Worst E-Bike/Trike ever made?

I just acquired a 2008 iZip Tricruiser.
Currie rear drive via chain which works OK.
78 year old arthritic owner rode it 1X and pushed it to back of garage. Fortunately.
107 lb, steel frame. Too small a frame (for typical Chinese proportions)
Tall, short WB, narrow so as to easily fit thru doors, w/ horrid bars that bend back towards seat & aggravate poor balance .
Just bad geometry, CG and F/R weighting.

Handles like a bad sidecar rig, alternating lean steering and directional bar steering as rear wheel lifts when turning.
coupled with high CG and factory bars, it wants to tip with any steering input.
Turning on anything not perfectly flat at any speed invites disaster from rapidly lost control.

Oh, and recalled for breaking axles.

Later models went to front hub drive and discs which might help, but it is so tippy, I would be concerned.
I cannot see this as being safe even at low speeds.

? Anyone have suggestions for trying to correct its problems?
I cannot believe these things were/are a part of the market. Especially for the old or fragile.
They seem very unstable, though I understand how trikes can appeal, prior to being ridden.
(I have 3 tadpole 'cumbies) Sidecar rigs are bad like this if not set up well.
The powered rear unbolts, and after the axle issue is addressed, might make a reasonable powered trailer drive rig.


found this thread with some good hints;
Advice wanted: Building an E-Trike
Postby FlyWheelz » Sun Jul 25, 2010 7:29 pm

please post a picture of the trike.

I was thinking the trike was based on a schwinn meridian but who knows?
The axle is fairly easy to replace with parts available from most online bike shops (and amazon).
Any 'grandma' trike can be made more stable by lowering the center of gravity and extending the wheelbase.
A couple of more tricks and you get a trike that's quite stable.

The advantage to having a rear drive is the (brushed) motor can be exchanged and one can add a front wheel motor if needed. although in Dallas it's likely one wouldn't need an extra motor.

Take care.

I think Dogman had that trike?

Easy to fix the trike; use smaller rear wheels first (20").

The steering can be fixed in a few ways, but I found that the tiller steering I'm using on SB Cruiser works well enough, and allows for things the remote steering I"m using on CrazyBike2 doesn't, like full 90-degree angling of the front wheel for extremly small turning circles.


Change the basket system to a low-down cargo deck level wiht the "axle" setup in the rear, and put the battery weight and anything else you can down low, below that deck level if possible.


Basically, set it up like my SB Cruiser, geometry-wise, and it'll be pretty rideable even at speed (I can make turns on the road at intersections at 17-18mph easy, with just a little wheel lift sometimes).

Axle recalled for braking , Axle on the hubs ? or the Main Axle on the Frame ?

To add to what ddk and Amberwolf said, besides getting a springer front fork that will extend the wheelbase like what ddk shows in the picture , and 20 inch rear wheels and lower cargo position that Amberwolf says.
You could go to your local Welder/Fabricator and make the whole rear end a little wider, of course with a stronger main Axle . that combined with springer/longer front end will give you allot more stability.
From a A and P Mechanic that I spoke with some years ago that was working on making a small car/trike.
Long wheel base and wide width , along with proper weight C.G. is a must when designing/making a trike.

Just making it lower with the smaller wheels, and moving the cargo deck down to axle level, will make the rear end a lot more stable without widening it.

Making the trike longer will also help; I'd also personally recommend moving the seat forward; SB Cruiser got more stable when I moved it about a foot or so forward from where it originated relative to the rear wheels.

But I do recommend changing to double-ended axles, and adding an outboard dropout on each rear wheel, as it will make it sturdier and you wont' be breaking axles anymore.

This can be done with a bit of welding, and is probably easiest to do using the back end off an old bike, using the seatstay/dropout/chainstay from the left side on the left outboard axle, and the one from the right side on the right outboard axle. You can bend the stays apart so they line up with the existing inbaord stays, and then weld some other tubing off the scrapped bike to connect the inboard and outboard sides together.

You could even use the headtube and toptube/downtube off the scrapped bike to extend the front end further, or to alter the headtube angle one way or another.

Thanks , guys.
the one driven wheel really aggravates the design. Again, sidecar dynamics. Old BMW's drove both wheels to offset that.
I have dropped the seat, (semi recumbent style) and new bars helped, so that I can have more support and wiggle in leaning. Adds control.
Stretched "chopper forks" on order
Awaiting word from Currie on the recalled axle, but outboard dropouts make good sense, and it's a steel frame.
the one wheel drive is prolly another factor that stressed the axle
I build wheels, so 20"s is do able, stronger
Do the tires slip enough that a solid axle works OK?

