Riding the sixthreezero Electric Rickshaw With My Three Kids: Seating, Weight Limits, Motors, and Hills

A Park Run With My Three Boys on the Electric Rickshaw

Some of our product videos get filmed on a quiet street with a clean script and nobody else around. This one wasn't like that. This was a regular afternoon with my three boys on the back of our electric rickshaw. We'd ridden over to the park, let everybody run around for a while, and then pointed the trike back toward home. I kept the camera rolling the whole way, because I think the honest way to show you what this machine does is to let you watch it do its real job: carrying a family across town with no car involved.

Let me introduce the passengers. Dylan is nine. Trey is seven and was riding in the very back seat. Hudson is four and a half, which in our house means he has strong opinions about speed, about which way we should turn, and about whether he ought to be helping me pedal. Put the three of them on the back, add me up front, and the rickshaw is carrying a genuine load. That was the whole idea. An empty bench doesn't tell you much. A full one, on a route with a couple of hills, tells you a lot.

If you've been browsing the electric rickshaws on our site and wondering whether one could take over some of your short family car trips, this is the ride I'd want you to see before you decide. I'm going to cover how the seating works, the weight limits and why I take them seriously, the motor options, the gears, the safety equipment I lean on, and the climb home, including the stretch where things got a little challenging.

Two Benches, Up to Six Kids

The rickshaw has a passenger bench mounted behind the rider. On this ride I also had the extra seat on the back. That second seat goes on with a hitch, so it's an add-on you can attach when your family is on the bigger side and leave off when you don't need it. Each bench fits three kids. With both benches in place, you can carry up to six children on one trike.

Six is a big number, and I want to be careful about what it means. Six kids is what the seating can physically hold. Whether you should put six kids on it on a given day depends on the weight limits, which I'll get into in the next section, and on how big your kids are. Three small children on a bench is a very different load than three kids who are nearly as tall as you. For my crew, a nine-year-old, a seven-year-old, and a preschooler, the two benches gave everybody room, and nobody was crammed in.

What I like about the hitch setup is that it doesn't lock you into one configuration forever. Plenty of families need the extra seat on a weekend outing and don't need it for a weekday errand. Some days it's a full house. Some days it's one kid and a bag of groceries. Being able to change the back end to suit the day is a big part of why a rickshaw can earn a spot in a family's routine instead of sitting in the garage waiting for special occasions.

Why a Rickshaw Instead of the Car

Short trips are where a car is the least fun. You buckle everybody in, drive a few minutes, hunt for parking, unbuckle everybody, and then do the whole thing again on the way back. On the rickshaw, the kids climb onto the bench and we go. We're outside, we can talk to each other, we can wave at people, and the ride itself turns into part of the outing instead of the boring part between home and the fun.

The kids genuinely like it back there, too. Partway through this ride I checked in on Trey to see how he was doing, and the verdict from the back was that it's just so relaxing back there. I'll take that review. When the passengers enjoy the trip, they ask to go again, and that's how a rickshaw stops being a novelty and becomes the way your family actually gets around the neighborhood.

I also want to be upfront: a rickshaw with three kids on it is not a sleek road bike. It's a big, stable people mover, and you ride it differently. You plan your turns, you think about your gearing before a hill instead of halfway up it, and you keep an eye on your passengers. None of that is hard, and I'll show you how I handle each piece, but it's worth knowing going in that the payoff here is practicality and fun, not speed.

How This Article Is Laid Out

The rest of this piece follows the ride roughly the way it happened. First come the weight limits, because that's the part I most want every rickshaw owner to understand. Then the motor choices, since the motor you pick should depend on where you live and how much you plan to carry. After that I'll go through the throttle and pedal assist, the climb home with the gears, the mirrors, brakes, and lights that keep everybody safe, and how I handle turns with a long trike. If you're comparing our trikes built for carrying passengers, I hope this gives you a realistic picture of what daily life with one looks like.

