Kryten41

My lower back has suggested that I consider a recumbent trike, but my wallet is hesitant. Can any of you recommend an inexpensive recumbent trike that is decent? I understand I should avoid single speeds such as Mobo and Slingshot, but otherwise am mostly clueless. I'm not too optimistic about Craigslist, as recumbents are very rare in my area. Most of my riding will be in my residential neighborhood with only one mild block long incline (I can't really call it a hill).
Thanks.

Steamer

I don't have many recumbents in my area yet I have bought a couple through CL. You have to get in the car and drive.

Where are you located?

BlazingPedals

I think about the lowest-price bents I'd be interested in as new would be Performance or Trident. The other 'cheap' brand name is KMX, but they're built more like kids' bmx bikes - heavy duty.

Kryten41

Amarillo Texas. My car is a roadster, so there is no way a bike of any kind is going to fit. My large vehicle is a really old Suburban that I wouldn't trust for more than 50 miles or so on the highway. If I buy a recumbent, it will have to be local.

VegasTriker

You are caught between a rock and a hard place. The problem with all of the entry level trikes (which start out at $1K) is that they are heavy, often have very limited gear ranges, and of course use entry level components.

There is a trike 105 miles away from you and it is a very good one. I spotted a Catrike Road for sale on CL in Abernathy https://lubbock.craigslist.org/bik/d...580727582.html which is an hour and a half down I-25 from Amarillo. The asking price is $1,425 but it comes with a hitch rack and several other accessories which make this price seem very reasonable. It's been on CL for 2 months now so the owner may even be willing to consider a reduction. If you have a friend with a hitch who would be willing to drive you to see it, I'd jump at the chance to go see the trike.

Catrike is certainly one of the better trike manufacturers and puts mid-level components on them. I own a Catrike 700 and have ridden it for several years and more than 12,000 miles. It's been a very good choice for me as a high mileage rider. I wouldn't be afraid of buying an older trike in good condition either. I also own a 2001 Greenspeed GTO trike and it is still perfectly good after 17 years and many thousand miles. No cheap trike will do as well.

700

Kryten41
Here is a bike I really wanted but it's too far away from me in AL. Sun Tomahawk in Wichita Falls. Ad from this past March 2018, but I don't know if he ever sold it. It was also in Craigslist. He posted there for $600.
Tomahawk CX - BentRider Online Forums
$250 LPU!
edit: I re-read the title. Hope you find your trike...

rydabent

TerraTrikes probably have the best bang for the buck.

Leisesturm

Cannot agree. For pure bang for the buck, Performer wins hands down. The only (and I really mean only) catch is that a Performance trike (or bike) requires the buyer to actually build the craft up from a kit of parts. If you (or a friend with the requisite know how) can deal with that the cash savings are all yours to take to the bank.

Leisesturm

I get that your lower back might be begging for a recumbent of some kind but ... a trike? That's kind of a leap, I think. A recumbent trike is more than just a recumbent bike with an extra front (or rear) wheel. Instead of costing 1/3 more than an equivalent bike, a recumbent trike is quite likely going to cost more than 2x an equivalent recumbent bike. But the real issue is that hesitant wallet. A hesitant wallet and recumbent ownership IME leads to misery. If you aren't all in you're going to be sorry. An exIBM executive of my close personal acquaintance found herself needing to get in shape and a bike of any kind was out of the question. She went to a recumbent dealership and was presented with a few choices. Over my objections s/he chose the lowest priced of all of them. It was a Sun of some kind and s/he found it impossibly heavy and slow but she was sold on the Delta platform because of the higher seat height. I had suggested a Greenspeed Anura but she was put off by the price, at the time a mere $2K+. The Sun was less than $1K and even though she could afford much more, she didn't think she could. Eventually s/he sold the Sun on consignment and got the Anura. FWIW.

Kryten41

Leisesturm, what was wrong with the Sun? Sunseeker Eco is currently at the top of my list to purchase new if I can't find anything used by my 60th birthday in November. As to why a trike instead of a bike, balance is increasingly becoming an issue for me. I live in flat country, and will only be riding around my residential neighborhood. I currently ride approximately 5 miles per day on my beach cruiser, and don't anticipate increasing this with my new ride.

BlazingPedals

The biggest issue with Sun is their weight. The weight, in my mind, negates their slightly lower prices compared to everyone else. I think the aluminum they use for their frames is an alloy of aluminum, lead, cast iron, and depleted uranium. Their entire line-up is 5-20 pounds heavier than their competitors' models. And no matter what anyone may try to tell you, weight DOES matter, even for recumbents. But their components are generally good, and they have the advantage of being available to every shop in the country which uses the J&B catalog - which is almost every shop in the country.

If you're shopping for low price, which I don't necessarily recommend, you should look at Performer. You can order over the Internet, and they have a lot of happy customers in the US.
https://www.performercycles.com/recu...trike-jc20-al/