Looking into buying an electric-assist cargo trike. It seems the market is dominated by versions that have 2 front wheels and 1 rear, is this easier to use/work on or something? It seems to me that steering, maint, flat repair, and general use would make that far worse experience. Am I missing something?
Simplicity: One rear wheel makes the drivetrain much simpler. You do not need a shared axle connecting the rear wheels, or a differential. (Correction: Trikes with 2 wheels in the rear usually don’t have a differential. They simply drive one wheel and let the other freewheel. That means the bike always wants to turn one direction.)
Safety: Two wheels in front reduces the rollover risk when turning at speed.
Also, you might consider a 2-wheeled box bike (search for “bakfiets” or “long john”). I have not ridden one, but I have seen a few in the wild and their owners all gave raving reviews. They are less stable when stopped but ride much more like a regular bicycle.
@kersploosh@sh.itjust.works I’ve test ridden those, and found them to be too problematic with unbalanced loads (like groceries) and a poor choice on road surfaces as ugly as mine. Appreciate the suggestion, though!
I’ll keep test riding all the locally available options. It’d be nice to not require a car for my longer grocery trips.
@kersploosh@sh.itjust.works Shared rear axel seems a lot less complex than the mess required to do steering to two wheels, but safety for sure makes sense.
I drove trikes (the motorized variety) and while I never crashed, I have seen plenty. Is there really enough speed to do that?