The Best Electric Trike for Hills: What Actually Gets You to the Top

Why Hills Are the Real Test for Any Electric Trike

I've spent 20 years in the bike and e-bike industry, and one question comes up from trike shoppers more than almost any other. It usually sounds something like this: will it actually get me up the hill? Not a hill in a product photo. The real one. The climb at the end of your street, the grade between your house and the grocery store, or the trail you've wanted to ride for months but keep skipping because you're not sure you'll make it to the top.

That's a completely reasonable thing to worry about. A three-wheeler rides differently from a two-wheel bike. You're seated, you're pedaling, and you're counting on the motor to carry a big share of the work. When a hill shows up, the trike either has what it takes or it doesn't, and you find out fast which kind you bought.

So in this article I want to do more than point at a trike and call it the best. I'll tell you which one I recommend for hill riders, the Simple Glide Dual Motor with dual batteries, and I'll spend real time on it. But I also want you to understand the reasoning behind that pick, because the same reasoning will help you size up any electric trike, from any brand, on any spec sheet. Once you know which factors matter on a climb and which ones you can actually control, the choice gets a lot clearer.

Start with the rider, not the trike

Here's the part nobody loves hearing, but everybody needs to: the biggest single factor in how well a trike climbs is the weight of the person riding it. If you're a rider around 225 pounds and up, you're going to need more power to get up hills than someone who's 225 pounds and below. That's not a judgment about anybody. It's just what happens when a motor has to move more total weight uphill against gravity.

I bring this up first because I see a lot of riders shop the wrong way around. They fall in love with a frame style or a color, then hope the motor will sort out the hills. Flip that. Be honest with yourself about your weight, the weight of whatever you usually carry, and the kind of grades you ride. Then go looking for a trike that matches that reality. If you're on the heavier side and you know hills are part of your regular routes, you'll want to put power and climbing ability near the top of your list, and our electric trikes with a high weight capacity are a sensible place to start narrowing things down.

If you're a lighter rider, that's good news for you on climbs. You'll get more out of the same motor. But the rest of this article still applies, because there are a handful of other factors that decide whether a hill feels easy or feels like a fight.

What “good on hills” really means

When people tell me they want a trike that's good on hills, they usually mean a few different things at once. They want to get to the top without stalling out. They want to get there without their legs burning the whole way. And they want to feel confident and in control while they're doing it, rather than nervous that the trike is going to bog down halfway up.

All three of those come back to the same handful of ingredients: how much power the motor can legally put out, what kind of motor it is and where it's mounted, how much the trike itself weighs, and how wide the tires are. On top of that, there's the question of where you ride, because the rules on a city street are not the same as the rules on private land or an off-road trail. I'll walk through each of those in turn.

I'll also be straight with you about the trade-offs, including the ones that don't favor what we sell. If you're going to put real money into a trike, you deserve to know the full picture, not just the parts that make a product look good.

Why trike shoppers worry about climbs in the first place

A lot of the riders I talk to are coming back to cycling after years away, or they're choosing three wheels because balance has become a concern. For many of them, hills were the thing that made them stop riding in the first place. They remember walking a bike up a grade, out of breath, and they don't want to relive that.

An electric trike can change that experience completely, but only if it's matched to the rider and the terrain. Get that match right and a hill turns into a non-event. Get it wrong and you'll find yourself avoiding certain routes, which defeats the whole point of buying something that's supposed to open up more of your world. If you're not sure where you land, our fitting process is a good way to get a recommendation built around your body and your riding, and you can browse the full lineup of electric tricycles to see the range of frame styles and motor options side by side.

And if you're shopping for a parent or grandparent, many of the same questions apply. Our selection of electric trikes for seniors focuses on easy mounting and comfortable seating, but you'll still want to think hard about hills if the rider lives somewhere with real elevation. A comfortable trike that can't handle the neighborhood isn't going to get ridden much.

With that groundwork in place, let's get into the factor that shapes everything else: the law.

This is the tricky part of the whole conversation, and it's the piece most shoppers don't think about until someone points it out. If you want your e-trike to be legal on pavement, which includes bike lanes and streets, you have to stay within your local laws. Those laws put a ceiling on how much power you're allowed to use, and that ceiling has a big effect on how differently trikes can perform on a climb.

The common limits

In many states, the motor has to be 750 watts or less. The speed limits are tied to how you're using the motor, too: no more than 20 miles per hour when you're riding on the throttle alone, and up to 28 miles per hour when you're in pedal assist. There are some states that allow up to 1,000 watts of power. California is not one of them, and since we're based in Southern California, that's the rule set I live with every day.

Laws vary and they do change, so before you buy, take a few minutes to look up the specific rules where you'll be riding. Your state, county, and city may all have something to say about it. Don't assume that because a trike is sold in your area, every way of riding it is legal on every road.

