How to Make Your Trike an Off-Road Trike

Every now and again someone writes to ask about off-roading with a trike. A well built trike can go off-road on mild tracks. But to do real "mountain bike" off-roading on a trike, there are a few things you should consider.

First and formost, a stock regular road trike will be destroyed if you try to do 'real' off-roading with it. Now, I have seen a couple of trikes which were marketed as 'off-road'. But I was not impressed - more marketing hype than reality.

So in my experience real off-roading, riding very rough single-track logging roads filled with stones, loose gravel, mud, etc. requires setting up a stock trike in a particular way. Here's what works for me:

  1. Buy a frame-kit (a basic trike frame without wheels, brakes, etc.) from a reputable manufacturer such as ICE, Greenspeed, or any of the other good manufactures. It would be nice is the manufacturer offers an option to configure the frame to be rear-weighted rather than the more usual centre weighting. ICE has an optional add-on to their stock frames for this. This will allow for the extra traction needed for real off-roading. But if the frame-kit you like does not offer this option, be prepared to add a little extra weight to the rear panniers of your trike.
  2. Get wheels with extra-strong spokes. Stock road-spokes are not strong enough for the side-entry debris invariably picked up from single tracking up mountain roads.
  3. There should be no rear dérailleur. Get and internal hub such as the NEXUS, so that tree roots and rocks will not chop of the dérailleur. And of course, low gears for climbing dusty single track trails through the hills.
  4. Big strong knobby tires - Schwalbe has a good selection of 406 sizes for this. Get Schwalbe liners and tubes too - in my experience they are much more resistant to rocks than the stuff sold at most bike stores.
  5. The chain must be totally enclosed. I use irrigation tubing for this.
  6. Do not use disc brakes. They are too low to the ground for real off-road riding on a trike. I use Sturmey-Archer drum brakes - impervious to small rocks, branches, mud, and water. And will not overheat and ignite grass on those rapid descents.
  7. Try to find a frame-set with full suspension. Only a few manufacturers offer this, but in my experience if you do serious off-roading on your trike, full suspension is very nice. At the very least, make sure you have rear suspension! A full mesh seat (offered by most manufacturers) really helps preserve your tender body too

If you start with a good frame-set, then add the above - all of which all the major trike manufacturers can set up for you - you will end up with a really good off-road trike. It will be slower than mountain bikes, but... you can go most (not all) of the places a mountain bike will go and have a lot of fun doing so. Watch out for bears!