I’ve been doing a lot of research on the Catrike Villager and Max. Both are excellent trikes. The Villager is 6 pounds lighter, comes with 3 x 10 gears and will fit in my Outback. The Max is 40 pounds, which is manageable for me. Only has 1 x 10 gears and will fit in the OB. I only have a 2 x 9 gear box on my Verve, I might use 4 of those gears on any given ride sometimes 6 if I’m going up our “hill”. So, 30 gearing possibilities are really not needed to much by me…especially since I live in Florida, which for the most part is flat where I live. The Max comes with larger tires and assist bars (might come in handy), larger seat and heftier frame. The only caveat is that the Max is $400 more than the Villager. At that point what’s $400? I sure could use some feedback. Also, I do ride with padded shorts now. It looks like most folks ride trikes in shorts for the most part, no padded shorts? And I will be investing in a part of clipless riding shoes very soon. Thanks.

I ride with un-padded cycling shorts. I put a ventisit pad between the seat meshes on the bottom of the seat and works fine. I was in Florida for 4 years. The only "hills" are overpasses.

The height of the seat on the Max is almost 2 inches higher than the Villager. The Villager requires 2 more feet for turning. These are design differences that can make a BIG difference in your ride. It's not just a matter of components (which you can change out later anyway). For me, the extra 2 foot turning radius would be a drawback; our paths are not super wide and i would find it annoying to have to unclip and "walk" back a little to turn around. Also, for me, the seat height matters a lot as I ride on the city streets (My HP Velotechnik Gekko fx20 is my sole transportaiton, my "car") and visibility is critical. Your needs may be different. But definitely consider those two design factors. Finally, the max is made for large people and if that's not you, the weight penalty doesn't make a lot of sense to me. You can change out to balloon tires or add assist bars later if you need them.

I have the same gearing on my Catrike 700 as you would have on the Villager but the 700C rear wheel means both ends of the gear range are higher measured in the common way - gear inches - by using the Sheldon Brown gear calculator. It's easy to use to see what is at each end of the gears, https://www.sheldonbrown.com/gear-calc.html The range for the villager is 15.4 to 87.1 gear inches. The Max is 18.4 to 70.4 but with only 11 choices. There is some overlap with three chainrings so you don't get 30 different choices as some are close to each other using different chainrings. Use the calculator to find what you have on your existing bike for comparison.

Frankly I would not choose the max over the villager. It was specifically designed for clydesdale riders with a 425 pound limit. Those extra pounds will sure make a difference when you ride the trike and when you have to lift it,

Thanks for the feedback. I think the Villager is the solution, it seems perfect for my needs. I will add the assist bars if I need to. Thanks VegasTriker for the link…very informative website. I’m going to study it closely. Enjoy the ride.