If you plan to rely heavily on the throttle, especially for getting moving at the bottom of a hill, it's also worth making sure the trike you're considering has one. Our electric tricycles with throttle control make that easy to filter for.

Why that ceiling makes most trikes climb about the same

Here's the takeaway that surprises people. Because the legal limit on pavement is 750 watts in so many places, most of the 750-watt e-trikes out there are going to perform about the same on hills. The manufacturers are all working under the same cap. You can't just keep adding motor power to make one trike dramatically better than another and still call it street legal.

That changes how you should shop. Instead of hunting for some magic street-legal trike that blows everything else away on a climb, you start looking at the factors that still separate one 750-watt trike from another. There are a few of them, and the first one is the type of motor.

Mid drive vs. hub motors

There's one important caveat to the idea that all 750-watt trikes climb about the same. A mid drive motor will provide the most torque. Torque is the twisting force that gets you moving and keeps you moving against resistance, and on a hill, resistance is the whole story. More torque at the same legal wattage means a trike that pulls harder on a climb.

Mid drive motors aren't as commonly found on e-trikes because they're a little more expensive. But if you want to stay within those legal limits, you want 750 watts of power, and you know you'll be taking on a lot of hills, my advice is to look for a mid drive. That's especially true if you're a heavier rider who plans to do a lot of climbing on the street. In that situation, the extra cost of a mid drive may well be worth it.

Now, I want to be upfront here. As of the time we filmed this, we didn't offer a mid drive e-trike in the configuration I'm talking about. What we do have are our rear hub motors, which I'd consider the next best option for climbing hills. A rear-mounted motor pushes the trike from behind, and for a lot of riders and a lot of hills, that's plenty.

Mid drives will generally cost more than either a rear hub or a front hub. So it comes down to how you ride. If hills are an occasional part of your routes, a well-matched hub motor will likely serve you just fine. If hills are a daily fact of life and you're on the heavier side, the mid drive conversation is worth having.

Thinking about the legal limit as a design constraint

I like to frame the 750-watt limit this way. It's not a weakness of any particular trike. It's the box every street-legal trike has to fit inside. Once you accept that, you stop asking which trike has the most raw power and start asking which trike makes the best use of the power it's allowed to have.

A mid drive makes better use of that power on climbs because of how it delivers torque. A lighter trike makes better use of it because there's less to haul uphill. Narrower tires make better use of it because less energy is lost to friction with the road. Each of those is a way of getting more climbing out of the same legal wattage, and that's exactly where I want to go next.

There's also a second path, which is a trike that can stay within the legal limit when you need it to and open up more power when you're somewhere that allows it. That's the idea behind a dual motor trike, and I'll get to that shortly. First, the two factors that are completely in your hands when you choose a trike.

I said earlier that the biggest impact on a climb is the weight of the rider. That's true, but your body weight is what it is. You're not going to change it between the showroom and the first hill. So once that's accounted for, the next thing you actually get to control is the trike you choose, and two of its characteristics matter a lot on a climb: how much it weighs and how wide its tires are.

Trike weight: the next lever after rider weight

Picture two 750-watt trikes where everything else is created equal. Same motor, same power, same setup. The only difference is that one weighs less than the other. On a hill, the lighter one is going to get to the top quicker. There's simply less total mass for the motor to push uphill.

This is one of those things that seems obvious once you say it out loud, but it gets overlooked constantly. Shoppers will compare motor wattage carefully and then ignore the weight listed a few lines down the spec sheet. On flat ground, a few extra pounds of trike won't make much difference to how a ride feels. On a climb, every pound is working against you and against the motor.

That doesn't mean you should always buy the lightest trike you can find. Heavier trikes often carry features that people genuinely want: bigger batteries, sturdier frames, more cargo capacity, more comfortable seating. Those are real benefits. What I'm saying is that if hills are a big part of your riding, trike weight deserves a spot in the decision instead of being an afterthought. Weigh it against the features you care about and make the trade knowingly.

Tire width: the factor almost nobody thinks about

The other thing to think about is tire width, and it has a bigger impact on climbing than most people expect. The fatter the tire, the harder it's going to be for that trike to climb a hill. A wider tire creates more friction against the street, and that extra width means more rubber the motor has to keep rolling.

Again, take two trikes where all things are created equal. Each has a 750-watt motor. Same motor on both. One has a 2-inch tire and one has a 4-inch tire. The trike with the 2-inch tires will climb that hill quicker. The motor isn't losing as much of its effort to friction, so more of it goes into moving you uphill.

I want to be careful not to make fat tires sound like a bad choice, because they're not. Riders pick wider tires for good reasons. They feel planted, they roll over rough patches and loose surfaces more comfortably, and they can make a trike feel more stable. If you ride on dirt, gravel, or uneven paths, a fat tire might be exactly what you want, and our fat tire electric trikes are popular for precisely that reason. The point is just to know what you're trading. Wider tires give you comfort and grip, and they ask a little more of the motor on a climb.

