At Adult Tricycles Pro, our objective is to publish accurate information about tricycles in a timely manner. This allows us to give you reviews free of biases from the manufacturers and independent of any outside influences.

These are based on customer reviews that have been verified as actual purchases of the trikes. We use testing from actual tricycles that we purchase or borrow from customers (i.e., not given to us by manufacturers). In our quest to be comprehensive, we’ve looked at online customer reviews from multiple online sources. These sources contain more than 10,000 individual ratings left by customers.

This forms the backbone of our research. From here we narrow things down to the best tricycles that we then go out and put through further testing. Finally, after our articles are complete and published on the site, we keep up with monitoring new reviews. This way we see how these products perform over time, and update our reviews and analysis about once per year.

We Are Only as Good as the Data We Collect

Sources of Data

To arrive at our rankings and write up our analysis, we rely on a number of different sources of data. The following is a list of the general places that we look for data.

Products pages from retail websites

The largest part of the data we collect comes from the actual product pages of online retailers that sell tricycles. We look at the sales pages on Walmart, Amazon, and a few specialty retailers for electric and recumbent tricycles.

Any major retail shop that sells tricycles and has customer reviews online goes into our data set. In addition to the aggregate ratings, we also look at what individual reviewers are saying to see if there are any themes that stand out for a particular product such as difficulty of assembly, or rusting issues that happen over time. It’s possible for a trike to have an overall solid rating, but if 10% of people have a really bad experience that might indicate problems. You really don’t want to buy the trike thinking it’s great and then be in that 10%!

Retailers we consider and dealing with fake reviews

In this category we have a ton of different sources, and in addition to that each source can have hundreds or even thousands of reviews. We take a lot of care to make sure that the reviews we are considering are legitimate reviews from real customers as opposed to fake reviews that some unscrupulous manufacturers leave for themselves to make their product look better. This is less of a problem with big, well-known brands like Schwinn or Raleigh, and more of an issue for small manufacturers you’ve never heard of that pop up and then disappear seemingly overnight.

Some online retailers try to weed out fake reviews, but in our experience even things like Amazon’s “verified purchase” tag are not completely reliable. We take the time to actually look at the user profile if they provide, and read the words that they write about the product to see if they are actually saying something, or just leaving a generic positive comment. We also take a look at other factors: for instance, if a product has 100 reviews come in on the same day, that’s probably a good indication they are fake! It’s really important to make sure we’re only considering real reviews and not getting duped by fake reviews.

Our competitors

There are a number of websites out there that write up reviews of tricycles and test them out in various ways. We definitely take the time to see what they have to say about these products since they might have an experience we didn’t have, or have insights that we missed. Of course, we try to treat these reviews with the same level of skepticism that we use for online customer reviews, since there are plenty of review websites out there that accept free products, or even direct payments from manufacturers to feature their products. Even if they aren’t being paid to give a positive review, the conflict of interest leads to a major bias in the review. It’s hard to leave a negative review for a company that might have given you a free tricycle!

The really critical thing to do here is to make sure that we are only looking at high-quality review websites. It is a pretty common occurrence for websites to receive compensation, or to provide no real value other than rehashing what other people have said or what the manufacturer says. We spend a lot of time looking at these websites and are pretty adept at figuring out which ones provide really good information that we can incorporate into our analysis to try to get to a better understanding of the quality and value of the product.

Internet forums and discussion boards

One of the best sources of information are discussion boards and forums where people offer their own insights and discuss problems they are having with their trikes. The downside to these is that they are real pain to sift through since they don’t have much structure to them: it’s a bit of a free-for-all conversation.

There are some very high-quality sites out there that makes this worthwhile though. In particular, the Bicycles section of StackExchange and the cycling subreddit on reddit.com are great resources for getting questions answered and finding real life discussions of adult tricycles. Some of the users on these sites have a lot of experience in cycling or with healthy exercise plans for seniors and older adults and provide excellent advice on various products. The difficulty with these is tracking down all of the information since there are lots of conversations and discussions that aren’t relevant to the products we cover.

The other issues we run into when trying to make use of forums and discussion boards is that it’s largely anecdotal evidence. A particular user has a particular problem or experience, which is good to know about, but might not generalize or might not be a common occurrence. It’s easy to put too much weight on a single bad experience or a single outstanding experience. Luckily, we go through tons of boards and look at lots and lots of posts, so we can usually find some common themes out of all of this.

Publicly available data and manufacturer provided information

Although we never just rewrite the sales brochures or sales websites tricycle manufacturers provide, they do release a lot of performance and other technical data and details of the manufacturing process that are invaluable to getting an insight into the research and development at the company, and the types of quality control they are using to produce their bikes.

