A Former Triathlete's First E-Trike Ride: Hills, Back Pain, and the Simple Glide

A Lifelong Rider Meets His First E-Trike

Some of my favorite test rides at sixthreezero aren't with people who are new to cycling. They're with people who rode for decades and then, for one reason or another, quietly stopped. Jamie is one of those riders, and his very first time on an electric trike is the subject of this video, filmed at our San Clemente location with Diane leading the ride.

Jamie is 62. He calls himself an average cyclist, which undersells it a bit. He's a former triathlete, and by his own estimate he's put somewhere around 10,000 miles on road bikes and mountain bikes over the years. This is not someone who needs to be taught how to ride. He knows how to shift, how to pace a climb, how to read a road. What he'd never done was ride anything with a motor in it.

So why would a rider with that background be sitting on a recumbent e-trike? The honest answer is one I hear constantly from riders in their sixties and beyond: the body changes, and the terrain doesn't. Jamie lives in a very hilly area. Diane rides with him there and knows those hills well. Over time, those climbs became the thing that kept him off the bike. Not a lack of interest. Not a lack of skill. Just the hills.

The two problems Jamie brought with him

Two physical issues came up again and again during the ride, and I think a lot of readers will recognize themselves in both.

The first is lower back pain. Anyone who has spent years on a road bike knows the posture: hunched forward over the bars, weight on the hands, back rounded for hours at a time. Jamie said it plainly once he was rolling. On his road bike he's leaned way over, and his back is strained the entire time. At 30, you shake that off. At 62, it lingers into the next day and the day after.

The second is his knees, specifically on climbs. On flat ground or gentle downhills, Jamie said nothing really bothered him. It was the uphill work that got to him, and especially the climb back up to his house at the end of a ride. He described that final stretch as kind of ridiculous now, and admitted it's the reason he isn't riding nearly as much as he used to.

That detail matters more than it sounds. When the last mile of every ride is the worst mile, you stop starting rides. It's never a dramatic decision. You just find other things to do on Saturday morning, and then a year goes by and the bike is still hanging in the garage.

Why this test ride is worth your time

Plenty of e-trike videos are product walkarounds and nothing more. This one is more useful because Jamie is an experienced rider with a clear reference point. He knows exactly how hard those hills feel on a conventional bike, so when he tells you something feels easy, he's measuring it against thousands of miles of real effort. That's a much more honest benchmark than a first-time cyclist's impression.

It also captures something you rarely see in a product video: a genuine first reaction. Jamie hadn't read a spec sheet or watched a dozen reviews. He sat down, listened to Diane explain the controls, and rode. Every surprise, every adjustment, and every "this is easy" moment happened in real time, on real hills.

Diane rode alongside him the whole way on a four-wheel model, which gave us something else worth seeing: two riders who have climbed the same kind of hills together for years, doing it side by side at an easy, conversational pace. I'll come back to that, because for a lot of couples and riding partners it's the real story.

In the sections below I'll walk through the trike Jamie rode, how its controls work, what happened on the ride itself, and what Jamie said once he got off. If you're a longtime cyclist who's been sidelined by hills, a sore back, or tired knees, or you're shopping for someone who is, this is a pretty good preview of what that first ride actually feels like. If you'd like to see the range of three-wheelers we're talking about before reading further, our full lineup of electric tricycles is a good place to start.

Jamie's ride for the day was the Simple Glide, a recumbent-style e-trike. Before he pedaled anywhere, Diane walked him through every control, and I'd recommend any first-time rider get the same orientation before rolling out. Here's what she covered, in roughly the order she covered it.

Seven gears, used exactly like a regular bike

The Simple Glide has seven gears, shifted with a simple click down and click up at the handlebar. Diane's advice was to use them the same way Jamie would on his road or mountain bike: shift down as you approach a hill, shift up as the road flattens or tips downward. For an experienced rider this is the most familiar part of the whole machine, and it stays relevant even with the motor running. Jamie admitted later that he needed a few minutes to get used to these particular shifters, but once he had them figured out, he was good.

Pedal assist: on, off, up, and down

On the other side of the bars is the pedal assist control. One button turns pedal assist on and off, one raises the level, and one lowers it. I'll go deeper into how pedal assist actually feels in the next section, but the short version is this: the higher the level, the easier pedaling becomes and the faster you'll go.

A throttle that works like a gas pedal

The Simple Glide also has a throttle, which lets you stop pedaling altogether. Diane compared it to the gas pedal in a car. Turn it further and you simply go. On Jamie's trike the throttle sat on the left side of the bars. If a throttle is high on your must-have list, we group models that have one in our collection of electric trikes with throttle control.

