Help My Grama
 

Fellow Clydes and Athenas,

I'm searching for a trike that would be suitable for a senior citizen Athena+. She's likely 350+, and would need a comfortable seat and casual riding position. I've found a few online but would like some recommendations.

Thanks!

Dr. Stormcrowe's wife rides a trike. He should bge here shortly to advise...

The questions are the same whether the intended rider is fat, thin, young or old, lets start with the top five:

1) What kind of riding does this person want to do?

2) Are they able to ride from home to the place they want to ride?

3) Do they have any health or medical issue that could make using certain types of bicycles more difficult, to use?

4) What kind of budget do they have available?

5) Have they ridden before?

Tom S is a great source for this, but he and Crazy Lady are doing their shake down camping trip this weekend. I'm sure he'll chime in when they get back.

Tom is on tour with said wife on said trike and will be back on Tuesday. So I'm sure he will respond accordingly when he returns.

Just got logged in, and I'll have some pcs up momentarily of my wife's trike. She rides a Sun EX3 SX recumbent. It's pretty comfortable, and relaxed, and not terribly expensive. It's far safer that the upright "Granny Trikes", though, and would be more likely to actually be ridden.

http://i122.photobucket.com/albums/o...Weekend001.jpg

http://i122.photobucket.com/albums/o...rTour_copy.jpg

http://i122.photobucket.com/albums/o...Weekend009.jpg

http://i122.photobucket.com/albums/o...Weekend014.jpg

Casual city\bikepath riding.

Mostly. In the situations where this is not true, I can porter said trike with my truck if needed.

She has some equilibrium issues, which is why I'm interested in a trike.

I'm not restricting the budget at this time. I need to understand the best possible options, and I'll formulate a budget around that.

Years ago. The fourth bike I ever rode was her (two wheel) 3-speed. Of course, that doesn't speak to how often she ever rode it, but hey...

Thanks so much for posting the pics. It looks pretty sporty. I'll have to investigate if there is a variance in Sun's lineup for performance vs. casual oriented configurations for this frame. It looks like your wife is into some serious touring, whereas with grama I think we'd be content with a few (20 tops ;) )miles a week.

How is it safer and why do you think it would be more apt to be ridden? I'm all about safety and motivation, but I seek to understand :)

I'm also interested in what make\model of "granny trike" would be comparable. I know the first response is going to be "define comparable", but... just run with it...

The sheer comfort factor is the main reason. You'll be looking at ~$800 or a bit more for an EZ3, vs $300-$500 for an upright trike. The upright trike will tip easier if the drops a wheel into a hole, and isn't as stable due to a much higher center of gravity. The upright saddle is also much less comfortable than the seating system on a recumbent like the EZ3. The upright will also have either a single speed hub, or a 3 speed, vs the 27 gears available on the EZ series. My wife's is the EZ3 SX specifically.

My wife's trike isn't really all that sporty, either, it's actually pretty pedestrian, unlike the tadpole designs out there. This one is from Actionbent, and starts around $1300, and Tadpole Trikes can wind up at the top end of pricing almost as expensive as a good premium used car. ;)

http://www.actionbent.com/Images/T1T...n/10000015.jpg

The EZ3 is really a path trike, and my wife's has a rack on it that I modified to mount on the basket mounts for her to carry panniers and touring gear.

By the way, my Mother has an upright trike, and won't ride it, even though she chose it and bought it all on her own. She got it and it wasn't comfortable, and as a result, she tossed her money to the wind, in effect.

http://worksmancycles.com/shopsite_s...studio-200.jpg

This is roughly comparable, from Executive, to what my Mother purchased.

By the way, in my original post, I noticed a typo. I IDed her trike as an EX3 SX, it's an EZ3 SX

I kinda combined a couple of items my questions in red and your replies in black.

I would agree with Tom, a recumbent trike is probably the best bet.

The tadpole trikes are mostly pretty low and perhaps difficult for an older, heavier person to get on and off. The Sun EZ-3 trikes are higher...seating position is kinda like driving a car, where the tadpoles are more like go-karts. I have an EZ-3AX, which is a little sportier, a little lighter, and has more gears than the SX (and costs about twice as much, as I recall). http://www.sunbicycles.com/sun/index.htm

It's all a matter of preference. I ordered a TerraTrike Cruiser ("Ghidrah", the terror-trike), but just before I picked it up from the shop, I noticed a Sun EZ3-USX listed on Craigslist. Since Jeff would be with me, I thought we'd look at the Sun to see if he'd be interested. He test rode it, and ended up buying it (paying $500). I rode it, and hated it -- but love my TerraTrike.

Here's Ghidrah, a tadpole design:
http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/j...a/DSC_1102.jpg

Here's Jeff on his trike (underseat steering, delta design):
http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/j...a/DSC_1253.jpg

It wasn't easy at first getting in and out of my trike - I've got two total knee replacements and finally figured it out after a half-dozen tries. The Sun is much easier to get on and off of.

BTW - we settled on a trike for Jeff because he hadn't learned to ride a bike as a child, and has developed some equilibrium problems.

I purchased an upright trike a Schwinn Meridian that is sold at Walmart for $248.56 for my 85 y.o. Mom after she lost her license. http://www.walmart.com/catalog/produ...uct_id=5679542

She found it to be "unstable" despite the overwhelming excellent reviews. I don't know if it was the "idea" that she had to ride a "granny" bike or the fact that the handling was simply foreign to her. She never rode the bicycle. I brought her to the bike shop for a two wheel bicycle but she had trouble with balance. We gave up the idea on two wheeled bikes after she tipped over a test bike in the parking lot much to the shop owners shock.

In retrospect, we should have tried one of the Sun tricycles like Tom Stormcrowe's wife. It appears much more stable.

The only bit of advice, I can give, is bring grandma to the shop. Let HER make the bike selection. If you try to get it for her, she may reject it.:love: