Recumbent trike recommendations
 

I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s no longer safe for me to ride a traditional bike on a daily basis.

im looking for a recumbent to run errands and do shopping using paved bike paths. I’m a big guy, 6’2” 315 lbs. the typical load would be a couple of bags of groceries.

any recommendations would be appreciated. The budget is 2k$ or less. E assist will be considered.
Ive got lights, bags and mirrors that can be repurposed. Used would be nice.

a bike shop can make something like that for you.

I would suggest one with indirect steering. it is like having power steering and less twitchy at speed.

At that weight, you're looking at a Sun (Sunseeker), a Greenspeed Magnum, or something industrial like a Workman. At $2000 or less, you're looking at used and eliminating the Greenspeed. The Sunseekers have a big advantage in that any bike shop that uses the standard J&B parts catalog can order one, no dealership required.

I recently purchased the Trident Spike 2. $1664 delivered. 24 speeds. am very happy with the Trident, and they make a version for heavy riders. http://tridenttrikes.com/jouta-delta/products/titan/. The minimal assembly required was not too much for this elderly lady. Don't buy Trident's rear rack though; I'm going to replace it it's short and not that great. A lot of other racks will fit, you'll just need to get extra long round stays. Anyway the Titan is about $2k delivered so on budget for you.

A lot of bike paths are not very recumbent trike friendly. I don't think 315 is that far above the weight limit of a Greenspeed Anura as to rule it out. In fact I know someone personally in that weight class that bought a Sun against my advice. It was impossible for them to get up the gentle slope of their driveway with it or to get it inside the shed where it was kept. Traded in at a loss and an Anura was purchased and it seemed to do the job. A used Anura (I don't think any more will be made) should be well under $2K.

It is also a matter of availability. If you search all CL for the Greenspeed Anura, only one shows up nationwide located in the Portland OR area. It was listed for $1,800 but dropped to $1,600 after not selling for about two weeks. A different search shows one available somewhere in SoCal for $1900. Greenspeed makes great trikes but was not up there is the top tier of how many were manufactured since it was pretty much a one man operation under the late Ian Sims. That means not a large selection on the used trike market.

There are only two trikes that I can find that list a maximum weight above 300 pounds. Remember the OP wishes to carry groceries so if you add that to his weight you are really pushing the limit for trikes rated at 300 pounds. While the Sun trikes are not great when it comes to weight and not the same quality as the GS trike, they are far more available on the used trike market . I'm not fan of overweight trikes but you get what you can find in your price range.

Greenspeed Anura - trike weight 39 pounds, weight limit 300 pounds MSRP varied from about $3K to $3.5K depending upon components
Sun Eco Tad - trike weight 46 pounds weight limit 300 pounds
The only trikes I see with weight limits over 300 pounds (both at 400 pounds) are the Trident Titan at 44 pounds and the Sun EZ3-USX at 65 pounds

I've seen the Sun trikes come up for sale on our local CL once in a while. It can be sourced by any bike shop even if they don't deal in recumbent which may be the reason it shows up more often than other brands.

I don't know what trike paths are like other than where I live and in the San Diego area but I can't recall any bike path I have encountered in either of those places that wasn't suitable for my recumbent trikes. They are certainly as wide and at 7 feet long, probably as long as anything the OP would buy.

Certainly all over the Bay Area I've been able to ride my tadpole Trident on bike paths. Sometimes I have to fold the side mirrors in to get between the stupid poles they put at entrances but other than that it's been a non-issue. The Trident Titan has a max limit of 400 lbs so that would easily cover OP and groceries. i have a steep driveway and having e-assist makes it easy to get up the driveway, even with my trailer full of Costco goodies.

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...069814c14a.jpg
Get a Used Greenspeed Magnum w a kids trailer .

There are a few Greenspeed Magnum trikes for sale used if you do a nationwide CL search. All but one located in the San Francisco area ($1500) are far above the $2K limit the OP wants to spend, The one near Detroit is $2,900. Since the Magnum is a folding version, it would be cheaper to ship but most sellers don't want to ship and most buyers are reluctant to spend that kind of money unless they can see the trike up close and ride it. I bought my own Greenspeed GTO from a seller near San Francisco on Bentrideronline without seeing it in person but he was a long-time poster on the site and gave me lots of information on the trike and I had ridden a similar GS trike owned by a friend.

Isnt it kind of dark for the kids in that box? :)

I know it is an older thread, but you might want to look at Ti-Trikes.

At least there appears to be some ventilation, but I'm not even sure if that's a GS Magnum pulling that kid's trailer ...

A recycled kids trailer might just open up other possibilities for a wider selection of tadpoles.

Get a Magnum.
Paid $1500 for mine.
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...6eaca1042a.jpg

When you followup to an older post it is often worthwhile to see if the person starting the post (OP) is still active on this site. The site records the last activity at the OP's public profile which can be reached by clicking on the OP's name at the top left of the post. If you do this for Nartker you will see even though the OP joined about 12 years ago has not been active on the site for half a year now. I'm pretty sure that means the OP hasn't logged on in 6 months. A lot of times I see two or three year old threads where the OP has never been back after the thread was started.

They always Sleep when I put them in there.