How easy or hard is it to ride an electric trike when it's filled with cargo or groceries?

Everyone, I'm Dustin. I have 20 years of experience in the bike and e-bike industry. Today I'm gonna answer the question, how hard is it to ride your electric trike when you have cargo or groceries fully loaded in it? All right, right here I've got two of our E-Trikes: our Rickshaw, which you can carry passengers on, and our Simple Glide, this is our dual motor, dual battery that you can haul some groceries on with the rear basket or a front basket. Both are linked in the description if you want to check them out.

All right, so let's say you're in the market for an electric trike and you have the thought of either bringing passengers or you want to get groceries, and you want to make sure, okay, if I load this up with groceries, how much is it going to affect the power of my e-trike. Let's say you've got some hills to take on on the way to your grocery store, and you want to make sure that if I'm fully loaded with groceries, I'll still be able to make it back.

Factors Affecting E-Trike Performance

Okay, so there are a lot of things to talk about regarding the subject:

1. Motor Power: If you have a 750-watt motor, of course that's gonna make everything easier compared to a 250- or 500-watt motor on an e-trike.
2. Rider and Cargo Weight: Anytime you add additional weight to it, of course it's going to slow down the motor, right? As you add heavier loads, you're going to be putting the motor to more work, which is going to put a strain on the motor.

So with that said, though, you can still run it in level five. So if you have it in level five pedal assist, you're still going to be able to go no problem. You just might not be able to go as fast as you went without your load. So something to think about.

As an example, on the rickshaw, when people get on and they take passengers, it's very easy. For me too, right? I can hit the throttle. I can do these things. Now, if I don't have passengers, I can go faster. So the difference is I can hit about 20 miles an hour with no passengers. When I add maybe one adult back here, now I'm starting to tap out at about 17 miles an hour. If you were to put two adults back here, we're probably going to be more in the 15 miles per hour range. So it's not necessarily going to make it harder for you. You're just going to move slower.

Weight Limits and Hill Climbing

And I think that's true of all e-trikes and all motors. Now, it could get to the point where if I put two adults back here and we're trying to climb a very steep hill, like a 12% grade, it may actually just be impossible to do it. Or then it's gonna start to be very, very difficult for the rider to even get up the hill. Now, the question is, what is that tipping point, right?

Okay, so I'm 250 pounds. These are rated for 350 pounds. The rickshaw can handle 500 pounds for now. This is a dual motor as well. So the dual motor with 1500 Watts of power, um, that's going to take on Hills, uh, actually up to 400 pounds with this one. And you're going to actually blast through Hills for the most part, right? It's not going to get that difficult for you, but again, um, as you add more weight, it will slow down how fast you go up the hills or how fast you go on flat ground.

Rider Weight Guidelines and Rules of Thumb

Okay, so let's talk about your starting point, right? Here are key guidelines based on rider weight:

• Riders 350 lbs or heavier: If you are a 350-pound rider and you add 20 pounds, at that point, every 20 pounds is pushing the motor to the limit on a 750-watt motor, right? So at that point, you know, every incremental thing is gonna just slow it down even more.

Riders under 230 lbs: If you're a rider that's less than 230 pounds—for example, if you're someone that weighs 150 pounds and you've got 30 pounds of cargo on the back and you throw your groceries in—it's not really gonna affect you that much. The motor and the output of the trike are gonna be able to handle it.

And really that's if anything under 230 pounds. Like I said, now again, like for me, I'm 230 pounds on a single 750-watt motor e-trike up a hill. It's going to move a lot slower than someone at 150 pounds. But again, I don't have to strain if I don't want to, as long as I put it in level five of assistance, but I might go seven miles an hour, whereas someone who's 150 pounds may go 12, 13 miles an hour up that same hill.

So as a rule of thumb, if you're under 230 pounds, you add a little extra bit of weight under 50 pounds, it's not gonna really impact you that much. I wouldn't worry too much about it. If you want the extra power, as I said, this is a dual motor 1500 watt, you can switch into that extra motor if you're off-road, on dirt trails, up hills, things like that. Make sure you check the legalities in your area around the motor limits. Oftentimes it's 750 watts for bike lanes, paved or paved trails, things like that.

Summary of Cargo Impact

So yeah, that's really it. The biggest impact of the weight is going to be on hills. Once you start to get over 250 pounds, whether it's the rider or the total load, you will start to feel that drag. When you start to get up to 350 pounds of a load, that's where a grade of about 12, 13% on a hill is going to be very, very challenging, even in the highest level of assistance. At that point, you may want to consider the dual motor. If you're going to consistently be carrying groceries that weigh a lot, or if you're just a heavier rider, you have to think about your terrain and then how easy you want it to be for you to get around.

Contact, Warranty, and Community Information

You're making your average grocery store trip, the groceries, you know, can't weigh more than 15- 20 pounds, would be my guess. With that said, I think most 750-watt e-trikes will handle that no problem. So I hope that helps. If you have any other questions, please comment below or reach out to us at theteam@sixthreezero.mom, or call us at 310-982-2877. Don't forget, both of these e-trikes are linked in the description below. We have our simple Glide. Dual motor, dual battery. Also comes in a single battery, single motor. It's a great option to get out and get groceries. And our rickshaw for passengers is awesome as well.

Now, don't forget, we have a 30-day test ride policy for your e-trike. If you don't love your e-trike in the first 30 days, send it back. No questions asked. No money out of your pocket. We're also going to warranty everything for one year. If anything goes wrong in the first year, we'll take care of it parts and labor.

And if you want to come out for a test ride, we're here at 1046 Kairokoto Unit K. Come test ride any of our e-trikes before you purchase to ensure you're making the right choice. Also, join our community before you purchase. We have a Facebook group called Sixthreezero Pedalers.There are thousands of members in the group. Join before you purchase to talk to existing riders to ensure you're making the right choice. Then, when you have yours, post to the group, make friends, and finally download the app to track your rides and compete on the leaderboard.

So thanks for sticking around, and don't forget, it's your journey, your experience. Enjoy the ride.