Peter Godlewski, inventor of the ($3,299), has gotten used to the befuddled grins he gets from other riders when he rolls up on his ridiculous-looking e-trike, with its massive—dare we say goofy?—4.8-inch front tires. “This is not a bicycle,” he tells them. “This is an ATV.”
Our testing backs that up. Designed for rumbling over sand and snow, the 90-pound beast had us charging up steep hills like we were red-lining a monster truck. Cruising fire roads full of rocks and pumice in Mammoth Lakes, California, was pure fun. Those double fatties up front offer a trifecta of performance advantages, providing float on gravel and in powdery glades, making crashing almost impossible, and enabling enormous GS turns on Mammoth’s Main Street. On dry pavement, leaning into a 90-degree turn meant flying one front wheel off the ground.
We also had a blast cruising the boulevards of Los Angeles, where the 2,100-watt pedal-assist motor let us cruise at up to 28 miles per hour, making it easier to stay abreast of traffic. Ridiculous? Yes. Ridiculously entertaining? Hell yes.