Adult Three Wheelers

[Houthakker]

Going to look at a 3 wheeler tonight for SHMBO (Never learned to ride a bike when younger, but wants to see what all the cycling fuss is about!)
No experience of these myself and although I'm familiar with normal brakes, gears etc, anything specific to 3 wheelers we should be looking out for, or looking to avoid?

Cheers

 

[thegravestoneman]

Is it a small wheeled or big wheeled trike, or a recumbent, check the joints for cracks or deformation, play in the axles are the hubs tight on the axles, is it running straight. Stand it on the level and take a good long look at it they can twist. Also be careful if you ride it yourself because you have to forget to balance to ride one and avoid sharp camber for a while. If it is a big wheeled trike watch for burning the outside of your calf on the rear wheels when cornering at speed. Recumbents I can't help but assume much of the above.

 

[byegad]

Recumbents!

Check the frame and wheels as for any bike, check it will adjust for the required leg length and forget about it being hard to stay upright, you have to really try to flip a recumbent trike.

 

[Houthakker]

Thanks for the reply's. Well, went to look and ended up buying it. Its just a standard tricycle type, not a recumbent and I took it for a test run just to check the gears/brakes etc. Weird or what! It goes against every cycling instinct you have, shifting your weight does nothing towards steering, you just have turn the bars. Anyway, here's hoping SWMBO gets on with it. With no cycling experience to "unlearn" I hope she'll pick it up better than me..