And if you're not sure yet whether a rickshaw is the right fit for your body or your family, that's a normal place to be. I'll point you to a few ways to get answers, including coming by for a test ride, at the end.

If there's one section of this article I'd ask you to read twice, it's this one. A rickshaw invites you to load it up. It has benches, it has a hitch, it has storage, and it has a motor. It's easy to keep adding people and gear without stopping to think about the total. So here are the numbers I gave during the ride, and how I think about them when I'm the one pedaling.

The passenger seat behind the rider has a weight limit of 150 pounds. The overall weight limit for the rickshaw is 500 pounds. That 500-pound figure is the total for everything on the trike: the rider, every passenger on every bench, and whatever you've packed.

Let me use myself as the example, because I'd rather be specific than vague. I weigh 230 pounds. That means before a single kid climbs on, I've already used up a big piece of the overall limit. Whatever's left has to cover every passenger plus anything in the storage. With my three boys, a nine-year-old, a seven-year-old, and a four-and-a-half-year-old, we were well under the limit. But you can see how quickly the numbers climb for a family with bigger kids, or when a heavier adult is the one doing the pedaling.

The 150-pound seat limit deserves its own attention. Even if your grand total is comfortably under 500, the seat behind you has its own ceiling. Three young kids on that bench is one thing. Two older kids in the middle of a growth spurt can get you close to 150 faster than you'd expect. I'd rather you put your kids on the bathroom scale once in a while than guess.

A Simple Way to Check Your Load

Here's the routine I'd suggest. Start with your own weight. Add up the passengers on the bench behind you and make sure that subtotal is at or under 150 pounds. Add the passengers in the far-back seat if you have it hooked up. Add your gear: a cooler, a beach bag, backpacks, whatever's going under the seats. Then compare the grand total to 500. If you're close, take something off. If you're over, somebody walks or rides their own bike.

It sounds fussy, but you only have to do it once for your regular crew. After that you'll know your normal number, and you only need to pay attention to what changes, like a friend tagging along or an extra bag of sand toys on a beach day.

Why do I care this much? Because weight changes everything about how the rickshaw rides. It affects how hard the motor has to work, how much effort a hill takes, and how much room you need to slow down. You'll see that later on this ride when we hit a couple of inclines with four of us aboard. Riding inside the limits is what keeps the trike behaving the way it's meant to, and it's what keeps your passengers safe.

Seat or Trailer: Setting Up the Back End

That far-back seat isn't permanent. You can disconnect it. And instead of a second bench, you can hook up a trailer, which is handy when the job is hauling stuff instead of kids. Think beach day: towels, an umbrella, chairs, a cooler, all the things you'd normally throw in the back of a car for a quick trip down to the sand. Or whatever else you need to bring along on a ride.

That flexibility is one of my favorite things about the rickshaw. The same trike that hauls three kids to the park on Saturday can tow the beach gear on Sunday, and on a quieter day you can run it with just the main bench. You aren't stuck in one setup because of one day's needs.

Whatever you hook up back there, the weight rules still apply. A trailer full of gear counts toward the overall total the same way a passenger does. A loaded trailer behind a full bench can add up quickly, so run the numbers before a big outing.

Storage Under the Seats

There's also storage under the seats. That's the spot for the stuff you always need and never want to hold: a snack bag, a jacket, water bottles, a lock. Having it built in means you aren't wearing a backpack while you pedal, and the kids aren't balancing things on their laps while you go around corners. On a family ride, that matters more than you'd think. Fewer loose items means fewer things dropped on the road and fewer stops to pick them up.

Just remember that whatever goes under the seats rides along with the passengers, so it counts toward your total, too. Water and snacks don't weigh much. A full cooler does.

If Hauling Weight Is Your Main Priority

If you already know you'll be riding near the top of the weight range most of the time, it's worth looking at the broader category before you commit. Our electric trikes with high weight capacity and our cargo e-trikes are good places to compare how different designs handle heavier loads. The rickshaw's strength is people: benches, passengers, and the option to add more seating. If what you mostly carry is gear rather than kids, a cargo design may be the better match, and it's worth thinking that through honestly before you buy.

