Trident Titan Trike

I’ve been riding my Titan for several years and am very impressed with it. I have put a couple of thousand miles on it. Also, I am at the top end of it’s rider weight range. It is very tough, dead reliable with minimum maintenance, and folds to stash in the back of my Equinox. Great trike.

Order & Delivery

Ordered the Titan Trike 1/1/2020. The order status was in pending shipping until after delivery by FedEx freight on 1/15/2020.

The trike arrived in a heavy duty box w/o damage. The trident fender & rack kit was in a separate box.

Assembly:

I enjoy assembling and adjusting bikes, so I chose to do that myself. I spent many fun hours getting the bike just right for me. If you don't enjoy this, I highly recommend getting either Industrial Bicycles or your Local Bike Shop to do this for you.

Delivery of the Bike was 90% assembled. The 90/10 rules suggests that 90% of the work is in the last 10%. Not sure if that is the case here, but it might be true.

The bike arrived collapsed into a large box. It was heavily zip tied to prevent damage. Also places which may rub were covered with card board.

There were no instructions. There are online videos of bike shops assembling the titan.

Unpacking and initial assembly was pretty straight forward.

I missed the fact that the fender and rack kit came with hardware. There was a small bag taped to the inside of the box I missed. I ended up buying hardware, but what they provided was nicer.

The fender assembly required changing the orientation of the handlebar uprights. As shipped, mine arrived with the bars bending towards me. These needed to be rotated 180 degrees so that the didn't interfere with the fender supports.

The bike needed a lot of initial adjustments:
+ Spoke tensioned (they were too loose when they arrived)
+ Deraileur adjustments
+ Disc brake alignment and adjustment

The seat is tightened with a plastic handled skewer. If I tightened this as far as I could by hand, the seat would still squeak. There are reports in other forums of peoples seat becoming detached and them landing on the ground. They reported a bike shop replacing the skewer with a quick release skewer. I have placed an order for a 74mm quick release skewer which hopefully work better. By my measurements that seems to be the closest size.

In the mean time I looked closer and saw the skewer that came with the bike has a hex shape. I was able to get a wrench on it. This allowed it to be tightened sufficiently so the seat no longer squeaks. It is much more secure.

The flag rattles as shipped. I put part of a small rubber band in the bottom of the flag mount hole. I also wedged another piece of rubber band beside the flag post as I pushed it into the flag mount hole. This seems to have solved the rattle.

The seat comes with a bracket on the back to attach a water bottle. I found it inconvenient because I couldn't reach while riding. I moved it beneath the seat. That has its own issues. It is too horizontal. I dropped one water oversized bottle during a ride. I have kept it there, but have stopped using that particular bottle. I am wondering if zip tying to the frame in front of the seat might be a better option.

Comfort:

I have owned a Schwinn recumbent exercise bike for years. It is way more comfortable than an upright bike. However the Schwinn always irritated the back of my legs when at full pedal extension.

The Titan seat is much more comfortable. There is no leg irritation. There are almost a dozen separate straps which can be individually adjusted. After the first few rides, I selectively tightened a few straps. This was able to give me better lumbar support.

I have owned the bike now about 1 month. I have put just over 200 miles on it. I was never uncomfortable.

Gearing:

I was worried that the Titan gearing might be geared too low. With the 20' wheels the high end gearing is much lower than my 700c road bike. However, I live in a fairly hilly area. I find I need the lowest gear to climb local hills. (Including my driveway). The high end gear is sufficient for me to reach 25 MPH. On a steep descent that is sometimes not sufficient to keep productively pedaling, but it is pretty rare. And inevitably the descent will end in another climb.

Being on a recumbent it is more important to downshift the front derailleur before hitting a hill. First, you have less power from the reclining position. Second the front derailleur simply will not down shift under power.

Suspension:

I am used to riding a road bike with high pressure tires (115 psi). So by default I have inflated Titan's tires to their maximum reccomended pressure of 70 psi.

My first descent down a steep incline, I hit an aggressive speed bump I wasn't expecting. The jolt was larger than I expected. In a recumbent, you have less ability to make the bike glide over bumps (stand w/ all weight on the pedals on a road bike). I can see why some may choose a lower pressure inflation or an active suspension.

Compared to competitors for 400# weight limit:

The Titan will comfortably support my weight. It is in a fairly small group of competitors which support riders up to 400#. (The typical road bike is 250#, most trikes are either 250# or 275#).

The Magnum is a nicer bike at a much higher price. I am happy to save the money now.

The Rover is a lower priced option. The limited default gearing makes this insufficient for my hilly area. The front crank can be upgraded to a planetary gear system. This is somewhat appealing. The upgrade makes it competitive with the Titan pricing. Overall the pricey upgrade seemed a bit suspicious. Aesthetically I still preferred the traditional round/elliptical tubing of the Titan to Rover's rectangular frame.

I bought my trike off of Craigslist. It is an awesome trike for a large person. I am in excess of 275 lbs (usual weight limit for most trikes) and have both foot and hand issues so I couldn't ride a standard bike. After trying a recumbent LWB bike, I fell in love with the recumbent style and I wanted a folding trike to be able to carry it in my car - not just on a rack. I have been riding it now for about a year and really enjoy it. The trike is well made and the frame feels really solid - even when I hit a bump. I have had no warranty issues (even though it was a "used" bike) and, when I called Trident Trikes to try out a Titan long before I found the trike on CL, they were very glad to help me out.

<p>The Trident Titan is one of the few trike on the market that is built for heavier people. I have had my Trident Titan for about one month and have been please so far. When I purchased my Titan I was 420 Lbs but am on my way down to hopefully around 350 Lbs. As far as I am aware of the Titan is the only Recumbent Tadpole style trike for people over 325 Lbs. The Titan is wider that most other trikes it fits me or larger rider better than other trikes. I like the more straight across handlebars better than the handlebars at your side. I also think that Trident Trikes did a very good job at designing a heavy duty seat fabric that has a lot of straps to support my weight. The seat fabric is breathable and comes with a small amount of padding. The seat height is adjustable and the seat can be adjusted from fairly laid back to fairly upright. You can tell that Trident built this trike from the ground up for a larger heaver person. The spokes in the wheel are heavy duty extra thick and no other recumbent manufactured use heavy duty spokes on their wheels. I also like that the trike has a 20” rear wheel rather than a 26” wheel. The 20” wheel is way stronger than a 26” wheel, folds smaller and gives the trike a lower gear ratio for up hills. The folding frame is nice but a bit awkward because you have to lift the trike up and fold the rear wheel under rather than folding the rear wheel over the top like on other brands.</p>