They Tested All The E Trikes: Which Electric Tricycle Did they Choose? You'll Never Guess

Mimi: I have an electric Two Wheel Bike but I find it that my balance isn’t that great and then I crash into things.

Dustin: Okay.

Mimi: And so I figure there’s really no way to crash, I mean to lose balance and fall directly on the grass like I’ve done.

Dustin: So this one, so let me explain, this one has a tilting steering mechanism. 

Mimi: Oh yeah.

Dustin: So it's sort of an in-between of a two-wheel bike. So the two wheels are gonna help you, but you still have to balance.

Mimi: Oh yeah.

Dustin: Versus like a conventional like these, they're gonna balance themselves. So like any three of these are called conventional trikes.

Mimi: So, not reverse.

Dustin: Right. But so this one has a different steering mechanism. Do you want to put the seat up?

Mimi: Yeah, Jesse should try it first. Even though he's taller than me. I was wondering about the tilting frame.

Dustin: Yeah. It's going to feel very similar... to a two-wheel bike but you're going to be able to turn.

Mimi: What about a non-tilting one?

Dustin: So yeah then any three of these this is another this is sort of like, this is sort of the same trike but reverse with the conventional. The two wheels in the back. 

Mimi: But isn’t it easier to balance on a two-wheel in the front than it is two-wheel on the back?

Jesse: No, it's easier on that.

Mimi: It is?

Jesse: This is better when you're moving, and that's better when you're not moving.

Dustin: He's exactly right. It's hard to explain. So if you just want to be firm to the ground and don't have to worry about falling over, this is safer. Now when you take turns, you want to take turns a little bit slower.

Mimi: Right.

Dustin: This one, you can take turns much faster.

Mimi: I see.

Dustin: That's what makes turning on that one safer.

Mimi: Right. Okay, now try this one, Jess. Tell me which one I'm going to like more.

Dustin: Do you want to put the seat up?

Jesse: No, lower is fine.

Dustin: Okay. There's a parking brake on this one, so. Oh, no, you're good. Yeah. Yeah, so trikes steer a little bit differently. Yep. You have to turn the wheel

Mimi: Right.

Dustin: Have you ridden like a three-wheel bike? OK. Yeah, the first time you get on them, they're different. This one is more of a natural, like, it's more of a natural transition from a two-wheel bike to this one. But again, this one's more stable when you're just sitting.

Mimi: That's kind of what I'm going for. Stability. What do you think?

Jesse: This one is cooler. It's a little more challenging. Well, when Mimi's on the two-wheeler, her balance isn't dead on. It's a little too much side-to-side. I think that this might modulate that.

Dustin: Yeah, because you can take steep turns on this one, but you still have to balance. Do you want to try this one?

Jesse: That one's like training wheels.

Dustin: Yeah.

Mimi: Wow.

Dustin: Okay, let's see. Yeah, okay. Try stepping onto the pedal. Here. Yep, at the very bottom. That should make it easier to get on.

Mimi: Yeah. Okay, so now what?

Dustin: Do you want to just try pedaling it?

Mimi: Yeah, sure. Okay. Wow.

Dustin: Do you feel that the steering's a little bit different?

Mimi: Yeah. I don't mind it. It's just very different.

Dustin: She's rocking and rolling. See, if you like two-wheel bikes but you still need some help, this is a good one because it feels more similar. Oh, it's a kickstand.

Mimi: Almost scary.

Jesse: This one is more intuitive.

Dustin: Right, exactly.

Mimi: It's what?

Dustin: Well, it's more intuitive, but that's because for someone that's been riding a bike for 20, 30, 40 years…

Mimi: Yeah.

Dustin: This is more natural. Tricycles are, like conventional trikes, they're just different.

Mimi: Yeah.

Dustin: If you've been on a bike for a long time, you know, it takes a little getting used to. How tall are you do you know?

Mimi: Five feet.

Dustin: Five feet. Okay, yeah.

Jesse: I think these are pretty cool. It takes some getting used to. 

Dustin: But you can try, like, you want to try any of these other ones, too? Do you want to give this one a try?

Mimi: Okay.

Dustin: This is another one. I mean, this one's a little bit taller.

Mimi: Yeah. But it has bigger wheels, right?

Dustin: Yeah.

Mimi: Okay. Thanks. Wow.

Dustin: It's fun, isn't it?

