Taking Our EVRYjourney Recumbent eBike Rickshaw Up a Steep Hill With My Two Kids

Why I Took Our Recumbent eBike Rickshaw Up a Steep Hill With My Kids

I've spent 20 years in the bike and ebike industry, and in that time I've noticed something about the way families shop for passenger ebikes. Almost nobody leads with "how fast does it go?" The first question is simpler and a lot more practical: will it get us up the hill? Not a gentle rise in a parking lot. The real hill. The one between your house and the park, or the one on your way back from school drop-off that even your car seems to work a little harder on.

So I decided to answer that question the most honest way I know. I loaded my two kids onto the back of our brand-new EVRYjourney Recumbent eBike Rickshaw, pointed it at a steep hill, and recorded the whole climb. No cutting out the hard part. No staged shortcut. Just me, the kids, the bike, and a grade that keeps getting steeper the closer you get to the top.

If you've seen some of our other videos, you know I've spent plenty of time on this machine, including a longer ride we filmed recently. This one is different. It's a focused stress test of one thing: climbing with real weight on board.

The numbers behind this climb

Before we get into the ride, I want to lay out the load, because on a hill, weight is everything. My two kids together weigh about 120 pounds. I'm 230 pounds. That puts the people on board at roughly 350 pounds. Then you add the bike itself, which is about 140 pounds. All in, the motor and I were moving somewhere close to 490 pounds up that slope.

I'm sharing my own weight on purpose. A lot of hill demonstrations you'll find online are done by lighter riders, and there's nothing wrong with that, but it doesn't tell you much if you're a bigger person yourself. I wanted this to be a realistic picture. I'm not just hauling my kids up this hill; I've got to haul myself up it too. If you're lighter than me, everything you're about to read gets easier. Significantly easier. If you're around my size, you'll get a straight answer about what to expect.

What this rickshaw brings to a hill

Here's what matters about the bike for this particular test. It runs a 750-watt motor. You get five levels of pedal assistance plus a throttle, and you have seven gears to work with. Those are the tools that decide whether a hill like this is doable. Each one does a different job: the motor supplies the power, the assist levels and throttle decide how and when that power shows up, and the gears decide how hard each pedal stroke feels. On a steep climb you end up leaning on all of them at once, and I'll explain exactly how I used each one as we go.

The seating is recumbent, which means I'm sitting back in a reclined position with my legs out in front of me rather than perched upright over the pedals. If you're new to that style, our recumbent electric trikes collection is a good place to see how that laid-back riding position works across different designs. The kids ride on the passenger seat behind me. That's the whole point of this bike: you're not just going for a ride, you're bringing people along with you.

And that's exactly why the hill matters so much. When you buy something designed to carry passengers, you're going to use it to carry passengers. That means you'll be facing hills fully loaded, not riding solo with nothing behind you. If you want to see the full range of setups we make for this kind of riding, browse our ebike rickshaws and our wider lineup of electric bikes and trikes built for passengers.

Why I picked this particular hill

I chose this hill because it represents what a lot of people actually ride. It doesn't look terrifying from the bottom. It starts out manageable. But the grade gradually increases as you climb, and the final stretch near the top is the steepest part of the whole thing. That's true of a lot of hills, actually, and it's the pattern that catches riders off guard. You start strong, you feel confident, and then the road tilts up right when you're asking the most of your legs and your motor.

I also want to be upfront about expectations, the same way I was before I started pedaling. I wasn't planning to fly up this hill. With nearly 500 pounds moving up a steep grade, nobody should expect that from a passenger ebike. The question wasn't whether it would be effortless. The question was whether we'd make it, and what it would take to get there.

Who this test is really for

If you're a parent thinking about swapping some short car trips for a family ride, this is for you. Same if you're a grandparent who wants to take the grandkids out for a spin without buckling everyone into the car. Or maybe you simply live somewhere hilly and you've quietly written off the idea of a passenger ebike because you assumed the hills would win. Whatever brought you here, my goal is the same: show you a real climb, with real weight, and tell you exactly what I felt from the seat. Let me walk you through it.

