First came the adult tricycle. How I loved that trike! The trike had a large basket in the rear, handy for bringing home the groceries. And it was so much fun to ride that I became an instant mileage hog. 🐷

The tricycle came with plain platform pedals. I didn’t change the pedals, but I soon had toe harnesses added, which let me pedal more efficiently. I could use my quads as well as my calves!

If you want a recumbent adult tricycle, they come come in two styles: delta and tadpole. I’ve even seen a man who was using a tadpole style, hand-powered trike. He was sustaining an amazing speed!

A caveat for those who switch from two wheels to three: the tricycle user’s manual warned against leaning the trike into a turn. Such an action is likely to cause one of the rear wheels to leave the ground, resulting in a nasty spill. If I must “regress” to three wheels in my dotage, I hope I remember that.

Another thing I always thought odd about my tricycle was that the brakes caught harder when wet; the opposite of what I expected. It had front-wheel brakes only; and one misty morning the brakes took hold unexpectedly hard. Before I knew what was happening, I was on the ground with the tricycle of top of me. I hadn’t even been riding so very fast. So be careful of that, too.

And yes, an adult tricycle CAN wear out! I put mine to uses the poor thing was probably never meant for, including a 100-miler. Between November 2009 and July 2013, I racked up 11,500+ miles on that trike. If I ever get an adult trike again, I must look for an industrial-grade one. Now that I know what a beating I can inflict upon a pedal-powered vehicle, spending more on a really sturdy machine makes a lot of sense!