For my family, the rickshaw makes sense because the cargo is mostly kids. The benches, the hitch seat, and the option to swap in a trailer cover just about every trip we take around town. And with me at 230 pounds and three young boys on board, we have room to spare under the limits, which is exactly where I want to be.

The rickshaw on this ride has a 750-watt front hub motor. That's the setup you see in the video, so everything on our route home, the long climb, the steeper incline near the end, the cruising, is the 750-watt front hub doing the work with four of us aboard.

It isn't the only way to get this trike, though. You can also get the rickshaw with a 1000-watt mid drive motor. And there's a dual motor version that was coming out at the time I filmed this ride: a 750-watt front hub paired with a 750-watt rear motor, for a total of 1,500 watts. That's a lot of power if you need to climb hills or haul heavier loads.

Choosing between them comes down to two things: where you ride and how much you carry. I said it during the ride and I'll say it again here. If you're going to be going up and down a lot of hills, especially with weight on the back, the 1000-watt mid drive or the dual motor is worth serious thought.

The 750W Front Hub

The front hub is the setup I rode, and it got us home. On the long hill partway through the route, which wasn't a steep grade but went on for a while, I shifted down and we kept rolling at around 9 miles an hour with three kids on the back. That's a realistic picture of what the front hub does with a family load on a moderate climb.

Where I felt it working harder was the short, steeper incline close to home. I had to drop all the way into first gear, and I said on camera that this is where it gets a little challenging. We made it, and it wasn't a struggle, but it was the moment on the ride where I could feel the limit of the setup with that much weight. If your neighborhood is mostly flat, or the hills are gentle, the front hub handles a family ride well. If that kind of incline is something you hit every day, keep reading.

The 1000W Mid Drive

On that steeper section, I mentioned twice that the 1000-watt mid drive would make it easier. A mid drive sits in the middle of the trike at the pedals instead of in a wheel, and in general that design puts its power through the drivetrain, so when you shift into a low gear for a climb, the motor gets the benefit of that low gear the same way your legs do. That's why a mid drive tends to feel stronger on steep hills, especially when the trike is heavy.

If you live somewhere with a lot of elevation change, or you plan to run both benches full most of the time, this is the version I'd lean toward. It's also worth considering if you regularly tow the trailer, since a loaded trailer adds weight right where a hill makes you feel it.

The Dual Motor

The dual motor version combines a 750-watt front hub with a 750-watt rear motor, for 1,500 watts total. It was coming out when I filmed this, so check the rickshaw collection for what's currently available. Two motors sharing the work means a lot of power on tap, which is the point of this setup. If you need to climb hills with a full load, or you just want the most capability you can get from the rickshaw, this is the version built for that.

A Quick Way to Decide

Ask yourself three questions. How hilly are the routes you'll ride most often? How much weight will you usually carry, counting yourself? And how often will you have the far-back seat or the trailer hooked up?

If your answers are mostly flat, moderate loads, and occasional extra seating, the 750-watt front hub is a solid fit. If your answers include regular hills, heavy loads, or frequent use of the extra seat or trailer, look hard at the 1000-watt mid drive or the dual motor. I'd rather you pick the motor that matches your real routes than find out on the first steep hill that you wanted more.

Throttle and Five Levels of Pedal Assist

Whichever motor you choose, you've got two ways to put that power to use. There's a throttle you can use if you don't want to pedal, and there are five levels of pedal assistance when you do.

I think of the assist levels as a dial for how much help I want at any moment. On flat ground with a light load, a lower level lets me pedal and get some exercise without working hard. When the bench is full, or the road starts to tilt up, I bump it up so the motor carries more of the effort. Having five steps means you can fine-tune that instead of jumping between too little and too much.