Here's how the climb actually unfolded, from the approach at the bottom to the last few feet at the top. I'm going to slow it down and explain what I was doing at each stage, because the decisions you make on a steep hill matter just as much as the motor you're riding with.

Setting up before the grade bites

The most important things I do on a steep climb happen before the steep part even starts. As we rolled toward the base of the hill, I already knew my plan: get the throttle engaged and get the bike down into first gear.

On steep hills, I like to keep the throttle engaged. With the throttle on, the motor is contributing the whole time instead of me waiting on it or easing in and out of the power. When you're moving close to 500 pounds uphill, consistency is everything. Every time your speed drops, you have to work to get it back, and on a steep grade getting speed back is the hardest thing you can ask a loaded bike to do. Keeping the throttle engaged keeps the motor in the fight from the start. If throttle control is a feature you know you'll lean on, our collection of electric trikes with throttle control shows the range of models where that's part of the package.

Then there's the gearing. I shifted all the way down into first gear to make pedaling as easy as possible. First gear is the easiest gear on the bike. Each turn of the pedals moves the bike a shorter distance, which means each pedal stroke takes less force. You give up speed, but on a steep hill with a heavy load you don't have much speed to give up anyway. What you gain is the ability to keep your legs turning smoothly instead of grinding against the pedals.

I'll say this as plainly as I can: shift early. I'd much rather already be in the right gear when the road tilts up than try to find it halfway up the hill when everything is under strain. If you wait until you're bogging down to start shifting, you've already lost momentum you won't easily get back.

The grade starts to build

The lower section of the hill was the gentler part, which is exactly how this kind of hill works. I don't know if it comes through on video, but the grade gets gradually steeper and steeper as you get closer to the top. Cameras have a way of flattening hills. What looks like a mild slope on screen feels very different when you're sitting on the bike with two kids behind you and you can feel the load pulling back against every pedal stroke.

This is the stage where a lot of riders get lulled into a false sense of security. The bottom of the hill feels fine. You think, this is easy. And then the steeper section arrives right when you've settled in. That's why I set everything up at the bottom. By the time the grade really started building, I didn't have to make any decisions. I just had to keep pedaling.

Let me be honest about the pace, too. You're most likely not going to be flying up hills like this on a loaded rickshaw. That isn't what this kind of bike is for. But here's the part that matters: there is no chance I could be doing this climb without the assistance at all. Zero. Picture trying to pedal yourself, two kids, and a 140-pound bike up a steep hill under leg power alone. It's not happening, at least not for me, and I'd bet not for most people reading this. The motor is what turns a climb you'd never attempt into one you can actually finish.

The steepest point

Near the top we hit the steepest section of the hill. At that point I was going 10 miles an hour with the throttle all the way engaged, still pedaling in that easy first gear. Ten miles an hour on the steepest part of the climb, carrying roughly 490 pounds, is a pace I was genuinely happy with. It's not fast. It is steady, and on a hill like that, steady is what gets you to the top.

I'm not going to pretend that last stretch was nothing. If you watch the video, you'll hear me say, "I'm trying." I left that in on purpose. I was working. My legs were turning, the motor was giving everything I'd asked of it, and the bike was moving forward with all of us on board. That's what a real climb with a heavy load looks like. Anybody who tells you a fully loaded passenger ebike floats up a steep hill without any effort from the rider is not giving you the full picture.

And then we did it. We made it up to the top with both kids still on the back.

Turning around at the top

Once we crested the hill, I turned the rickshaw around. It's a small moment in the video, but it's worth mentioning because a bike this size takes a little more room to turn than a standard bicycle. I took it slowly, and I'd encourage you to do the same, especially with passengers aboard. After a hard climb, it's tempting to relax completely. Stay focused until the bike is pointed where you want it to go and you've got a clear, controlled path ahead.

