Recumbent Trike with one front wheel

Can anyone tell me how I can setup a trike that is driven by the rear axle that has 2 wheels? My wife’s bike is a trike with one front wheel, but is rear driven. I am trying to find a setup to make it rideable indoors. Is there a trainer for this or something I can get to setup a trainer? Or am I going to have to create my own?

Hi @Toni_Yafanaro welcome to Zwift forums

I’d like to see what the back end of that trike looks like. Any chance you can link us to a website for that trike’s manufacturer? If it’s the type of trike I’m thinking of (two rear wheels with a differential on a solid rear axle), I’m not aware of any bicycle trainer that would work with it.

What might work are rollers for a wheelchair that are wide enough to accommodate both wheels. Maaaybe. While that would give you the physical movement, you’d still need to have a speed sensor on the wheel, or a power meter pedals for it to broadcast a signal that Zwift can use.

It is a Sun Seeker EZ- Tri Classic

Yeah, the bike trainers I’m aware of won’t work with that trike.

The workaround I can think of is a set of rollers for wheelchairs. Something like this one, minus their electronics.
https://www.theaccessibleplanet.com/fitness/wheelchair-training-rollers/

That said,any bicycle speed sensor you mount to the trike won’t accurately estimate your power output on these rollers, which in turn determines how your avatar moves in-game. Because the rollers are not supported by Zwift, your in-game experience might be really bizarre, and I’d hate to have you lay out a bunch of money for a sub-par experience.

The Bike Friday Haul-a-Day cargo bike has places in the frame to add optional legs to lift the rear wheel off the ground. Prime purpose is to drive a generator, grain mill or as a exercise bike. So a couple of small car jack stands might work. Only challenge is having enough resistance as found on trainers to simulate the road feel. You might be able to hack a resistance unit from a classic on-wheel trainer to a rear wheel of the recumbent. A speed and cadence sensor combo should work since they mount on a wheel and the crank arm.

I have a delta trike (a trike with 1 front and 2 back wheels, driven from the rear) and use a SportCrafters Overdrive roller with Wahoo Speed & Cadence sensors attached to my bike. So far I’ve ridden ~200kms on this setup, and it works.

Mine’s a “budget setup” and doesn’t include a smart trainer, but gets me riding anyway :slight_smile:

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