History: my wife is in her early 60s. She's been riding a motorcycle for close to 20 years, & has been over the road on a few trips within about 600 miles from our home where she has ridden her bike, currently a Yamaha VStar 1100 Silverado. My point is, she has some miles under her belt on 2 wheels & not just to the local ice cream stand.

But, as of late, she's been getting a little unsteady on the bike when crawling in slow moving traffic & in parking lots. She (finally) agreed to go test fit a few trikes last weekend. That resulted in making an appointment at a local Harley dealer to test ride a trike today. When we arrived at the dealership, the salesman asked which one she had decided to ride. She pointed to the Tri-Glide. As we went to watch a video on riding trikes, he readied the TG & got it outside with another bike he would ride. Once we were all outside, the salesman went over the operation of the trike & then instructed her to take a few loops in the parking lot before we ventured out on the road.

We never made it to the road.

I'm not sure I can describe it, but it was hard to watch. She almost hit a customer's car, then came within a hair of hitting both a Street Glide & Road Glide - both customer bikes - parked in the lot. Both times she had to stop & wait for assistance. I got on the trike & rode her on the back, explaining what I was doing as we rode in the lot. We all went to the back of the dealership where there were no cars or bikes & she tried it again with me on the back. We motored down the lot with the dealership building on the left side of us. Approaching the end of the lot, she managed a hesitant U-turn to the right. We headed to the opposite end of the lot, now with building to our far right & a ditch to our immediate left. As we approached the end of the lot, I instructed her to make another U turn to the right to head us back in the original direction. I guess she tried to counter-steer, as she turned the bike to the left & was heading towards the ditch. I reached up & grabbed her right arm pulling it back to steer to the right & she grabbed throttle as she did so. At this point, the salesman did the across the neck "cut it" motion - understandably worried about her & his $35k trike.

She was practically in tears, upset, embarrassed, & feeling like an uncoordinated numskull. I feel so badly for her but have no idea what to do. She is not a tall woman; about 5'4" & this was a big vehicle with a fairing which she has never ridden behind. However, she is used to floorboards, heel-toe shifters, a clutch, etc. I don't think she is ready to give up & I certainly am not. But what can I suggest we do? She wondered after we arrived home if she would have done better on the smaller Freewheeler. Before the test ride, I suggested she also look at a Spyder due to the power assisted steering & not having a clutch, but she was absolutely against the idea saying she just doesn't like them. A quick Google search didn't list any trike training here in NE Ohio.

Any suggestions are appreciated. My wife is my closest riding buddy & she wants to continue to ride her own. We are both convinced to maintain that future means 3 wheels for her. I'm certain this was a product of her learned motorcycle muscle reflex & counter-steering, & so is she - but where do we go from here?

 

I had to chuckle reading this. After riding for over 40 years, I recently had to trade for a Trike. In my case, due to neuropathy. Could no longer get my Ultra Limited off the kickstand.

I had mine delivered to the house. I damn near ran off the driveway twice the first time I rode it. I told people I would have been much better off had I never rode a motorcycle in my life. It was at least a week before I got out of my Sub-division.

The best way I can sum it up...you Ride a Bike and you DRIVE a Trike. Just have to take those bars and force the bike to go where you want. I'm sure that was humiliating to her. She will adjust fairly quickly.

 

I am 6'4" and 200 lbs. almost hit a bridge abutment on my first road attempt. Tell her...what she did was from years of muscle memory. A trike is ALMOST ALL upper body strength. Push with 1 arm, pull with the other to turn. Above all...RELAX and have fun.

 

Here's a thought: Lehman put out a nice video a while back that hits the basics. Consider getting her to review this before the next attempt?

 

Wow, what a tough story! I think I would attempt to restage the event with the TriGlide positioned in a large, VACANT, parking lot and put her on the back for a few minutes and demonstrate the necessary simple skills/maneuvers and explain what you are doing and what it feels like before you let her try it again. She could be justifiably demoralized at this point.


I would then put her on the trike and have her perform some of the same basic and easy maneuvers that you showed her and this should help rebuild her confidence. As others have said, riding a trike for the first time is pretty awkward for folks that don't have any 3 or 4 wheel off road vehicle(ATV) experience. I forgot to mention that the Harley dealer needs to check the front tire and rear tire pressures. If the front is under-inflated and the rears are set to 26 pounds which is way too much, then the trike is going to handle at suboptimal levels. Many of us run 36 psi in the front and about 20-22 psi in the rear with the trike rear suspension for a light woman at maybe 20 pounds. Lastly, that recommended Lehman Trike video is a great start for your sweetie to better understand the different performance dynamics of a trike vs. two wheels.

 

If you get on the throttle to soon the trike will push

 

Have her test ride the freewheeler.

 

I'm not being funny, or at least not trying to be.

Convertible car.

 

I'm sorry, but the story was funny and sad! I have 4 wheelers(atv's) motorcycles and a trike (Freewheeler). Since I ride the atv everyday I had no problems going from one to the other. I would suggest she spend a lot of time on a 4 wheel atv. Works the same as a trike. I would be afraid that in an emergency she would revert back to 2 wheel thinking... Just a thought..

 

One idea; like the others are alluding to; get her some time on a four wheeler and I bet she does great! If you can't . . .

These are tricycles. A kid first learns on one of those, and actually it's very intuitive to ride and steer one. Point the wheel and that's where it goes. Simple. That's what makes graduating to a bicycle so hard; steering it doesn't make sense! But kids brains learn quickly. When going to a trike, you have to unlearn that stuff, and for adults that's not easy!

Essentially you just need to point the front wheel where you want to go on these things, period!!! You have to ignore whatever feedback you are getting through the bars; it will push back! You don't ride these things, you drive them. It just takes time to learn that.

That feedback she feels comes from this: the front tire/wheel wants to go straight; it's a big, relatively heavy gyroscope. It takes force to make a gyroscope turn, and to keep it turning. The further you try to crank it over to turn sharper, the harder you have to force it. The faster you're going, the harder it gets for a given angle, too. And you have to keep that force there or it will immediately try to straighten out. Everybody here notices that when you're on the acceleration ramp, as your speed increases you have to push/pull harder to keep following the curve, right?

Explain to her that it's not so much the amount of force on the handlebars that makes a trike turn like it is on her bike (as an experienced rider she does that counter-steer thing unconsciously); only the direction that the front tire is pointing matters, regardless of what pressure she has to apply to the grips. She needs to apply whatever pressure it takes to make it turn the way she wants it to. It definitely takes some measurable, but not excessive, amount of effort to make the wheel do that. Once she learns to to that, I'm sure she'll be fine after a few successful miles.