ICE Recumbent Trike Gearing Options

We also have a short crank chainset available for riders with shorter legs or with knee or hip issues which is 152mm rather than the more standard 170mm. The short cranks reduce the size of the circle that your foot tracks through the pedal rotation and by doing this they reduce the range of angles that your knees and hips go through. We chose a short crank chainset with small chainrings as the smaller levers mean you need smaller gears.

Bar end shifters are standard on most of our non e-assist trikes. They work extremely well on our vertical handlebars that are  used on our trikes. You can precicely select and change to the gear you need by pushing or pulling the lever on top of the handlebars forwards or backwards. Forwards to select a lower gears, backwards to select a higher gears. Depending on your chosen gearing set up you will have one or two bar end shifters on your trike.

Hub gear systems are low maintenance, simple to operate and ideal for touring riders. Some offer fully automatic gear shifting. One of the greatest advantages of a hub gear system is the ability to shift gears while at a standstill so that if you have to come to a sudden stop there is no need to pull away in too high of a gear. This is a great advantage for people with knee injuries as it reduces the strain on the joints. We have three main hub gear options:

Forget gears, simply pedal and go. The Enviolo Hub features truly fully automatic gear shifting technology and is available on Shimano STEPS EP8 20" and 26" rear wheel trikes. The system lets you focus on what’s important, like enjoying your ride. Simply set your desired cadence once (how many pedal rotations feel comfortable for you) and the Enviolo Hub will constantly adjust its internal gear ratio to maintain a steady smooth cadence regardless of the speed or riding conditions that you encounter. If you ride uphill it will adjust to a lower gear ratio for you and if you ride downhill it will do the opposite.

Watch the Enviolo Automatiq Hub Gearing Video below.

The Automatiq Hub uses stepless gear changing technology to automatically maintain the correct gear ratio for you regardless of the conditions. Forget gears, simply set once and off you go. The hub is ideal for riders who are distracted by traditional bike gear changing. You can even to pull away from a standstill if you have to stop quickly. Reliable and maintenance free riding.

The hub has near silent operation and can shift under a full load. You don’t even have to slow down or stop pedalling while it operates. It has a good gear range of 380% which is suited to most leisure and touring rides. For example, pedalling at a steady 65 rpm the hub will maintain a speed of between 5 and 20mph. It’s ideal for hilly riding conditions that require gear changing under full load. The system can be easily adjusted while riding using the Bluetooth Smartphone App. Simply turn on, set your STEPS power assist level, pedal and go. 

The Rohloff is available with a twist shifter and not a bar end shifter as with our derailleur gearing, we modify the standard Rohloff shifter so that the whole grip is rotated to make shifting very ergonomic and simple. Just twist one way for harder gears and the other way for easier gears, there is nothing else to consider. The big advantage of the Rohloff hib is the ability to change gear while pedalling. This is done with the cranks in the up and down position while pedalling, when there is less pressure on the cranks. The Rohloff hub is available on our Shimano STEPS e-assist trikes.

The Shimano Alfine 8 speed hub gear has around the same gear range as a standard 9 speed cassette so it works very well when combined with a triple front chainset. This gives a similar range to a standard derailleur system with the rear gearing being enclosed and lower maintenance.

The Alfine 8 speed hub uses either a bar end shifter to change gear on a non e-assist trike or on a Shimano STEPS e-assist trike you can choose electronic Di2 push button controls. Automatic gear shifting is also an option on a shimano STEPS equipped trike using an Alfine hub, giving the rider a simple pedal and go experience if you select auto on the STEPs controller.