So that was the climb itself. The bigger lesson from it, though, isn't about this one hill. It's about how to read any hill before you ride it, and that comes down to one word: grade.

When we got to the top, the first thing I wanted to talk about wasn't how long the hill was. It's not really about the length of the hill. It's the grade that makes a climb like this challenging. This is probably the single most useful thing I can teach you about riding a passenger ebike in hilly areas, so I want to spend some time on it.

What grade actually means

Grade is a way of describing how steep a hill is, expressed as a percentage. It compares how much the road rises to how far it runs horizontally. A 10% grade means the road climbs 10 feet for every 100 feet you travel forward. A 5% grade climbs half as much over the same distance. The higher that number, the more directly you're fighting gravity with every turn of the pedals.

The hill in this video is probably about a 10 to 11% grade at its steepest. That's a genuinely steep climb by most riders' standards. And remember, that steepest part was near the top, after we'd already been climbing for a while.

Why steep beats long

Here's why grade matters more than length. On a long hill with a gentle slope, the effort is spread out. You're working, but the motor and your legs can settle into a comfortable rhythm and just keep chipping away at it. It might take a while, but each individual moment of that climb is manageable.

A steep hill concentrates all of that effort into a much shorter distance. Every pedal stroke has to lift more weight more directly. With a light rider and no passengers, that's one thing. With two kids on the back, a 230-pound rider, and a 140-pound bike, the demand at that steepest point is serious. That's the moment that tests whether your setup and your technique are up to the job, and it's why I spent so much time getting ready at the bottom.

So when you're sizing up the hills on your own routes, don't ask yourself, "how long is it?" Ask, "how steep does it get?" A short, steep pitch near the top of a climb can be far more demanding than a long, gradual stretch that looks more intimidating from the bottom.

Why throttle alone wasn't going to cut it

This brings me to something I want every potential rider to hear clearly. On a hill like this one, with this kind of load, you're definitely going to need to use pedal assist. You're not going to be able to ride throttle-only up there.

I had the throttle engaged the entire climb, all the way open at the steepest point. But that alone wasn't what got us up the hill. What got us up was the throttle plus my own pedaling in first gear with the assist working alongside me. The motor and the rider were working as a team. On a gentler slope, or with a lighter load, you'll have a lot more flexibility in how you use the throttle and assist. On a steep 10 to 11% grade with close to 500 pounds on board, you need everything working together.

I think this is an important point because some people picture an ebike as something that does all the work while you sit there. On flat ground and gentle hills, the throttle can certainly make life easy. But on genuinely steep terrain with a heavy load, plan on pedaling. Being in first gear makes that pedaling far more manageable than you'd think, and the assistance means your effort goes a lot further than it would on a regular bike. Still, you're part of the equation.

How much your weight changes the picture

I mentioned this at the start, and I want to come back to it because it's easy to overlook. Total weight is what the motor and your legs are moving uphill. I'm 230 pounds, so my own body weight is a big chunk of that total.

Just to illustrate with simple math: if a 150-pound rider took the same two kids up the same hill on the same bike, the total load would be around 410 pounds instead of roughly 490. That's about 80 fewer pounds to move against gravity. On a steep grade, that kind of difference is significant. It doesn't change the technique, but it does change how hard that steepest stretch feels. So if you're lighter than me, expect this climb to be noticeably easier than what you saw in the video.

The flip side matters too. If you're planning to carry heavier passengers, or you're a bigger rider yourself, factor that in honestly when you think about the hills in your area. Load capacity is worth paying attention to whenever you're shopping for a bike that carries people or gear. Our electric trikes with high weight capacity and cargo electric trikes collections are useful starting points if hauling heavier loads is part of your everyday riding. Always check the specific weight limits on the product page of whatever bike you're considering.

Reading your own routes

Put all of this together and you get a simple way to think about your own neighborhood. Picture the routes you'd actually ride with passengers. Where do the steep pitches fall? Are they near the start of a ride, when you're fresh, or near the end, when you might be tired? Does a hill get steeper toward the top, like this one did? Is there a gentler way around the steepest section if you need it?