The parking brake

This was one of the features Diane was most excited to show, and for good reason. The trike has a parking brake, and when it's engaged the trike stays put. She had Jamie sit down and try to push himself forward using only his body weight. Nothing moved. That stability is exactly what you want when you're getting on or off, especially if balance or a stiff back makes that moment a little awkward.

There's a safety layer built in, too. With the parking brake on, even if you turn the throttle, the trike isn't going to go anywhere. Only after you click the brake off does the throttle respond. Diane's one warning at this point was to hold off on testing the throttle until she stepped clear, so he wouldn't run over her toe.

The seat, the backrest, and the armrests

The first thing Jamie noticed when he sat down was how cushioned the seat felt. Then came the back support, which, given his history with lower back pain, is probably the feature that matters most for him. Diane pointed out that even when he chooses to pedal with no assist at all, what she jokingly called "manual Jamie mode," he can push back against the backrest and use all his leg muscles without putting that strain on his lower back.

There are also padded armrests. You can ride with them down and simply rest your arms on them as you steer, so you don't have to hold your arms up for the whole ride. It's a small thing on paper. Two hours in, it isn't small at all. If seating comfort is your top priority, our most comfortable electric trikes are grouped together for exactly that reason.

Battery and display

The battery sits at the back of the trike, behind the seat. There's a button on the battery itself that switches it on, and then a separate button up at the handlebar that turns the display on. Once it's lit, the display shows three things: your speed, which pedal assist level you're in, and the energy bar for the battery.

Diane made a point of saying you should check that energy bar before every single ride. The battery is rated for up to 50 miles, but how far you actually get depends heavily on how you ride. I'll come back to that in the next section, because it's one of the most practical things a new rider can learn.

Storage, mirrors, and lights

Up front there's a storage area for whatever you want to bring along on a ride. The Simple Glide Jamie rode was, in Diane's words, fully decked out: rearview mirrors, which she loves having when riding on the road, plus a headlight on the front and a light on the rear.

Adjustability

Jamie had already slid the seat back a bit to fit his legs before the walkthrough started. The handlebars can be adjusted as well if a rider needs it. For a first ride they left those alone, but it's worth knowing the fit isn't locked in. Each rider can dial it to their own body.

The footrest

Diane saved her favorite feature for last. There's a footrest that flips down. If you get partway through a ride and decide you're tired of pedaling, or you simply don't plan to pedal for a stretch, you can drop the footrest, rest your feet on it, and cruise on the throttle for a while. When you're ready to pedal again, it flips right back up out of the way.

Diane summed up the whole package with a line I hear some version of fairly often: riding it feels like sitting in first class on an airplane, except you're out on a bike ride. Jamie said the footrest was a feature he loved, too. You can see the Simple Glide alongside other reclined, seat-with-a-backrest designs in our recumbent electric trike collection.

If you've ridden a conventional bike for years, the electric controls are the one genuinely new thing to learn. Diane explained them in a way that clicked for Jamie almost immediately, so I'll borrow her framing here.

Pedal assist, explained through a hill

Picture a climb near your house. Partway up, you get that urge to stand up out of the saddle because your legs are running out of energy. Pedal assist supplies that extra energy through the bike instead of through your body. You're still pedaling the whole time. The motor simply adds to every stroke.

The system on Jamie's trike uses numbered levels. Level one is a light boost, and each step up makes pedaling easier and lets you go faster. Over the course of this ride, Jamie and Diane used every level from one through five, and the way they moved between them is honestly the best lesson in the whole video.

Matching the level to the terrain

Here's roughly how the levels got used on the ride:

• On flat ground at the start, Jamie rode with pedal assist completely off, in third gear, so he could feel the trike as a regular pedal bike first.
• On the first small hill, he switched on level one and felt it kick in right away.
• Climbing away from a busy street crossing, he jumped all the way to level five, then backed down to three once he had momentum.
• On a longer climb he tried level four, decided he didn't really need that much, and came back down. Level one turned out to be too little, so he settled in between.
• On flat and gently downhill stretches, level two felt about right.

There's no single correct setting. The point is that you adjust as you go, the same way you'd shift gears, and you can change levels while you're moving. Diane did exactly the same thing on her own ride, running level five up a steep hill and pulling it back to three as the road flattened out.

The throttle as a tool

Diane uses her throttle most when crossing a busy street. A turn of the throttle gets you moving quickly and safely across, instead of grinding away from a standstill in front of traffic. That's precisely how Jamie used it during the ride: throttle to clear the crossing, then pedal assist to carry on up the hill beyond it.

The throttle is also what makes the footrest worth having. It's the "I'm done pedaling for a while" mode. Flip the footrest down, rest your legs, and let the throttle carry you until you feel like pedaling again.