The throttle is there for the moments when you'd rather not pedal at all. Maybe you're tired at the end of a long day at the park, or you want a little help getting a full load rolling from a stop. If a throttle is high on your list, our electric tricycles with throttle control are worth browsing, and you'll find plenty of other options across our full lineup of electric tricycles.

One thing I'd suggest with passengers aboard: get comfortable with how the throttle and the higher assist levels feel before you load the kids on. Take a solo spin around the block first. Once you know how the trike responds, you can give your passengers a smooth, predictable ride, which is what keeps them relaxed back there.

This is the part of the ride I most wanted on camera. Talking about motors and weight limits is one thing. Watching a rickshaw with a 230-pound rider and three kids on the back go up a hill is another. So let me walk you through the route home the way it played out.

Seven Gears and When to Use Them

The rickshaw has seven gears. That matters even with a motor, and especially with a load. The motor helps, but the gears let you keep your pedaling at a comfortable pace as the road changes. Think of the motor as extra muscle and the gears as the way you make your own muscle useful. When you use both together, a heavy trike feels a lot more manageable.

The habit I'd encourage is shifting before the climb starts, not halfway up when you're already pushing hard. With a light bike you can get away with late shifts. With a rickshaw full of kids, you'll feel the difference if you wait. Look up the road, see the hill coming, and drop a gear or two while you still have momentum.

The First Hill: Down Into Second

The first climb on our route came up right after we left the park. We had a hill ahead of us, so I shifted down into gear two. You can hear in the video that it took a second to settle, and then it was fine. There we go. That's what a downshift should feel like: the pedals get easier, your cadence comes back up, and the trike keeps moving.

I'll also admit I wasn't on our usual route. I'd decided to try a new way home, so I told the boys we were going to keep going straight instead of turning where they expected. That's part of why I was talking so much on this stretch. They wanted to know where we were going, and I kept telling them they'd see.

The Long Climb at About 9 Miles an Hour

The next section is a good test of what the rickshaw is like on an everyday hill. It's not a serious grade, but it's a relatively long one. Those are the hills that wear you out on a regular bike, because they don't end quickly. You settle in and grind.

On the rickshaw, with the 750-watt front hub, a lower gear, and three passengers, we went up it at about 9 miles an hour. I'll be honest: that's not fast. But it's steady, it's comfortable, and nobody had to get off. For a family ride, steady and comfortable is exactly what you want. Your passengers aren't being jostled around, you're not gasping at the top, and you still have something left in the tank for the rest of the trip.

Partway up, I needed to turn, so I checked behind me in the mirror and signaled. I'll talk more about the mirrors in the next section, but this is a good example of why I like them. On a hill with a load, you don't want to be twisting your whole body around to look back. A quick glance in the mirror, signal, and go.

The Steeper Incline: All the Way Down Into First

Near the end of the route there's another incline, shorter but steeper. I shifted all the way down into first gear. This is the spot where I said on camera that it gets a little challenging, and I meant it. With the front hub and four of us aboard, I could feel the trike working. I could feel myself working, too.

We got up it. There we go. But this is exactly the kind of hill where I'd point you toward the 1000-watt mid drive if your daily route has one. I said it right there in the moment: the mid drive will be easier. If you're picturing your own neighborhood right now and that hill sounds familiar, it's worth factoring into your decision.

I'd rather show you that honest moment than pretend every hill is effortless. A rickshaw carrying a whole family is a heavy machine. The motor and the gears make it very doable, but steep grades with a full load are where your choice of motor really shows.

What I'd Tell a New Rickshaw Rider About Hills

Here's what I took away from this route, and what I'd tell anybody about to start riding a rickshaw with passengers. Shift early, before the hill gets steep. Turn up the pedal assist as the road tilts up. Keep your cadence comfortable rather than mashing the pedals. And know your route. If there's a steep hill you hit every day, practice it once without passengers so you know exactly which gear and assist level you want.

