Best Trike?

A

auto_bike

1 mW
Joined
Sep 1, 2011
Messages
10
I am looking for a new bike to build for my dad, who already has a Workman Folding Tricycle. It has lasted him 3 years, but he is now looking at having to replace the entire rear axle assembly. I thought it would be a good time to upgrade him. The electric kit will simply be moved over to the new bike.

Can anyone recommend a good trike? The only one that I've even been able to find is the Schwinn Meridian, that fits most of the specs I'm looking for. Or the Schwinn Town and Country, though I'd rather get a single speed. My ideal specs would be:

Trike
20", but 26" is fine as I can just buy a new motor as well
Non-folding
Single speed
Front and rear bake (preferably front discs)
Comfortable
Quality and reliability

Budget, no more than $1,000.

Anyone have experience with trikes that can point me in the right direction?
 
The Meridian,Town & Country, & others are the classic delta "grandpa trike". Many are known for getting a bit tippy at speeds much over 5 mph. While there's probably other riders who found them to be acceptable, I once bought a Meridian from Wally World & promptly took it back for this reason. Next I put a hub motor on a Town & Country but only got a couple rides around the block before I bagged it because of the same. (The front wheel had a tendency to track all over the place on both also.) http://www.flickr.com/photos/airjnke/3827170704/in/photostream A friend of mine finished this PAV3 last summer & is quite happy with it. Although it may look quite a bit like your typical grandpa trike, he finds it quite solid at speeds around 15 mph.
Take it EZ;
Airjunkie
http://worksmancycles.com/shopsite_sc/store/html/pav3.html
 

Attachments

  • PAV3.jpg
    PAV3.jpg
    52.6 KB · Views: 5,133
These are some excellent value tadpole trikes made in Taiwan, not China - considerably cheaper than a Catrike.

I have a similar Actionbent trike, which I totally love, after electrifying it...

http://www.performer.com.tw/2010/user/index.php

They will ship to North America.
 
I can tell you it's not the schwinn. The wheels on the schwinn are unbelievably cheap and weak, so you'll end up having to relace the rear hubs to a better rim if they ever hit bumps. But the rest of the bike is not bad quality.
 
I have experience with only one traditional trike so far: The Trailmate Desoto Classic, 24" wheels
TrailmateDesoto.jpg
I can not find one single good thing to say about it. It's a piece of junk.
- Plastic wheels: heavy and not completely true.
- No rear brake.
- Front rim brake is a joke, considering the UNtrue plastic wheel.
- Gearing = 36/22. At around 80rpm, speed is 10mph
- The frame is very weak, it flexes.
- The fork/head angle is too extreme, causing the front end to wobble even at 10mph.

Actually I do like its "western" saddle. It's comfy.

I'm still looking for a good/stable traditional trike with 20" wheels.
 
I've built a few upright trikes for older men..

http://ypedal.com/TriRider/index.htm

and

http://ypedal.com/MiamiSun/Index.htm

Then i got one of these for myself :
http://ypedal.com/kmx/kmx.htm

the cobra is out of your price range, new, but if you can find a similar type frame and your father can get in and out of it without too much trouble, they are worlds apart.. my KMX is so comfy and fun to ride i canot put it into words..... just awsome....

the uprights are " ok " for what they are, but damn dangerous at anything close to fast, horrible brakes, etc...
 
Ypedal: I noticed that you have built quite a few ebikes and etrikes for your customers. Do you make them rainproof/splashproof? If so, how?

Sorry OP for getting off track.
 
I have ridden, built, and repaired a lot of trikes. Worksman Trikes can be a real bear to service, but they rarely require anything as major as replacing the entire axle assembly. What's the problem with it?

Disc brakes are not a good match for a trike, unless they are pretty lousy discs-- in which case they are no better than so-so rim brakes. The issue there is that trikes like the kind you've named are inherently unstable, and abrupt forces on them make them misbehave, up to and including tipping over. Disc brakes may not be stronger at the limit than good rim brakes, but they do tend to be more abrupt in how they come on at first. Forceful braking when the trike's wheel is turned a bit to the side can bend the front wheel and even the fork, or cause the trike to display unintended steering behavior, or make it fall over.