Gears still matter

Having a motor doesn't make the gears obsolete. When Diane asked Jamie afterward how he'd handled the hills, he said it was a combination of switching gears and using pedal assist. On the descent, Diane reminded him to shift into a higher gear, seventh, and to make sure he kept pedaling. For an experienced rider who already thinks about cadence, that instinct carries over almost entirely. The motor doesn't replace your shifting judgment. It works alongside it.

Riding with no assist at all

You can also leave the motor off and ride under your own power, just as you would a road bike or mountain bike. That's handy if you want a workout on a flat stretch or want to stretch the battery further. And as Diane pointed out during the walkthrough, the backrest lets you push hard with your legs while your back stays supported, which is a very different experience from grinding along hunched over a set of drop bars.

Thinking about range before you leave

The battery on Jamie's trike is rated for up to 50 miles, and Diane was careful to explain why that number moves around. If you go uphill using the throttle the whole time, you're not going to get 50 miles. Your real-world range comes down to how you mix the three modes: riding with nothing at all, riding with pedal assist, and riding on the throttle.

Her advice was to be smart about it. Think ahead about what your ride is going to look like, how much climbing and how much flat, and plan your assist use around that. And check the energy bar before you roll out. It takes two seconds and saves you from an unpleasant surprise halfway up the last hill.

For what it's worth, after a ride with several real climbs, Jamie looked down at the display and saw almost no energy used. He felt he could ride like that for 50 miles without any trouble. That's a pretty good sign of how efficiently a rider can use pedal assist once they get the hang of moving between levels instead of leaving it maxed out. If you're comparing setups with this in mind, browsing our electric trikes for seniors is a helpful way to see the different options side by side.

With the walkthrough finished and the parking brakes released, Jamie and Diane headed out. Here's how the ride unfolded.

Starting manual on the flat

Jamie started with pedal assist off, in third gear, which Diane agreed was a sensible gear for the flat stretch they were on. Her first question was whether it felt like a regular bicycle. Jamie's answer: pretty much. That's worth knowing for experienced riders who worry an e-trike will feel strange. With the motor off, it's a pedal-powered machine, and your own effort translates straight into motion.

Sitting upright for the first time in years

A few turns in, Diane asked how the back support felt. Jamie said his back felt nice because he wasn't straining it at all. She followed up on the posture difference: on road and mountain bikes you're leaning over the handlebars, and here you're sitting more or less straight up. Jamie said that's what makes it great, because on his road bike he's leaned way over and his back is strained the entire time. On the trike, that strain simply wasn't there.

The first hill, and the first "oh wow"

When the road tilted up for the first time, Diane suggested turning on pedal assist one. Jamie switched it on and you can hear his reaction on the video: "Oh wow." Level one is the gentlest setting there is, and he could definitely feel it. A little later he put it simply. The pedal assist is really nice, and it really kicks in.

Diane asked how his knees and back were doing. On the flat and downhill sections, Jamie said, nothing bothered him. It's the uphill work that normally gets his knees, and the climb back to his house is the worst part.

Diane added a thought that I think deserves more attention than it usually gets. As you get older and recover from different procedures, being able to jump on one of these in a low assist level, putting in very little of your own energy, and simply get out into nature has real value from a mindset point of view. Recovery isn't only physical.

Crossing the street

Coming up to a busier street, Diane rode ahead and told Jamie he'd probably want to use the throttle to get across, and that he'd quickly find pedal assist one wasn't going to cut it for the climb on the other side. Jamie used the throttle to cross, and by the time he was settled into the bike lane on the far side, he was already up in pedal assist five. His reaction: "Wow, this is great."

Finding the right level on a long climb

As the climb continued, Jamie came down to level three while Diane rode in two. Asked whether he was having to pedal hard, he said not at all. It was really easy, and it didn't feel like he was going up a big hill. Diane suggested he try three or four. He went up to four, decided he didn't really need it, and came back down. When he dropped all the way to one, that was too little, so he found his spot in between. As the road leveled out, two felt right.

A couple of safety reminders from Diane came up here that I'd pass along to any new trike rider. Stay in the bike lane, and keep in mind that you've got two wheels behind you. A trike is wider than a bicycle, and it takes a few minutes to get a feel for that footprint. She also asked riders not to ride directly behind one another on the road and to keep some spacing.

"By now I'd be all winded"

Further along, Jamie said the ride was really easy, and that by this point on his road bike he'd be winded. He brought up the seat again, too. He'd watched Diane riding other bikes, he said, and this one was really comfortable.