Putting the controllable factors together

When you add all of this up, you get a pretty useful way of thinking about any trike you're considering for hilly terrain. Within the legal limit, the motor type sets the ceiling on how hard the trike can pull. The trike's weight and tire width decide how much of that pull actually turns into forward progress up the hill. And your own weight sets how much work there is to do in the first place.

So if you're comparing two street-legal 750-watt trikes and you're trying to figure out which one will climb better, here's roughly how I'd work through it:

• Is either one a mid drive? If so, that's the one with the most torque for climbing.
• If they're both hub motors, which one weighs less? The lighter one has the edge on a hill.
• What's the tire width on each? Narrower tires will climb quicker, while wider tires trade some climbing efficiency for comfort and grip.
• How much do you weigh, and how much will you carry? The heavier the total load, the more those first three factors matter.

None of these factors exists in a vacuum. A heavier trike with narrower tires might climb about as well as a lighter one with fat tires. A mid drive can make up for some extra weight. That's why I always encourage people to think about the whole package and about the specific hills they ride, rather than fixating on one number.

Know your hills

This might sound simple, but it's worth spelling out. A long, gradual grade is a very different test from a short, steep pitch. A hill you hit once on a weekend ride is a different problem from a hill you climb every single day to get home. Think about how often you'll be climbing, how steep it really is, and whether you'll be on pavement or on dirt.

If you ride on pavement and need to stay street legal, the factors in this section are your main tools, along with the motor type question from the previous section. If you're riding off-road or on private property, a whole other option opens up, and that's where a dual motor trike starts to make a lot of sense.

All right, this is the trike I'd point most hill riders toward: the Simple Glide Dual Motor with dual batteries. If you want the short version, it's the ultimate option for climbing, as long as you understand how and where to use its full power. I'll explain what I mean by that, because the way this trike handles power is the whole reason I recommend it.

Two motors, and you choose how many to use

The Simple Glide Dual has two 750-watt motors. Now, on camera I first said the 750-watt motor was in the rear and the other was in the front, then caught myself and said to reverse that. For the record, the product page lists it as a 750-watt rear-mounted motor and a 750-watt front hub motor. Either way, the important part is the same: two motors, 750 watts each, which gives you a maximum power output of 1,500 watts when both are running.

Here's the catch, and it ties straight back to everything I said about the law. You can't turn on both motors to climb hills in bike lanes or on streets. Running both takes you from 750 watts to 1,500 watts, which is above the legal limit in a lot of places. So this trike gives you the option of switching. You can keep it street legal by using just that one rear 750-watt motor. When you're somewhere that allows it, you turn on the second motor and get the full 1,500 watts.

That flexibility is what makes it special. Most trikes force you to pick: either a street-legal machine that's limited on steep terrain, or a high-powered machine that isn't legal on the road. The Simple Glide Dual lets you have both in one trike, as long as you're responsible about which mode you're in.

Where the dual motor setup really shines

If you're going on hills or off-roading, this is a great trike for climbing. On hard pack trails, dirt trails, you name it, you can turn on both motors and fly up hills. That's not an exaggeration. With both motors pulling, a climb that would slow a single-motor trike down becomes something you just ride up.

This matters most for heavier riders. Remember the 225-pound threshold I mentioned at the start. Even for riders in the 250 to 300 pound range, having both motors available makes cruising around on hilly terrain feel like a dream. That's the kind of rider who would struggle the most on a single 750-watt motor on a steep, loose climb, and it's exactly where the second motor earns its keep.

One other detail worth knowing, which comes from the product listing rather than from what I said on camera: the Simple Glide Dual is built as a recumbent fat tire e-trike. Based on what I explained about tire width, you might expect that to slow it down on climbs, and on a single motor it's fair to keep that in mind. But this is exactly the kind of trike where the extra motor makes up the difference, and those wide tires help it feel stable and planted on dirt and trails where the dual motor setup is meant to be used. If the relaxed, seated riding position appeals to you, you can see more in our recumbent electric trikes collection.

Dual batteries for the extra demand

The other half of the name is dual battery. Climbing hills, especially with both motors running, asks a lot of a power system. Having two batteries on board is part of what lets this trike support that kind of riding instead of running out of steam. If you're planning longer rides with a lot of climbing, that extra capacity is a big part of why this setup works.

Single motor mode on the street

I don't want anyone to think the Simple Glide Dual is only for off-road use. In single motor mode, using just the rear 750-watt motor, it rides like a street-legal e-trike. You still get the benefits of a rear-mounted motor, which I described earlier as the next best option for climbing after a mid drive. For everyday riding on pavement, that's how you'll use it.