Since most customers looking to buy an adult tricycle are concerned about the quality of the construction and the safety of the materials, this manufacturer data on the exact components of their tricycle is important. Going through all of these technical specifications and component data, as well as product dimensions, weights, and tolerances can be daunting, but that’s why we’re the experts! We know the difference between different gear systems and derailleurs, and we know which types of frame will last the longest and offer the safest ride.

Often the bike manufacturers will provide details such as:

  • Exact materials used in the construction of the frame and front fork
  • Where the tricycle is manufactured
  • Where the tricycle is assembled, if different from the manufacturing location
  • Sizes, dimensions, and weight limits of the tricycle
  • Retail locations where you can purchase the newest models
  • Current suggested retail price and potential discounts
  • Specific product characteristics such as type and size of the tires, included safety features such as bells and flags, and the level of assembly required by the end user
  • Care instructions
  • Warranty information
  • Shipping policies and shipping lead times
  • Return procedures and policies in case the tricycle doesn’t work out or is defective in some way

In-house testing of the products

This is the point in the testing process where we separate the outstanding adult tricycles from the good adult tricycles. After narrowing the list of tricycles down, we arrive at a set of top products to test out ourselves. Since there are so many tricycles available, we are simply unable to test out every single one of them. With this top list we then actually go out and purchase or borrow these trikes and go through the assembly process and ride them on a variety of different terrains and conditions to see how they perform in the real world.

Once we have our hands on the actual tricycles, we put them through their paces in every condition. We take them on wide, paved bike trails, we take them on unpaved gravel trails, trials with hills, trails without hills, on-street bike lanes, and everything in between. This way we can get a good idea of how the trike holds up and what the ride feels like under a variety of conditions. This helps us let you know what tricycle you should focus on for your particular needs. For instance, the Schwinn Meridian is great for flat, paved trails, but is not ideal for hills or off-road trails.

After we complete the in-house testing, we come up with an overall ranking of how the products compare to each other in various scenarios and for various types of riders. It’s a pretty rigorous process!

What The Data Doesn’t Cover

One area that we might from some websites is that we do not accept direct user reviews. We appreciate the feedback people have on their tricycle experiences, but we do not incorporate this directly. The problem with direct feedback is bias: customers who come to us instead of leaving a review on the retailer or manufacturer website are usually trying to promote a specific brand or product. The other possibility is that they are just angry at the company. Rest assured we’ll see the review in our comprehensive data collection process if you leave it on a manufacturer website.

What Makes Adult Tricycles Pro Different?

We Love Cycling and Helping Educate People

We have a real passion for reviewing, testing, and communicating our findings about adult tricycles. Creating this website was a way for us to promote healthy activities for people as they get older. We believe tricycling provides a great way for people to get outside and get some exercise. Tricycles also remove some of the problems with two wheel bikes such as balancing and potential injuries.

Please contact us if you want to learn more about adult tricycles, or if you’re just interested in our website. Someone from our team will try to get back to you quickly. We are passionate about informing people of the benefits of tricycles, so they can make great choices for their health.

We’re Independent and Unbiased

This is a critical difference that we like to emphasize. We even have an entire integrity policy that states exactly how we generate the money to pay the site. It also details how we collect and use personal data, and how we communicate with everyone. The number of review websites that have a hidden agenda might surprise you. We make sure our only agenda is helping provide the best information without any bias. Please visit our integrity page to learn about all of the details.

Review Aggregation Combined with Comprehensive Testing

Adult Tricycles Pro offers complete details for all types of adult tricycles. This includes traditional uprights, recumbent trikes, electric and pedal-assist tricycle, and tadpole trikes. The types and models change all the time in terms of price, quality, features, and availability. It’s important to keep up with all these changes to give people the best information. A bunch of recommendations for tricycles that are no longer available does not help anyone!

Sometimes we must rely on just the consumer reviews since we cannot test every single tricycle that gets released. There are just too many brands and models to make that feasible. However, we strive to make sure the information you do find here is most comprehensive and most reliable you’ll find anywhere on the web.

Easy-to-Use Summaries

Choosing the best adult tricycle for your needs is difficult given all of the models available. There are big differences in quality, price, and features that can confuse even the experts. Our quick summary table at the beginning of our comprehensive review gives you the top choice for each use. Also, in each individual review we give a quick list of advantages and disadvantages for that tricycle. This gives you a handy way to quickly decide if a tricycle is worth your time to look at more closely.