Then came the comment that I think sums up the whole experience for an experienced cyclist. Turning onto another climb, Jamie said that one thing he's always struggled with, even when he was younger, is starting out going uphill. On this trike, he said, it was easy as pie. Anyone who has ever tried to get rolling from a dead stop on a steep grade knows exactly what he means.

Diane's view from the quad

Diane, riding a four-wheel model, narrated part of the climb from her side. At one point she slowed almost to a complete stop on a very steep hill to make sure everyone was still behind her, and getting going again was easy. She was doing about 12 miles an hour up that grade in pedal assist five, then pulled it back to three as the terrain flattened. She said the quad was so stable that she felt 100% comfortable riding it, and that the experience completely exceeded any expectation she'd had. If that kind of planted, four-wheel feel appeals to you, take a look at our 4 wheel electric bikes.

She also mentioned that she and Jamie ride hills together a lot in their neighborhood, and she was curious what he'd make of how easy these climbs were. Watching the two of them on that steep section, the difference from a normal road ride is obvious: nobody is fighting, nobody is waiting at the top, and they can actually talk.

Descents and turns

Heading downhill, Diane coached Jamie to shift into a higher gear, seventh, and to make sure he kept pedaling. She also admitted she isn't a fast downhill rider and tends to ride the brakes down steeper hills. There's nothing wrong with that. A controlled descent is a good descent.

Before a right-hand turn, Diane slowed down and explained why: on a quad or an e-trike, you want to take turns a little slower than you might on a two-wheeler. Approaching the next incline, she bumped her pedal assist up a notch, and the two of them pulled side by side for a stretch. "How fun was that?" she asked. Jamie's answer: "That was fun. And hardly any energy expenditure."

They wrapped up the ride in a parking lot, turned the machines to face the same direction, set their parking brakes, and Diane asked Jamie for his honest take.

The hills

Ordinarily, Jamie said, he'd be struggling to get up hills like the ones they'd just ridden. Here, not at all. Diane asked whether he'd ever thought he'd see her go up a hill that quickly. He said no. On their road bikes, a climb like that would have meant stopping four or five times.

The battery

Looking down at the display, Jamie said he could see almost no energy used on the energy bar. He felt he could ride like that for 50 miles and it would be easy.

The learning curve

The only adjustment he mentioned was getting used to the gears on this particular trike. Once he had that figured out, he was good. He'd been using a combination of shifting and pedal assist the whole way, which is exactly how I'd want an experienced cyclist to ride one.

The ride that couldn't be finished

Then Jamie told a story that I think captures why so many riders end up on e-trikes. A long time ago, he and Diane started a ride near home by heading down a big hill. Going down was easy. Coming back up was impossible. On this trike, he said, it would be easy.

Diane asked if he loved it. He said he did, and that it opens up a whole new world of opportunities. He also admitted he hasn't ridden his bike in ages, precisely because of that hill problem.

His back

Last question: the lumbar support. Jamie said it was really great. Normally he'd be hunched over his bike and his back could be hurting by now. After this ride, his back was fine.

Who this kind of ride is really for

Jamie's situation is extremely common, and the reason I like this video so much is that he doesn't fit the picture many people have of an e-trike rider. He's fit. He's experienced. He's ridden more miles than most people ever will. What changed wasn't his ability. It was the cost of every climb and the toll on his back.

If any of these sound familiar, a ride like Jamie's is worth trying:

• You've been a serious cyclist and drifted away from riding because the hills near home got harder.
• Lower back pain makes a forward-leaning road or mountain bike posture uncomfortable.
• Your knees are fine on the flats but complain on the climbs.
• You're coming back from an injury or a procedure and want an easy, low-exertion way to get outside.
• You ride with a partner and want to tackle the same hills together without anyone stopping four or five times on the way up.

Not every rider needs a recumbent seat, and not every rider needs a fourth wheel. Some people want a low frame that's simple to step onto, and those are in our easy-to-mount e-trikes collection. Others want wider tires, which you'll find among our fat tire electric trikes. And if you're still deciding between two wheels and three, our electric bikes for seniors are worth comparing too.

Try one yourself

The best way to know is to ride one. Diane's closing advice in the video was simple: come out to our San Clemente location and test drive a variety of different options. We have e-bikes, e-trikes, and several different types of e-trike, so you can see what fits you best and what suits the way you actually live and ride. Everything you need to plan a trip is on our visit our store page.

If you can't make it to San Clemente, you can still get matched to the right model through our personal bike fitting, and it's worth reading through our 30-day test ride details before you decide.

Jamie arrived as a 62-year-old former triathlete who'd stopped riding because of one hill. He left talking about 50-mile rides. For a lot of experienced cyclists, that's the whole story.