Think of the second motor as something you bring out for the right setting rather than something you leave switched on everywhere. On the street, single motor. On private property or a trail where it's permitted, both motors. That habit keeps you on the right side of the rules and still gives you access to the best climbing this trike can deliver.

Who this trike is for

If you're a heavier rider, if you live somewhere with serious hills, or if you want the freedom to ride dirt and hard pack trails without worrying about running out of power on a climb, the Simple Glide Dual is the one I'd look at first. It gives you a street-legal mode for your daily riding and a high-power mode for the places where that's allowed, and it puts the choice in your hands.

If your riding is mostly flat, or you'll only ever ride on the street and never anywhere you could legally use both motors, the case for dual motors gets weaker. In that situation, a single 750-watt trike, or a mid drive if hills are frequent and you're on the heavier side, might suit you better. I'd rather you buy the right trike for how you actually ride than the most powerful trike on the floor.

I want to spend a little more time on responsible riding, because this is where a lot of people get themselves into trouble. Having extra power available is a great thing. Using it in the wrong place can cost you.

Know where you're riding

Pay attention to where you're riding. If it's a national park, or even trails within a city, those places sometimes regulate what you can and can't do on their trails. A trail being dirt doesn't automatically mean anything goes. So before you open it up, make sure there aren't local forest preserve rules, park rules, or anything of that nature that apply.

If you're on private property, or you're somewhere that's outside the jurisdiction of a national park or similar authority, then you can open it up, turn on both motors, and make hill climbing super, super easy. That's true of any dual motor trike, not just ours. The responsibility is the same no matter whose trike you're riding.

Over the limit, it's no longer an e-bike

Here's the part I really want people to take seriously. If you're exceeding the power limit of what's legal, your trike is no longer going to be classified as an e-bike or e-trike under the law. At that point, it's on you to make sure you're following the rules. I'm not saying that to scare anyone. I'm saying it because it's real, and I'd rather you hear it from me now than from a police officer later.

And it is happening. Here in San Clemente, they've started ticketing people on e-bikes who are going over the legal speeds. Law enforcement is starting to understand what makes a particular e-bike or e-trike perform outside the legal limits. So I want to be clear: the second motor is a tool for the right setting, not a way to get around the rules on public roads.

Get onto the off-road trails where it's permitted, though, and having that extra power is honestly a dream. That's the balance. Ride legal on the street, and enjoy everything the trike can do where you're allowed to.

Choosing your climber: a quick recap

Let me pull this all together so you can make a decision:

• If you want to stay within the legal limits and you'll do a lot of on-street climbing, look for a mid drive. It provides the most torque at a legal 750 watts, though it'll cost more than a rear hub or front hub trike.
• If a mid drive isn't in the budget or isn't available in the style you want, a rear hub motor is the next best option for climbing.
• Whatever motor you choose, a lighter trike and narrower tires will climb quicker than a heavier trike with fatter tires, all else being equal.
• If you're a heavier rider who wants to tackle serious hills, hard pack, or dirt trails where higher power is permitted, a dual motor trike like the Simple Glide Dual gives you a street-legal mode plus a high-power mode when you need it.

If you're a heavier rider and you know you'll be doing a lot of hills on the street, that mid drive option deserves a serious look. If you want the freedom to climb anything off-road, dual motor is the way to go. And for many riders in between, a well-matched single 750-watt trike will handle everyday hills just fine.

Try before you commit

I always tell people that the best way to know if a trike will work for you is to ride it on the hills you actually face. That's why we offer a 30-day test ride on our 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 your hill. Take it on your trail. See how it feels with your weight and your riding before you decide.

We also stand behind our trikes with a warranty that covers parts and labor, so if something goes wrong, we'll take care of it. You can read the full terms on our warranty page.

If you're in Southern California, come see us in person. We're in San Clemente, and you can visit our store to test ride any of our e-trikes before you purchase. It's the best way to make sure you're making the right choice, and it gives you a chance to ask questions face to face.

Talk to riders who've been there

Something I recommend to everyone: join our community before you buy. We have a Facebook group with thousands of members, and it's full of people who own and ride these trikes every day. Ask them how their trike handles hills. Ask what they wish they'd known. Real riders will give you honest answers, and that can go a long way toward making sure you get the right trike.

Once you've got yours, post in the group, share your rides, and make some friends. And download the sixthreezero app to track your rides and compete on the leaderboard. It's a fun way to see how far that hill-climbing trike is taking you.

If you have any other questions about hills, motors, or which trike is the right fit, comment on the video or reach out to our team. You can email us at theteam@sixthreezero.mom or call us at (310) 982-2877. We're always happy to talk it through.

Thanks for reading. It's your journey and your experience, so pick the trike that gets you up your hills and enjoy the ride.