Our Electric Cargo Bike Range

Semi-recumbent vs upright electric trike is usually discussed as a rider preference. For anyone building a US range it is not a preference question at all — it is a channel question, and getting it wrong costs more than a wrong colourway. The two formats attract different buyers, at different prices, through different retail environments, with different documentation attached. Stocking one and assuming it covers the other is the most common assortment error in this category. This article sets out how to split a US range between them, and what each format has to be engineered to do. Three conclusions up front: They are not two versions of one product. They differ in seating geometry, centre of gravity, price tolerance and — decisively — where the sale happens. Most US ranges need both, weighted. Upright covers volume and familiarity; semi-recumbent covers...

Electric trike stability engineering is the part of this category that marketing talks around and physics does not. A three-wheeled cycle is bought to remove a fall risk — and a poorly designed one introduces a different one: it can lift a wheel and roll over in a turn. Read US owner feedback across the category and this appears often enough, across enough suppliers, to be a category-level design failure rather than an isolated defect. It is also entirely predictable from geometry, which means it is preventable at the drawing stage. This article sets out the physics of trike rollover, the numbers that predict it, and the specific decisions that engineer it out — written for the people who specify and source these products, not the people who ride them. Three conclusions up front: Rollover is geometric, not accidental. A single...