Almost all inexpensive trikes have one-wheel drive and one-wheel braking in the rear. Sometimes it is possible to add a hand brake to the otherwise unbraked rear wheel. In combination with a rear coaster brake and a front handbrake, this can allow three-wheel braking. Another alternative for three-wheel braking is to get a trike that has a braked differential. Like all normal diffs, though, when one rear wheel leaves the ground, they both lose braking (or forward drive). It may be hard to find a trike with a differential that fits into your budget, even though the diff itself is not all that expensive.

Worksman trikes are sturdy but very crude and anachronistic. Most others are just junk, poorly designed and poorly made by people who don't ride them. The Trek Pure Trike and Pure Trike Deluxe are the ones I can think of that meet your criteria, including cost, without having egregious shortcomings. (Other than those shortcomings inherent to any upright trike, that is.)

new_trek%20pure%20trike.JPG


Chalo
 
SamTexas said:
Ypedal: I noticed that you have built quite a few ebikes and etrikes for your customers. Do you make them rainproof/splashproof? If so, how?

Sorry OP for getting off track.
Click to expand...

Nothing special, the regular drip loop wire runs, and some shipping tape over seams on the controller and silicone at the top of parts.. leaving bottoms open to drip and dry if moisture does somehow get in..

i've found that it's better to allow water to exit and parts to dry vs trying to get a system 100% sealed..
 
The Trek Pure Trike and Pure Trike Deluxe are the ones I can think of that meet your criteria, including cost, without having egregious shortcomings. (Other than those shortcomings inherent to any upright trike, that is.)
Click to expand...
What makes the Trek Pure Trike better than other brand/model trikes?
 
Remember R.N. saying about the Corvar "unsafe at any speed" , that is the way I feel about the workman trike, the CG is just too high for anything but flat surface riding at under 10mph. A friend has a w.t. that he has been riding for years, I added a electric motor, but geared it down to a 7mph top speed, I did a road test, going over uneven surfaces at any speed I felt unstable.

I built a tadpole trike from scratch, I used a office chair as the seat at about 1/2 the height of the workman trike, the CG is still too high for uneven road surfaces, it is quite stable going down a good road surface hill at 35+mph, but makeing a right turn up a ramped driveway I have have fallen over at .?mph, a couple of times because of traffic behind me, and not wanting to swing out into the traffic lane to take a 90 degree approach to the driveway. Live and learn.

I like the low seat height of the KMX trike, but for my friend he would need to have someone help pull him up and out of the seat. I like the ease of up and down to sit in my trike, and the extream comfort of the chair, it also still has the arms on it.
 
The schwinn has a decent enough frame. and a nearly useless drum rear brake, but better than nada. It was quite able to cruise fast enough once motorized to bend the wheels in a day or two. Can't corner at speed of course, till you master the two wheel turn.

Even at pedaling speeds, the wheels got bent up on two meridians that we use at work maintaining the condo grounds. Two condo residents liked the look of our trikes and bought one. Niether gets ridden any. Apparently schwinn designers anticipate this and build the wheels to suit that use. 8)

But I thought the frame on the meridian was pretty good, exceptional lateral stiffness for a step through with just one frame tube. But the cheap wheels bend real easy. One of the pedalers at work bent a rear axle as well, but that took years of use. As long as you are prepared to replace the rear wheels soon, it can be OK. Just not best by any means compared to the wheels on worksman trikes.

It was my very first Ebike build. Lead batteries didn't help the wheels any. :lol: Trike e-bike.JPG


FWIW, E-BikeKit sells a trike kit. It uses a slow front hub motor, so you don't get too far into the dangerous speeds. The trike in the pic went 30 mph on 48v. Clearly too fast for the wheels. At 30 mph, it was nearly impossible to dodge objects on the road.
 
SamTexas said:
The Trek Pure Trike and Pure Trike Deluxe are the ones I can think of that meet your criteria, including cost, without having egregious shortcomings. (Other than those shortcomings inherent to any upright trike, that is.)
Click to expand...
What makes the Trek Pure Trike better than other brand/model trikes?
Click to expand...

Trek is a reputable bicycle manufacturer, and builds their product to the prevailing standards for specialty shop quality bicycles. The other trikes I have messed with are either very expensive cottage industry items, or (more commonly) crude and under-engineered things built more to the typical standards of a cheap lawnmower or folding table.