Jesse: What does the shock absorber do? Is that so that the wheels can…

Dustin: I think it's to try to regulate the side-to-side a little bit. Yeah, in a perfect world, we'd have some sort of dampener where you could stiffen it a little more, you know.

Jesse: Pretty clever. What it’s clever design, so you like the two wheel in the back?

Mimi: Well yeah. I don’t really want leaning design.

Dustin: You're welcome, but if you want to, you can try that one. Yeah. Do you want to try this one? I mean, do you want to try this one? Not you, but maybe him. Do you want to try this one? Yeah. This one's actually brand new. You can take it for a test ride and see what you think.

Jesse: Okay.

Dustin: Do you want to put the motor on?

Jesse: Yeah.

Dustin: All right. And then just go easy on the let's see, which one is the, yeah, just maybe just use the rear brake. The front is lined up pretty well on this one.

Dustin: Okay.

Mimi: I thought with the trike I could have the independence to know I wasn't going to tip over on my way to the store.

Dustin: Well, you will. You will on these, you know. Yeah, and like these trikes, you won't... Yeah, the only difference between these versus the tilting one is, like I said, you just need to take turns a little slower. But, yeah. I have another one you can try after that one too. I'll bring it out. So, here's another one we got coming out. See, I don't know if you can reach your pedals on this one or not. Might need another. So. Yeah, you got to get it going a little bit. 

Jesse: Which ones aren't you using? All of them for now?

Dustin: All of them for now. You're on camera too. Do you want to try this one? This is our passenger one. Okay.

Jesse: With that small front wheel, it's fairly nimble.

Dustin: Yeah. Yeah, and it's got a longer wheelbase, so it's, you know, I think feels more stable.

Mimi: Let's see the way it is.

Jesse: I tried to lift the wheel a little. It doesn't want to.

Dustin: Yeah. So we have this coming out where we're going to have, the seat can come forward a little bit.

Mimi: Yeah.

Dustin: Yeah, because for you, I think it's a little, yeah.

Mimi: You're right. Coming out, you mean soon?

Dustin: Yeah, it should be here in early July.

Mimi: Okay.

Dustin: Yeah, well, we're changing the frame a little bit.

Mimi: Seems like I’m pretty interested in the seat that can come to the back and come forward a little.

Dustin: Okay. Yeah, that's why I put, we put like, I can put another one in there too, which would also help.

Mimi: Okay. 

Jesse: Does it have gear?

Dustin: So this one has an automatic, it's an automatic hub.

Jesse: Really?

Dustin: For the production ones, we're switching to a normal geared one because it's a little hard to pedal in first gear. I don't know if you felt that, like getting it moving. Yeah.

Jesse: Oh, so it's in first gear now. I haven't even gotten into high gear yet.

Dustin: So it's supposed to sense what gear you should be in and it automatically does it.

Jesse: Oh, okay.

Dustin: But I found that personally, it's... For the type of riders, it's very difficult to get it like... The first gear is very hard to pedal. If you notice, you've got to get it moving.

Jesse: Yeah, I was trying to shift into a lower gear. So this is the throttle here, right?

Dustin: The throttle, yeah. So I didn't have it turned on. You can try it with... Yeah, we turn it on down here. Well, you can see. I'll let her... If you want to try the motor too. And then you have a reverse on here. So you shift that down and you can go in reverse too. Oh, push that red button. That's the kill switch. Wait, let me see. There you go. There you go. Yeah. So yeah if you that red button will disengage the motor.

Mimi: Oh, that’s good. The basket, can be put at the back of that?

Dustin: So the production model will have a basket on the front. Yeah.

Mimi: Oh on the front. Okay.

Dustin: On the front. Yeah.

Mimi: That’s good.

Dustin: Yeah.

Mimi: And will I see that in July on your website?

Dustin: Yes. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, this one is on there now.

Mimi: Right.

Dustin: It's going to be the same thing, but just with a basket and the frame's going to be a little bit shorter to accommodate shorter riders.

Mimi: Cool.

Dustin: Yeah.

Jesse: I think I'm getting the transmission a little bit. If you pedal real hard and then it lets you ease up.

Dustin: Right.

Jesse: You gotta grip on it pretty hard before it says, oh okay, you want to lower gear.

Dustin: Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's actually an expensive hub. But I, yeah, I liked giving everyone the ability to choose what gear they prefer. The other cool thing, too, is that we've got this right here, so we can unlock it, and then you can sort of, like, very easy to find the position you want. Do you like it lower? Yeah. Do you want me to get another pillow for you? I have another backrest. Let me grab it. Cause you'll feel what it feels like. It'd be better. All right, go ahead and sit up. There you go.