Also, plan your loads around your hills. If you know there's a tough climb on the way to school or the park, maybe that's a day to leave the trailer at home or keep the extra seat off. Weight and grade work together. Take a little off one, and the other gets easier.

Home Stretch

After that last incline, we were on the home stretch, and the mood on the back bench changed completely. The hard part was done, and the boys could tell we were close. That's one of the fun things about riding this way with kids. They feel every part of the route with you: the climbs, the turns, the downhill at the end. It's a shared trip in a way a car ride never is.

A rickshaw carrying kids needs to be easy to see out of, easy to stop, and easy to be seen in. Here's the equipment I lean on, and how I handle navigating a long trike through a neighborhood.

Mirrors: Eyes on the Kids and the Road

I have mirrors on the rickshaw so I can see behind me. I like them for two reasons. First, they let me keep an eye on my kids without turning around. With passengers sitting behind you, being able to glance up and see that everybody is seated and holding on is a big deal. Second, they let me check traffic before I turn. You saw that on the long hill: mirror, signal, then the turn. And I did it again closer to home, signaling before each move.

If you add mirrors to any trike you ride with passengers, I think you'll wonder how you managed without them.

Brakes, Suspension, and Lights

The rickshaw has hydraulic disc brakes. With this much weight on board, strong, predictable brakes aren't optional, and stopping a loaded trike is something I take seriously. Remember what I said about weight earlier: the more you carry, the more room you need to slow down. Good brakes and good habits go together. If braking is high on your checklist, you can also browse our electric trikes with disc brakes.

There's front suspension, which takes some of the sting out of bumps before it reaches the handlebars, and rear tail lights so drivers behind you can see you. With a family on board, being visible is part of riding responsibly.

Navigating Turns: Swing Out Wide

A rickshaw with the extra seat hooked on is long. That changes how you take corners. In the video you can hear me tell the boys how I navigate a turn: you want to swing out wide. If you cut a corner tight the way you would on a regular bike, the back of the trike follows a different path than the front, and you can end up closer to a curb or a parked car than you meant to be.

Going wide gives the whole length of the rickshaw room to follow you around. Check your mirror, signal, start the turn a little wider than feels natural, and let the trike come around. Slow down for it, too. Your passengers will appreciate a calm, gentle corner a lot more than a sharp one.

There's a moment in the video where I'm telling everybody to be careful, followed by a lot of laughing. That's riding with kids. It isn't always smooth, and the commentary from the back bench is constant. But a little patience and a wide line make the corners easy.

The Downhill and the Mutiny

After the last climb, we finally got a little bit of downhill, and I could relax. That's the reward for the work you put in earlier. And then, right as we got close to home, I lost one of my passengers. Then another. They all wanted to abandon ship. With the house in sight, the boys hopped off and ran the rest of the way, and Hudson decided he'd help by pushing the rickshaw. I had to tell him he didn't need to push, dude. We were fine.

I'm leaving that in because it's real. That's what riding with three young boys looks like, and honestly, it's a lot of fun. Nobody was in a hurry to get off because they were uncomfortable. They just couldn't wait to get home. If your family ends every ride laughing and racing to the door, the rickshaw is doing its job.

Come Ride One Yourself

Reading about a rickshaw and riding one are two very different things. If you want to feel how it handles with a load, how the motor responds, and how it takes a turn, come see us for a test ride. We're in San Clemente, California. You can find our address and details on our visit our store page, and if you have questions before you head over, you can contact our team directly. Just watch out for runaway kids in the parking lot.

If you can't make it out to San Clemente, our 30-day test ride lets you try a bike at home on your own routes, which is the best way to see how it handles your hills. And if you're not sure which trike fits your body and your family, get fitted before you decide. You can also look into our financing options if that helps make the decision easier.

Thanks for riding along with me and the boys. If you're thinking about trading some of your short car trips for something your kids will actually look forward to, I hope this gave you a real look at what that's like. Don't forget, it's your journey. Enjoy the ride.