You don't need special tools to answer those questions. Ride or walk your routes with a fresh set of eyes, paying attention to where the road tilts up hardest. That knowledge will help you set up for each climb the way I did here, so the steep part never sneaks up on you. In the next section, I'll put everything I did on this hill into a step-by-step technique you can use on your own climbs.

Everything I did on this climb comes down to a handful of habits. None of them are complicated, but together they make a huge difference in how a steep hill feels when you've got passengers on the back. Here's the approach I use on our EVRYjourney Recumbent eBike Rickshaw, step by step.

1. Shift into first gear before the climb starts

Don't wait for the hill to tell you it's time to shift. As you approach the base of a steep climb, work your way down through the seven gears into first. You want to arrive at the steep part already in your easiest gear, with your legs spinning comfortably. Shifting early is the single easiest way to make a hard climb feel smoother.

2. Engage the throttle and keep it engaged

On steep hills, I keep the throttle engaged throughout the climb. Consistent power from the motor helps you avoid the slowdowns that are so hard to recover from when you're carrying a heavy load. At the steepest point of this hill, I had the throttle all the way engaged.

3. Pedal with the assist working for you

As I explained above, on a steep grade with passengers, throttle alone isn't enough. You need to pedal, and you want pedal assist doing its share alongside you. With five levels of assistance available, you have room to choose how much help you want. On a hill like this one, I want all the help I can get, and I pair that with steady pedaling in first gear. Think of it as a partnership: you bring the rhythm, the motor brings the muscle.

4. Keep a steady, smooth cadence

Cadence is just how fast your pedals are turning. On a climb, you want it steady and smooth rather than surging and stalling. That's another reason first gear matters so much: it lets you keep your legs turning at a comfortable pace even when the bike is moving slowly. Smooth pedaling is easier on your body and keeps the bike moving consistently, which is exactly what you want with kids aboard.

5. Set realistic expectations for your speed

At the steepest part of this hill, I was doing 10 miles an hour with nearly 500 pounds on board. That's a good, steady climbing pace, not a race. Go into steep hills expecting a controlled, steady climb, and you won't be tempted to push harder than you need to. The goal is reaching the top comfortably, not setting a record.

6. Try to avoid stopping on the steepest section

Getting a heavy, loaded bike moving again from a standstill is harder than keeping it moving, and that's especially true on a steep grade. If you can, plan your climb so you're not stopping in the middle of the toughest stretch. That's not always possible, and safety always comes first, so if you need to stop, stop. But when you have the choice, keep rolling until the grade eases.

7. Know the hill before you ride it with passengers

Remember, the grade on a lot of hills gets steeper as you get closer to the top. If you can, ride a new hill on your own first, or at least walk it, before you take it on with your passengers. You'll learn where the steep sections are, where you might want to turn around, and whether there's a gentler alternate route. Then, when you do ride it loaded, nothing catches you off guard.

8. Talk to your passengers before you climb

If you're carrying kids, give them a quick heads-up before a big hill. Let them know it's going to be a climb, that you might be going slower, and that their job is to sit still and stay seated. Passengers who know what's coming tend to be calmer, and a calm passenger makes for a smoother ride for everyone.

9. Treat the top of the hill as part of the ride

When you reach the top, don't switch off mentally. If you need to turn around, as I did, find a safe spot, take it slowly, and give yourself the room a larger bike needs. If you're heading back down, take the descent at a controlled pace and keep your passengers in mind the whole way.

A quick checklist for steep climbs

• Shift down into first gear before the grade gets steep, not after.
• Engage the throttle and keep it on through the climb.
• Pedal with pedal assist working alongside you; don't count on throttle alone on a steep grade.
• Keep your cadence smooth and steady.
• Expect a steady pace, not a fast one, when you're fully loaded.
• Avoid stopping on the steepest section when you safely can.
• Scout new hills before riding them with passengers.
• Give your passengers a heads-up and ask them to sit still.
• Stay focused through the turnaround and the trip back down.

