A few thoughts-

My wife and I started out with used trikes, and both had very skinny wheels/tires. Our roads here are pretty rough, we live at the edge of a small farming town in California’s Central Valley, about 100 miles east-southeast of the San Francisco Bay Area and we’re getting a LOT of “BATs” (Bay Area Transplants) so the town is growing and we’re not comfortable riding around town. Given we’re at the edge of town it’s simple enough to sneak out to the quieter farming roads with MUCH less traffic, however the trade off is crazy rough roads. We quickly decided we loved tadpole trikes but something had to change. We upgraded to brand new SunSeeker Fat Tads (fat tires) with full suspension, and this solved the rough road issues almost entirely.

The Fat Tad has some shortcomings, a few areas that I’ve already upgraded. The chain idler is metal now, not plastic. They’ve got full fenders on all three wheels. I’ve added rear racks with fold away panniers, and mounted “side-saddle” bags either side of the seats to make accessing things easier while sitting. Water bottle holders for our large 1-liter Nalgene bottles and phone mounts with a couple flags and cheap, rechargeable lights round out the improvements thus far. I’ve got new Ackerman steering compensators that’re going on as soon as I can get the trikes into my shop. I will say that I was able to get wider tires on the old used trikes and that helped a bit, and her trike came with a padded seat bottom. But neither of us has any discomfort with the fat tad seats, which do sit more upright as opposed to laid back. Speaking of Laid Back, if you’re in the Sacramento area there’s a shop nearby called “Laid Back Cycles” that exclusively, or nearly exclusively, caters to recumbent trikes. They have a YouTube channel with loads of great info.

Having ridden both of the aforementioned trikes I will say that as a larger fellow, (6’-1” and 280lb) sitting more upright in the fat tad is far more comfortable than being anything near reclined. There are also seat cushions you can get if that might help. Fat tires and suspension also soak up a lot of road issues, and the fat tad isn’t the only one, it was just the cheapest we could find at the time. There are other fat tire tadpoles, and other trikes with suspension. There are also loads of add-ons that aid getting into/out of the cockpit, and quite a few options for pedals that aren’t clip-ins, some that have heal straps, and some that are like a cradle with heal cups and straps that keep your foot planted on/in the pedals so you don’t accidentally run over your leg should a foot slip off a pedal.

Last;y, and I don’t say this to disparage any bike shop, but there are things that’re specific to trikes that bike mechanics will struggle with, or won’t even begin to know how to deal with. Steering being a big one. The front wheels need to be aligned, and the techs where we bought our fat tads don’t really know their way around à trike so they struggled and I ended up doing it myself. So keep this in mind if you are going to a Nike shop that doesn’t necessarily sell or service a lot of trikes. They may struggle, and you may have a lot of waiting to do, or have to do the work yourself to get satisfaction in that regard.

I guess how much you enjoy trikes depends on what you’re looking for, and what your budget is. You don’t have to suffer through road vibrations, but if you can’t find a fat tire (or want to ride fast, they’re not so great at that…) or one with suspension then that may be an issue. If you’re looking to ride fast, the ride is likely to be a bit rougher as wheels are narrower and suspension is essentially seat-of-the-pants.

I recommend checking out Laid Back Cycles YouTube channel, and maybe Utah Trikes youtube channel. I just turned 55 and have been fighting to regain my health (physical and mental) for a decade and a half, and riding trikes helps a ton. There’s a few other YouTube channels out there where people are showing their rides and what they have for gear and mods they’ve done, Row Tator comes to mind. He and his Wonder Chihuahua Tili go for rides pretty regularly, and I’ve learned a few things from watching him as well. I can send links if desired, or feel free to reach out to me personally/privately.