A lot of the problems were in set up. Folks unfamiliar with trikes (or walmart quality set up techs),
can do pretty problematic set ups on hardware that is hard to set up,and needs attention to detail.

again thanks

Here "trike" usually means a tadpole. Those one-wheel-at-front things are called "delta".
Many commercial tadpoles have too high seat height. In my mind recumbent is a lowride. That"s the idea. Seat height 20cm from the ground max.
Those high seat height deltas shure are good shopping wagons and hauling vehicles, uptown cruisers.
Sorry if i sound too critical :wink: Just my two cents.

From OP: Gotcha re trike styles. The delta, tadpole and "adult trike" styles each have their own dynamics.
I have tadpoles with seat heights form 9" to 14" and they are night and day different. Lower, wider and longer is better. Bigly.
This one has a 33 inch seat height with a hefty vertical SLA battery pack behind the seat post.
Getting the seat down and positioning bars in a better way so that the CG is lower
and leaning can be smoother helps.

The trike is narrower than my buddy's TREK "adult trike" and that makes a difference in handling.
Unlike that pedal-only trike, the power to a single (left) wheel is another variable that makes
handling a challenge.
You are less likely to be powered in a turn with pedaling only.

Pedaling you can modulate power input in a way that the motor does differently, and so turning left and right
can each be affected by the throttle and weight very differently under when under power.

I can see how a front wheel drive, seen in the current model would affect handling for the better,
but don't know how the springer extended front end would react to the weight and power of a front hub.


***HATS OFF TO IZIP! *** for their warrantee/recall service
I called them and got a fast call back from their automated call management program, and rapid replacement of the entire rear end
not just the axle under the recall. Fast and well handled. First rate. Well done.

I previously had to disassemble the trike to transport it and it is a straight forward replacement, and not difficult at all.

For some reason , the trike is not taking my 10s lipo pack, but is still working fine on the original (and not well cared for) SLA's from 2008.
May be plug issue, as polarity checks ok

i found the ES trike thread that addresses handling at :
Help please, new to tricycles, considering building e-trike

From OP
I have had fun playing with this early iZip set up, but have failed at making it safe to ride.
Again, the "sidecar" style of handling can at best be muted , but I have not been able to make it safe.
1) Single wheel power and braking in all modes,(to Left rear, right freewheels)
2)Unstable steering oscillating between front powered+Lwheel, and front+both wheels and narrow track plus high CG
I have improved balance, but above 5mph it is simply unstable and almost un-steerable, requiring jumbo body english to control
and even then it has a narrow envelope of control. little straight line stability, very difficult to correct when it becomes unstable
balance and direction control steering mode and are easily upset.
OK if you are a unicyclist type. For simple use , in traffic or any surface irregularity or for someone needing stability, no way.
So a good study in chassis dynamics for me.

The Izip non hub drive of note is solid, but noisy and slow, but its 10 yr old 10aHr SLA still gets 9 to 10 miles on a 110 pound bike w 175lb rider
Not sure what to do with it , as I don't feel it is safe enough to pass to the type of person who might try and ride it.
Best bet will be to pull the motor and play with building it into a rear hub and give the trike away
Izip motor mounts are easy to find, but I will need to find a hub to mount a left side sprocket

Well, its the meridian, or at least that frame design.

Nothing wrong with its handling, for what it is. It's not designed to corner fast, Its only safe at 15 mph straight line, and much slower cornering.

Depends on your skill, how well you can corner faster doing the two wheel corner. Its gonna lift a wheel if you don't slow down.

Lowering it would help some, but really, this is what you want.

Yea at 5,000 watts.

Yeah, or at least run a 2000w motor on it. slap a muxus on it.

But as to the OP,, really,, even heavily modifying that trike won't make it that much better a trike. A better approach would be to choose a better trike to start with.

If you still like a delta, look at the sun EZ or Eco Deltas. Or use that trikes rear end, but build a completely new front end like Amberwolfs. Stretch it out helps a ton.

It just depends on what your needs, and or expectations are. one thing for sure, if you want a fun ride at higher speeds, then you have to go to the tadpoles.