Many years ago, I made the mistake of getting my little sister a Trailmate EZ Roll Regal when she wanted a trike. That was my first experience with trikes after having become a bike mechanic, and I was shocked and dismayed to see how awful it was. I eventually replaced all the wheels and handlebar and stem, after a cousin crashed it and destroyed all those things, but there was no getting around the fact that the rest of the trike was so poorly conceived that there was no way to make it work right. Since that time, I have worked on many, many trikes, and more of them are like that old Trailmate than not.

JEB's comment earlier is true for the Worksman trikes he specifically mentions, but it's also true for upright trikes generally. Here's my own personal "unsafe at any speed" trike:

worksman1.jpg


it had a whole career as a plant trike in a Boeing factory, and by the time I got it, it was a battle-scarred frame and rear axle and not much else. In the process of refurbishing it, I even made a new axle from scratch. The hardest part was making the hubs:

worksman_hub.jpg


Since these pictures were taken, I have added a fifth-wheel type hitch and lowered the trike's gearing for towing trailers at parade speed. That's the right speed for a Worksman trike-- even one as well sorted out as this one.

This machine I helped design and build had six Worksman trikes used in its construction:
http://austinbikezoo.org/blog/?page_id=884
snake-on-big-hill.jpg

snakeeatlongcenter.jpg


Chalo
 
Now that is really cool! Surely that got taken to burning man?
 
dogman said:
Now that is really cool! Surely that got taken to burning man?
Click to expand...

No, but it has done an international ride from Presidio, TX to Ojinaga, Mexico and back. The snake bike, I mean. The weirdest thing the chopper trike has done is the 2006 Dead Baby Downhill Race in Seattle. That was scary.
 
Those asking about the condition of the rear axle, I think it's just a matter of exceeding the capacity of the vehicle. A 200lb man is already close to the weight limit of his model. Add the array of SLA batteries in the back and after 2,000 miles I think it just couldn't handle it. But I think you've talked me out of the Schwinn models. I am also looking at the Workman Mover series...which has a higher weight rating and larger rear tray, perfect for the batteries.
 
auto_bike said:
..., but he is now looking at having to replace the entire rear axle assembly.
Click to expand...
What exactly is the "entire rear axle assembly"? On my Trailmate trike, there are only 5 components that are subject to wear and tear: 4 bearings (2 for each wheel) and the freewheel.
 
Figure out a way for him to test ride an easy on and off semi-recumbent. Add a heavy duty motorcycle kickstand for stability while loading stuff. To me the instability of upright trikes is begging for a broken hip. Give him something fun to ride, not something scary and dangerous to ride.
 
John in CR said:
Figure out a way for him to test ride an easy on and off semi-recumbent. Add a heavy duty motorcycle kickstand for stability while loading stuff. To me the instability of upright trikes is begging for a broken hip. Give him something fun to ride, not something scary and dangerous to ride.
Click to expand...
that's just like...
your opinion man! :lol:
I happen to like my standard delta trike with it's HUGE shopping basket on the rear because of ...shopping.
...and laundry day
...and taking garbage to the dumpster
...and hauling over-sized stuff.
...and blah blahblah you getting a picture?
-you can carry almost any kind of load without having to futz around with balance.
After the first couple of weeks getting to know how to handle a sit-up-high delta trike I'm perfectly comfortable riding one.
The only thing difficult about a standard trike is having to steer against heavily crowned road surfaces.

-since I sold the trike to my neighbor I now use a trailer for the above tasks. While hooking up the trailer isn't that big a deal, is still something else I have to do before starting my 'to-do-list'
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

T
    • Like
Schwinn Meridian Trike Rear Axle Fix - 1200 miles
Replies
5
Views
747
TricycleMichael
T
amberwolf
    • Like
Amberwolf's Schwinn Trike Rebuild / Conversion to Heavy Cargo Hauler
2
Replies
42
Views
2,770
amberwolf
amberwolf
Big Tom
Up grading to a new trike
2 3
Replies
68
Views
4,109
glennb
G
amberwolf
Help design a DIY middrive for this heavily customized trike
Replies
12
Views
1,649
amberwolf
amberwolf
C
    • Like
Generic E-trike Build - KMX+BBS02B and trailer
Replies
22
Views
1,433
Conrad_K
C
Back
Top