Getting comfortable in the recumbent seat

One more thing that helps on climbs: a good fit. In a recumbent position, you're pushing the pedals out in front of you rather than down beneath you, and how well you're set up for your body affects how efficiently you can pedal when the hill gets steep. If you're unsure whether a recumbent setup will suit you, our personal fitting consultation is a great way to get honest advice before you buy. It's a simple step, and it can make a real difference to how comfortable those climbs feel.

None of these habits require special skill. They just take a little planning. Put them together, and a hill like the one in this video goes from something you'd avoid to something you can tackle with confidence, even with your kids along for the ride.

Watching me climb a hill is one thing. Knowing whether a passenger ebike is right for your family, your body, and your hills is another. Here's how I'd think about that decision, and the ways we make it easier to get it right.

Think honestly about your own hills and your own load

Start with the questions this video raises. How steep are the hills on the routes you'd really ride? Who will you be carrying, and roughly how much do they weigh? How much do you weigh? Are you comfortable pedaling along with the motor on steep sections, knowing that throttle alone won't do it on a grade like the one I climbed? Your honest answers will tell you a lot about what to expect.

It's also worth looking at the bigger picture of what we make. Passenger rickshaws are one option, but our full range of electric tricycles covers a wide variety of riding positions and uses. And if four wheels sounds appealing for your situation, take a look at our 4-wheel e-bikes. Seeing everything side by side can help you confirm you're choosing the right style for the way you'll actually ride.

Try it at home with our 30-day test ride

The best way to know how a bike handles your hills is to ride it on your hills. That's why we offer a 30-day test ride on our ebikes and e-trikes. If you don't love it in the first 30 days, send it back. No questions asked, and no money out of your pocket. Take it up the steepest hill in your neighborhood. Load up the kids. Ride the routes you'd ride every day. Then decide.

Covered for a full year

We also back our bikes with a one-year warranty. If anything goes wrong in the first year, we'll take care of it, parts and labor. When you're buying something to carry the people you love, that kind of support matters.

Come test ride in person

If you're anywhere near Southern California, you're welcome to come see us. You can visit our showroom in San Clemente, California and test ride any of our ebikes before you purchase, so you can be confident you're making the right choice. There's nothing quite like sitting on a bike yourself to understand how it feels.

Talk to riders who already own one

One of my favorite things about our community is how willing our riders are to help each other. We have a Facebook group called sixthreezero Pedalers, and I'd encourage you to join it before you buy. You can ask existing riders about their experiences, including how their bikes handle the hills where they live, and get honest answers from people who've been there. Once you have your own bike, post in the group, share your rides, and make some friends along the way.

Track your rides

When you're riding, download our sixthreezero app to track your rides and compete on the leaderboard. It's a fun way to keep yourself motivated, and logging your hill climbs is a great way to see how your confidence grows over time.

Questions? Reach out

If you have any questions about the EVRYjourney Recumbent eBike Rickshaw, about climbing hills with passengers, or about which bike is the right fit for you, get in touch. You can comment on the video, email the team at theteam@sixthreezero.mom, call us at (310) 982-2877, or use our contact page. Real people will get back to you with real answers.

The bottom line

So, can the EVRYjourney Recumbent eBike Rickshaw climb a steep hill with two kids on the back and a 230-pound rider up front? Yes. We made it up a hill that topped out around a 10 to 11% grade, carrying close to 500 pounds including the bike, and held about 10 miles an hour at the steepest point. It took the throttle fully engaged, first gear, and my own pedaling with the assist working alongside me. It wasn't effortless, and I won't pretend it was. But it was absolutely doable, and if you're lighter than me, it'll be easier still.

Most of all, it meant my kids and I got to the top of that hill together, which is really what a bike like this is for. Thanks for riding along with me. Remember, it's your journey.