We add new reviews to our blog all the time. In addition to these, we update our comprehensive summary on a regular basis. We also make sure to make changes to our summary page when products are discontinued or introduced. This way the recommendations we make are always the latest models and won’t leave you searching for a discontinued product.

Trustworthy Information

Making sure that we give our readers accurate information is our top priority. This is important with adult tricycles since the quality of the tricycle impacts your health and safety. We don’t want to recommend a trike that is too big or too heavy for the intended use. While getting outside and cycling is great, there are downside you have to consider. Some websites are so intent on getting you to buy a product, they make claims that are just not true. While tricycles have safety advantages, you need to consider both pros and cons. Especially with something like recumbent trikes, there are safety disadvantages if you plan to ride on a roads with cars. Similarly, electric trikes are fantastic, but they are not immune from flipping if you don’t ride them safely.

Balanced Reviews

We try to present fair and balanced information to alert you to the positives and negatives of each type of adult tricycle. In order to generate this information from the data, we take the following steps.

  • We collect a large list of all products available in a specific category. This means going through hundreds of retail and manufacturer websites to get a current list of products. Once we have this, we eliminate products that don’t have enough data. We require the product to be available in at least one retail store and have at least 50 reviews. If there aren’t enough reviews, we keep the product on our list and go back to look again in the future. If it gets enough reviews by our next update, then we include it then.
  • We check each customer review to make sure it is a legitimate and high-quality review. This means that it is a “verified purchase” and also contains some real information. A review that just says, “It’s great!” does not indicate any real use of the product. The review should show the reviewer has actually ridden the tricycle and used it enough to give feedback.
  • We then purchase or borrow the top tricycles and test them out. This includes using them and doing some basic maintenance and assembly work. We see how they hold up to some use over a couple of weeks, and sometimes much longer.

Other Factors We Consider

These are some of the factors we look at to arrive at our rankings. Not all of them are relevant to every product since electric tricycles have some different features than traditional. We als have to keep safety in mind while testing. As much as we’d like to see how much weight a trike can carry before breaking, it would be irresponsible to take a trike out loaded with 600 pounds just to see what happens!

Value criteria

  • Price. Although the saying “you get what you pay for” has some truth, it is not foolproof. We’ve definitely seen situations in which a very expensive trike is not of good quality at all. We do consider the value for your money when we write our reviews. If a tricycle is $800, then our expectation for quality and ease of assembly is higher than for a $300 tricycle. Our top choices in each category should beat your expectations, and your expectations are higher if the price is higher.
  • Durability. This is one of the most obvious criteria for an expensive piece of equipment like an adult trike. Any product we recommend should last at least several years. Sadly, we’ve seen cheaply made trikes that fall apart after a year or two. Rusting parts is a big problem with many of the cheaper tricycles on the market. Cheap components is another easy place for manufacturers to save money, and this can lead to broken gears or brakes within a short time. Of course, even the best products aren’t going to last forever, and all tricycles require some care and maintenance on a regular basis.

Criteria for Usefulness

  • Style. Hey, we want our tricycles to look good, and that influences our decision. Of course, most trikes have a pretty standard look, and that’s fine. However, we admit we really enjoy seeing bikes with great colors or cool styling.
  • Safety. Getting outside and getting some exercise is great, but not if you are on an unsafe bike. Things like bells, flags, quality braking components, and tires with good traction all matter here.
  • Ease of Assembly. Even if you are going to pay to get someone to assemble your tricycle for you, an easy assembly will save you money. In addition, it’s ideal if you can do minor maintenance yourself.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why Don’t You List Some Products?

We get a lot of questions about why a particular product isn’t reviewed on our site. There are a couple of reasons that might keep something off of our list.

  • Not enough reliable user data. Since our review process relies on getting a lot of customer reviews from online sources, if a product doesn’t have enough online presence, we won’t feel confident recommending it.
  • The reviews were not good enough. We’re usually only going to review products that we think are worth our time. This means we probably won’t buy and test out tricycles that get low marks from the online source we look at. It just isn’t possible for us to test every tricycle that comes out, so we try to prioritize trikes that are likely to get our stamp of approval.

Where Should I Start?

The best place to start is with our comprehensive guide to adult tricycles right on hour homepage: adulttricyclespro.com. This gives you solid info about the current tricycles available in each category, as well as safety tips and other things to look out for with adult tricycles. From the homepage, there are also links to the in depth reviews of the individual tricycles. You can use these to dig a little deeper and get some pros and cons of each brand and model.

Have More Questions?

Feel free to contact us!