I don't know that Ride Like A Pro has trike videos, but I'll be sure to check.

 

What I did with my wife is wear out an empty parking lot. I purchased 24 of the cheap short orange cones at Walmart.
Set them up using the parking spaces. Put one every other line across the spaces all in a row & you have a left & right weave. Turn around at the end & come back.
Wear out the tires for a while. Re-arrange them for a gas pump island. Put your arms out, & you are too close to things at the tip of your fingers. Do a lot of backing up into a space without hitting the pipes.
Have refreshments, rest then you do the exercises also. Keep going for a while so if the fatigue sets in you can control it.
A lot of clutch & brake work also. Set up stops & starts with some turns in that also. Both left & right. After that then back roads for a few miles. Get used to traffic.
If she is used to no fairing, she might like the Freewheeler better also. You can block a lot of air with the windshield on those also. Your wife is most likely intimidated by that batwing in front of her with a completely different acting motorcycle. Plus everyone watching so she don't screw up. Just too many things in mind at one time.
A bit of practice & she is going to do great with her attitude.
Just things I've done with my wife that got her over the fear of the trike. But she only had small scooter experience.
I've used the cones with two other local trike riders also & had great results.
Also because of the lack of rider courses here these guys did this before the rider classes. Helped them a lot.
But just my $.02......

 

Most everything important has been mentioned, but I'll try to sum it up. Fwiw, my riding buddy is my 78 year old father in law, who has been riding for 60 years without a gap. He recently bought a Tri-Glide, so he's got some relevant experience with the differences.

1. Turning a trike takes muscle, particularly at low speeds. New riders, particularly women and older riders, have to get used to putting some muscle into it. Otherwise, it will simply go where it's already aimed, not where you want it to go.

2. Putting muscle into it is tiring, particularly at first, because these are muscles you have NOT been using. Just an hour or so a day at first. If that.

3. Since your wife is an experienced rider, getting used to NOT leaning is gonna be really weird. Now, add in the part about NOT counter-steering. It takes some seat time to get comfortable with, as everyone is saying, "driving" and not "riding".

4. Yeah, and you don't put your feet down at stops.


I'm glad she's still interested. Stick with it, and she'll do fine!

 

Thanks for this sloufoot - the cheap little cones at Walmart are a great idea for setting up some obstacles.

 

I know exactly how she feels.

I bought my trike about 200 miles from home and had to drive it home.

I thought to myself how hard can it be, I have driven top fuel dragsters, funny cars, sand rails, drag boats, jet skis and and motorcycles for over 40 years, but never a trike or 4 wheeler.

Within the first 10 minutes of leaving the guys house that I bought it from, I had ran off the road, counter-steered into the oncoming traffic (if a little old lady had not dodged out of the way I would have had a head on) and damn near hit the pump protection pole with my fender at the gas station where I was going to fill it up.

I stood there in the gas station parking lot shaking like a leaf, asking myself what in the hell have I done. My girlfriend who was following me in my truck was laughing so hard she had tears running down her face (I'm thinking she was enjoying seeing me humbled a little bit). I wanted so bad to turn the trike around and go give it back to the guy I bought it from. If she had not already been laughing at me so much I probably would have taken it back to him.

Long story short, I learned to ride the trike and to trust the trike by riding in the storage unit where I stored the trike. Up one row do 180° turn down the next row do 180° turn up one row do 180° turn down another road do a 180° turn. Before long I was doing 20 MPH 180° turns.

The best advice on here is to get her into a parking lot where nobody else is watching and let her get used to the trike. Those yellow cones are a great idea also

 

Right there you bring something up which some have had the unfortunate fate of doing. They simply forget the trike is wider at the back than the front, and smash the rear fender into something. I always look back to make sure I'm not getting too close when pulling up to a pump. Folks have also smacked their fenders into the balusters at toll booths along the turn pikes. They try to move over close so they don't have to stretch and reach to hand the money, or get the ticket. Next thing they know, it's time to find a body shop to fix the busted up rear fender.

 

Wife had ridden her Sportie, Nightrain, and Deluxe all over the western United States. A bad case of cancer left her legs numb from the calves down. After almost 6 months physical rehab she wanted to ride again. Obviously her Deluxe was out of the question. We test rode and bought the first Tri-Glide delivered to our local dealer. Picked it up Thursday, took it back on Tuesday for the 1000 mile service, and left for Las Vegas Wednesday morning. Who ever said a trike was EASY to ride was nuts. Vesta took all turns very wide until she got used to 'muscling' that huge thing around. We had to modify the clutch (96" spring instead of the 103") so she could pull it. It is all a matter of desire to ride and adaptability. She is on her 3rd Tri-Glide now. It has seen 5 states so far, and will run up the coast next summer into Canada. Tell her to take her time and enjoy it

 

Practice, practice and a whole lot more practice! If she wants to learn she will. Some have a fear of trikes ( or guns, snakes, clowns) that they never get over...I sure hope not for her but be prepared to accept it.
Now dont take this the wrong way, you might contact a GWRRA club and ask them about a trike class or if some of their trike riding friends would talk to her and maybe instruct her, she may be extra nervous with you teaching her...just a thought.

*Note* GWRRA, Gold Wing Road Riders Association

 

One other thing that will help.
If you are going to help the wife learn, you also need to do all the maneuvers also to understand the problems she is experiencing .
As others have mentioned, the steering is quite heavy at low speeds. Be sure to push on the outside with a stiff arm & pull on the inside.
A number of people are like CVOJOE when they first drive a trike. But later most wouldn't give the trike up. It takes a bit of time & miles.

 

Have a look at tiltingmotorworks.com


They make three wheeler conversions of popular bikes which still lean in corners, so your wife can safely countersteer to her heart's content. They might be just the ticket for your wife.