed.

Signal early and clearly. Extend your arm fully and hold it for a moment before you turn. Drivers need time to notice and react.

Make yourself visible. Bright clothing, lights and a flag if your route has a lot of traffic all help. The upright seating position on the Relaxed Body already puts you at a good height for drivers to see you.

Wear a helmet. Even on short, slow trips. sixthreezero carries a range of helmets designed for casual and comfort riders.

Take turns at a sensible speed. As covered earlier, trikes steer rather than lean, so slow down before a bend and take it smoothly.

Victor's willingness to laugh at himself and practice the basics is exactly the right approach. Nobody expects you to be an expert on day one. A few rides around the neighborhood and the whole routine becomes automatic.

The whole point of Victor's experiment was to replace short car trips, and that only works if the trike can actually carry what you buy. Near the end of his ride he turned around to look at the back. "Look at that. Wow. This is amazing," he said. "And you got some storage space in the back, cargo space, get some groceries."

A rear cargo area changes what a trike can do for you. On a regular bicycle, carrying groceries usually means a backpack, a handlebar bag that throws off the steering, or panniers that need to be packed carefully so the bike stays balanced. On a trike, the space sits low and centered between the rear wheels, so a few bags don't upset the handling. You load up, sit down and ride home.

Victor's verdict on capacity was practical: "You can take a lot of stuff here. You know, you take a few bags of groceries. It's great." For most errand runs, that's plenty. A few bags covers the forgotten ingredient, the midweek top-up, a pharmacy pickup or a stop at the hardware store.

He also saw possibilities beyond errands. "This is great to take on a picnic to a lake," he said. A blanket, some food and a few drinks fit easily, which turns the trike into a way to get out for an afternoon rather than just a utility vehicle.

If carrying capacity is high on your list, there are a few ways to expand on it. sixthreezero offers a range of baskets and bags and panniers that help organize what you carry and keep things from shifting around. If you regularly haul more than a few bags, you might also look at dedicated cargo electric trikes or models in the large basket collection.

A quick tip for loading: put heavier items low and toward the center, and lighter or more fragile items on top. Bags that are secured and not swinging free make the ride smoother and keep your eggs in one piece. It's the same logic as packing a car trunk, just on a smaller scale.

As the ride went on, Victor started thinking out loud about the bigger picture. "I mean, why would you want to get in a car if you have two, three miles?" he asked. "Get some fresh air. Save some energy. Save the environment."

It's a fair question, and it applies to a lot more people than just Victor. A huge share of everyday car trips are short ones: to the store, the post office, the pharmacy, a friend's house, the park. Those are exactly the trips where a car is least efficient. Engines run cold, parking takes as long as driving, and the total time spent often isn't much shorter than riding would have been.

An electric trike turns those trips into something you might actually look forward to. You're outside instead of behind a windshield. You get some movement into your day without having to schedule a workout. You skip the parking lot entirely and roll right up to the door. And you burn a small amount of electricity instead of a tank of gas.

Victor called it "alternative energy" and said it was "smart." He went further, saying the Relaxed Body "needs to be more heavily promoted," which is about as strong an endorsement as a first-time rider can give. His point wasn't really about one product. It was that a lot of people simply don't realize a machine like this exists as an option for their daily errands.

He also mentioned the riding infrastructure that makes it practical. "The good thing is that in LA you've got plenty of bike paths," he said, also pointing to San Clemente down the coast, and noting that "some of them are actually protected." Protected bike lanes, separated from car traffic by a curb or barrier, make a big difference for riders who feel nervous sharing the road. "There's lots of places you can go with this," he added.

Even if your town doesn't have a great network of paths, quiet residential streets often make perfectly good routes for short trips. It's worth spending an afternoon mapping out a low-traffic way to the places you go most often. You may find the trike route is more pleasant than the one you drive. For more ideas on where and how to ride, the Ride Ideas section of the Bike Advice blog is full of suggestions.

When Victor tried to sum up the Relaxed Body in a few words, he kept landing on the same idea. "It's very well designed. It's high-tech, but it's very simple to use." Then he kept going: "No fuss, extremely intuitive. Well thought out, you know, uncomplicated. That's what I would call this. Uncomplicated, nifty, just a nifty little machine."

That combination is harder to achieve than it sounds. An electric trike has a motor, a battery, a controller, a throttle, a gear system and brakes all working together. It would be easy to build something with a confusing display and a dozen settings that riders never figure out. What Victor appreciated was that none of that complexity reached him as a rider. He sat down, figured out the controls in the first few minutes, and spent the rest of the ride just riding.

"You know, a child could use this," he said near the end, which isn't a suggestion to hand your grandkids the keys, but a way of describing how approachable it felt. He contrasted that with his own expectations going in: "I thought it was going to be more of a challenge to ride it, and it's not at all. It's just very, very simple."