Mimi: Yeah, okay.

Dustin: Better?

Mimi: Yeah. Okay. And now, back up.

Dustin: Well, here you can do this. So you put it right here.

Mimi: Right.

Dustin: Now go ahead and twist the throttle just a little, backward. Yep.

Mimi: Woah. Hahaha. And then put in?

Dustin: Then you can just do one.

Mimi: Yeah.

Dustin: Do you want the motor on or not?

Mimi: Yeah, I do.

Dustin: Okay. Break, break, break, break, break. Okay. Yeah. I'll go ahead and I'm going to go ahead and man the edge. You can go around the building if you want, too. It's fun, isn't it?

Mimi: Yeah.

Dustin: Pretty zippy too. I've taken that myself on a 10-mile journey. It's just really easy to steer and very comfortable obviously with that seat.

Mimi: Yeah, yeah.

Dustin: You got to flip the… Right here. Flip this thing forward.

Jesse: Oh, okay.

Dustin: And then pull it, and then.

Mimi: Yeah.

Jesse: Oh yeah, it does both sides at once. That’s cool. Pretty nifty. Cool. This shouldn’t add a pedal block option there.

Dustin: I put that on there because we were figuring out the frame length. And so for shorter riders, we needed to bring the pedals in. So that's why the production version, I'm shifting the pedals back.

Jesse: Oh really?

Dustin: Yeah, because right now, like how tall are you?

Jesse: six-two.

Dustin: Yeah. Right now it's more conducive to taller riders because the seat can slide back. So I had it all the way forward.

Mimi: Oh, that’s good.

Dustin: So once we move the pedals back, we'll still be able to fit, you know, his height, but then it'll be good for you too. Yeah. But yeah, these are just an Amazon purchase, which, you know.

Mimi: I haven't seen those before. Maybe we'll end up ordering... The newer style. And then that would be from the factory and they would mail it to us?

Dustin: No, you could still, we could mail it to you, it's from us. I mean, but we could ship it to you, or you could pick it up here.

Mimi: Really?

Dustin: Can also go on the website and there's a, you can either pre-order it or you can click a notify me button and you can put your email in there and then we'll email you as soon as it comes in.

Mimi: Cool.

Dustin: So yeah.

Mimi: So in order to put it in a car, you just have to have the back of a van pretty much.

Dustin: Yeah.

Mimi: To transport it. Well, we do have a van.

Dustin: He’s putting it to the test. Yeah, so the seat doesn't come off, but the handlebars here actually tilt, or sorry, not tilt, fold. 

Mimi: Yeah.

Dustin: So you can just lower them down if you were to transport it.

Mimi: Cool.

Dustin: Yeah.

Mimi: My name's Mimi.

Dustin: Mimi Dustin. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you.

Mimi: Oh, so how do I get this? How do I get the electric part to work on this one?

Dustin: So right here. Hold that down.

Mimi: Right. And then so. So where's the?

Dustin: This is your…

Mimi: Okay.

Dustin: This is a thumb-throttle on this one. So actually, you'll push it with your thumb. So you just want to nicely ease it in and out. This one has the reverse too.

Mimi: Oh, yeah.

Dustin: Oh, right here.

Jesse: Oh, it's on that side?

Dustin: I think it's double. You got both if you want it.

Jesse: So yeah, you know the pedal just is on one wheel. The pedal puts power on the right and then the brake is even both wheel.

Dustin: This one has a differential. So this one has the power to both. Yeah, so this is your differential right here. That's what makes this one a little more expensive. Yep. And then the same with this one. This has a differential too. So yeah, these are a little more expensive.

Jesse: Okay, let me try that again.

Mimi: It’s not quite as fun as the one you’re on.

Jesse: The differential is pretty classy.

Dustin: Well, this one with the longer wheelbase, too, and that smaller front wheel, I think adds to the overall stability, you know, because it's not as like upright as sort of traditional conventional trikes.

Jesse: Yeah, and there's a little extra rake on the front fork.

Dustin: Yeah.

Jesse: It gives a positive feel.

Dustin: Yep. That one's about 92 pounds.

Mimi: 90?

Dustin: Yeah.

Jesse: Okay, yeah. I'm only picking up part of the weight.

Dustin: The Battery's eight pounds, so take that off. You're down to, you know, 84 pounds.