What Electric Tricycle for Adults is Right For You? | E Tricycle Selection Guide

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 answer the question, what electric trike is right for you? Folding electric trike or standard three-wheel electric trike? Stick around.

All right, so today we're going to talk about what electric trike is right for you, either a folding or a regular. But before I do, hit subscribe below, stay in touch with us here at sixthreezero, and be the first to know about all the new content we're putting out, giveaways we do, and of course, new product releases. All right, so let's say you're in the market for an electric tricycle and you're considering a folding electric tricycle or a regular non-folding electric tricycle, and how do you know what is right for you?

All right, so right here we have our sixthreezero EVRYjourney 250-watt electric trike, and back here is our Easy Transit folding 750-watt electric trike. Now, there are different versions of electric folding electric trikes on the market and three-wheel standard electric trikes, and maybe you're considering a folding, maybe you're considering a standard. Why would you choose either? So between these two trikes, now there are some other major differences. There are different wheel sizes. This is a 12-inch, and this is a 26-inch. Now, typically what I see on most folding bikes or folding e-trikes is they're going to have smaller wheel sizes. The reason for that is because when you fold it, you obviously want the tricycle to fold down as small as possible, and you can see right here you have your clamp, and then from there, the bike's just going to fold in half. Sorry, the trike is going to fold in half like that. And then you can see it's going to condense the space it's going to take up, and this can fold down as well. And so now you've got a compact little trike that you can throw in an RV or the back of a car very easily.

When you look at this, obviously transporting that inside of a car isn't going to be possible unless you have an SUV or a hatchback. With a folding trike, if you took the seat off, you could fit this into a lot of different cars, probably even in the back seat of some sedans, still ideally in a hatchback or an SUV, but it's going to even be easier to get those in, obviously, versus the standard two-wheel. And transporting a tricycle on a car rack will also be a little bit challenging in that you'd have to have a special rack to transport it. So if you are planning to do a lot of riding in different locations and bringing the tricycle with you is something that you want to do, I think a folding tricycle is a great option. Now with that is going to come a smaller tire. I talk about this in some other videos too, the benefit of or the comparisons of 12 inches, 16 inches, and 20-inch tires on tricycles to 26-inch tires, and what's the benefit of each of those?

So just know you're going to switch to the smaller tire, which in some instances if you're going to pedal the e-trike without assistance, it's going to be not more difficult necessarily to pedal, but if you're riding it without the assistance, it's not going to be as efficient pedaling with a 12-inch tire versus a 26-inch tire. So if you're more concerned about how easy the bike's going to coast and roll, the 26-inch standard trike, in my opinion, is going to be better. And especially if you don't want to use the electric, then I would opt for a model like this because it's going to roll smoother. You're going to get more distance out of one pedal stroke versus on this one, just think this tire is double the size of this tire, so it's going to be about a two-to-one, right? You have to pedal this twice to get the same distance or efficiency that you get out of one pedal stroke on the 26-inch.

So I'm talking tire sizes right now, but when you get a folding e-trike, tire size is generally going to be smaller, so it folds up smaller and it's easier to bring with you. But like I said if you want to go to locations, ride on location, or want to bring it with you, definitely opt for the folding trike. Now, if you're going to keep it at your house, keep it in your garage, I like the standard two-wheel trike because number one, you're going to get a bigger rear cargo space too. You can see here the size of the basket we have here, the size of the basket we have here, and again, anything you add to the folding e-trike is going to make it bigger.

So totally up to you how much you want to add to it, but again, kind of diminishes the purpose of being able to fold it up the more stuff you add to it. So in this case, you have a bigger cargo basket on the back here if you're going to go around town, buy groceries, things like that. The other thing too is typically, now actually these are same size batteries, but in a lot of instances, you may get a bigger battery on the standard bike. Again, reducing the weight on the folding strike versus if something's not going to be transported as much like in a car in a rack, put a bigger battery on there and not worry about the fact that it's going to weigh more. So something to think about. Now, in terms of using these with the throttle in the motor, you're going to get, like I said, even more efficiency out of this model right here with the 26-inch.

With the folding element, it's not going to play into the efficiency, it's more about the tire sizes. You're going to get more rollout of it. It's going to roll easier and smoother. So you will get more range out of this 26-inch tire than you will out of the 12-inch tire. Again, it's going to take more of the motor to get these wheels turning, and you have to turn the wheels more to go as fast as you would or as far as you would on the 26-inch model. But in terms of the folding, it's not going to diminish the stability of the frame or create any less efficiency. I don't believe that's an issue at all. The frame is very, very sturdy once you connect the pieces, and doesn't seem to affect it at all. The other thing though, I would say is the setup and the riding, the position and the handlebars.

When you talk about the folding trikes, there's just a little bit less you can do in terms of the stem. This is a pretty typical stem you'll see on most folding electric trikes. Now, you do have the ability to still raise and lower it up and down, but you can see this piece is fixed right here. You do have the ability to tilt as well, so you can dial this in and get pretty comfortable, and we're going to have a sizing video on our YouTube channel as well that you can check out and see. Same thing here. You can raise and lower. You can see the handlebars are a little bit lower. Different setups, but still very, very comfortable. So again, I don't think that comfort is that much different depending on the handlebars. I still like both of these e-trikes, and as you can see right here, we can lower these very easily and put them down.

I would say the number one thing if you're just considering a folding trike is to think about whether you are going somewhere. Are you bringing it with you? Do you want to transport it? A lot of people bring them camping, things like that. This is great for that purpose, to bring it with you, easily transport it. If you're going to be stationary, you're going to be at home, it's going to be parked in the garage, and you're going to drive it out of your garage to wherever you need to go, I like this version for that. But if you're looking for something also that's smaller, more compact, and you're going to maybe drive into stores or use it to get around crowds because this is also something people can use to take it into a store, shop with it. Make this your personal mode of transportation, I do like the folding for that. Because it's a little more nimble with the smaller wheels, you can just get into some tighter spaces a little bit easier. So this is a little bit better for the open road, you want to cruise, you want to coast. In smaller spaces, the folding e-trike's going to be a better option, in my opinion, because of its smaller compact nature.

All right, I hope that helps. If you have any other questions at all about comparing a standard e-trike to a folding e-trike, comment below or email us, at theteam@sixthreezero.com, or you can call us, at (310) 982-2877, and you can find both of these electric tricycles for adults on our website right now, sixthreezero.com. And if you don't know what's right for you, take our proprietary body fit quiz, answer a few questions about your body and your life, and we'll recommend the perfect bike or e-bike for you.

In addition to that, we have a 30-day test ride with your e-trike policy. If you don't love it in 30 days, send it back, no questions asked, no money out of your pocket. And lastly, be a part of our community, our Facebook Pedalers group, and download our app. If you have questions before you purchase, join the Pedalers group, ask other riders, and also download our app, Track Your Ride, to see how other people are riding their bikes. Then once you have your bike or e-trike, post your rides. Track your rides. Make friends in the Pedalers group. It's tons of fun. All right. Thank you for sticking around, and don't forget, it's your journey, your experience. Enjoy the ride.