He also gave credit to the people behind it. "They've worked hard," he said of the team at sixthreezero. "You can tell their years of experience just shows up in everything about this thing." If you're curious about the company's background and how it got into making comfort bikes and trikes, you can read the sixthreezero story.

Simplicity matters most for the people who stand to gain the most from an electric trike. Someone who hasn't ridden in years, or who feels intimidated by technology, isn't going to keep using a machine that makes them feel confused. A trike that just works, every time, is a trike that gets ridden. And a trike that gets ridden is the only kind that actually replaces car trips, adds activity to your week and gets you out of the house more often.

By the end of his ride, Victor had a clear picture of who he'd recommend the Relaxed Body to. "I highly recommend it," he said, "especially if you have mobility issues. It's highly adjustable."

That's a natural fit. A step-through frame, three-wheel stability, an upright seat, familiar brakes and a motor that handles the hills add up to a machine that removes most of the reasons people stop riding. If balance has become a concern, if swinging a leg over a top tube is uncomfortable, or if hills have kept you off a regular bike, a trike like this addresses all of it at once.

But Victor's own experience shows it isn't only for people with mobility limitations. He's active, he walks regularly, and he still found plenty to like. Here are a few kinds of riders who would likely get the most out of it:

Errand runners in hilly areas. If you live a few miles from the store with an incline in between, the motor and cargo space together make the trip easy.

Tall riders. Victor's 6'2" frame fit comfortably, and he specifically called out how nice the seat height was for someone his size.

People returning to riding. If it's been years since you rode a bike, the stability of three wheels and the familiar controls make it an easy way back in.

Riders who want exercise on their own terms. Pedal hard when you feel like it, let the motor help when you don't.

Anyone thinking ahead. As Victor put it, he doesn't have mobility issues yet, but he's getting there. Getting comfortable on a trike now means it's ready when you need it.

If you're comparing options, sixthreezero has a few collections worth browsing side by side. The most comfortable electric trikes focus on seat and ride comfort, while the high weight capacity collection is useful if you plan to carry heavier loads or need a sturdier frame. For riders who would rather sit back in a reclined position, the recumbent electric trikes offer a different feel entirely. And if you're still deciding between two wheels and three, the full range of electric bikes for seniors is worth a look too.

Victor's ride was a good example of how much you learn from actually sitting on a trike rather than reading about it. His expectations shifted within the first few minutes. If you're seriously considering an electric trike, here's how to make the decision with confidence.

Get the fit right. Height, inseam and how you plan to ride all affect which model will feel best. A seat that's too low or handlebars that are too far away can turn a great trike into an uncomfortable one. sixthreezero's fitting consultation pairs you with a real person who can talk through your body and your riding style.

Ride one if you can. If you're near Los Angeles, you can visit the store and try models in person. If not, you can check the retailer locator for a shop near you.

Know your safety net. Buying a trike online can feel like a leap. sixthreezero's 30-day test ride gives you time to ride it on your own streets, on your own hills, before you commit. Details on shipping and the warranty are worth reading too.

Plan for assembly. Trikes arrive mostly built, but there are still a few steps to finish. The assembly instructions walk you through it, and it's worth setting aside an unhurried hour so nothing gets rushed.

Think about what you'll carry. Picture your most common trip. If it involves groceries, think about adding a basket or bags so loads stay secure. If it involves a dog or a lot of gear, a cargo-focused model may be the better choice.

Consider the budget. If spreading out the cost would help, sixthreezero lists its financing options on the site.

For a deeper look at everything to consider, from frame styles to motor types, the ultimate bike buyer's guide is a thorough place to start. And the Choosing a Bike articles on the blog cover plenty of specific questions in detail.

Victor Martinez set out to solve a small, nagging problem: a store three miles away, a hill in between, and a car he was tired of starting for a single item. He climbed onto the Relaxed Body expecting a challenge and a learning curve. He climbed off saying it was "way more than I expected. Way, way more."

What won him over wasn't one feature. It was how everything came together. The seat sat high enough for a 6'2" rider. Getting on and off was as simple as stepping through. The trike handled like a bicycle rather than a golf cart. The brakes felt familiar, the throttle eased off gently, and the motor had enough torque that he stopped feeling the hill altogether. He could pedal hard for exercise or kick back and let the trike do the work. And there was room on the back for the groceries that started the whole thing.

"This is good to take to the store," he said. "This is great to take on a picnic to a lake. It's just a fantastic thing." His final words on the subject were short and to the point: "Great little machine. I love it."

His experience is a good reminder that the right machine can change the way you think about short trips. Three miles stops being "too far to walk, too silly to drive" and becomes a pleasant ride with fresh air at both ends. The forgotten tomato paste becomes an excuse to get outside instead of a reason to grumble.

If that sounds like a change you'd welcome, start by browsing the full range of sixthreezero electric tricycles, get fitted for the model that suits your body, and take advantage of the 30-day test ride to try it on your own roads. And for more real rider experiences like Victor's, keep an eye on the Video Blog section of Bike Advice.