Trikes ask for parts a two-wheeled e-bike never needs: a rear differential, brakes that stop three tires instead of two, parking brakes, a reverse gear, and a high payload rating for cargo. All of those pieces have to come together well for a trike to be worth owning.
The Mooncool TK2 is a folding, Class 2 electric trike that has each of those features, at just $1,499, and the question I had going in was whether Mooncool put it together well or just checked the boxes.
Short answer: they put it together, and this one surprised me with how much I enjoyed riding it (for a trike). Below I get into what the TK2 feels like on pavement and on dirt, how the 500W motor handled our Black Hill climb and our long brake-fade descent, the 36.78 miles we pulled out of the 720Wh battery on max assist, where the component package lands for the money, and what the 3.5-inch color display will and will not let you adjust. I finish with the model options and who I think this trike is built for.
My Experience Riding the Mooncool TK2
Ride Quality Score: 6.5 / 10
The thing I keep coming back to is how much I enjoyed riding this trike, which I did not expect walking in. The TK2 rides slow, steady, and controlled. Nothing about it feels nervous or twitchy, and that is the whole point for the person buying one. A lot of riders come to trikes because of balance or mobility concerns, and the last thing they want is something that takes off like a rocket ship.
On pavement and paved trail, comfort comes down to geometry and touch points, and Mooncool got the geometry right. I sit straight upright with my legs slightly in front of me rather than straight down, and at 5’11” and 185 lbs the reach fits me really well.
It is a proper upright cruiser position.
The handlebar is close to flat with a small amount of sweep, which is how I like to ride since my wrists stay straight instead of kinking off to the side. Riders who want a swept-back Dutch-style bar will feel differently about that, so call it a preference.
The saddle is a pleasant surprise. I have a hard time with trike saddles, because the wide comfort shape catches the back of my leg at the bottom of the pedal stroke and forces me to run the seat lower than I want. This foam seat does not do that, so I was able to keep my leg extension, and the backrest lets me sit back and relax on longer stretches.
One note on comfort: the front fork (40mm) is more on the firm side. In fact, I have to get out of the saddle and push down on the bar to get it to compress fully, so it does not smooth out road chatter quite the way a softer fork would. However, the fork does a good job of keeping the front wheel on the ground, and still takes off most of the edge from bumps and rocks in the road.
That trade works in Mooncool’s favor once you load the baskets, because the front end stays composed and controllable instead of soft and diving, and the 3-inch tires pick up some of the cushioning slack.
The TK2 also turns well. I pushed it through sharp corners at the full 15.5 mph while leaning over hard and it held on, though I would not ride a trike that way (nor do I recommend anyone else to do so). It is about an inch narrower than other trikes we have had in, which makes doorways and a crowded garage far easier, and I felt no handling penalty from the narrower rear track. Reverse takes care of the rest of the tight-space work.
Off-road, it handles better than I expected. On dirt roads and grass the semi-knobby tires find traction and the fork takes the bite off the bumps.
Take it slow, though. At 15 mph off-road I feel every hit, and with no rear suspension the back wheels skip and lose grip. My recommendation is to ride at a max of 8-9 mph if you’re off-roading. Remember – uneven ground asks for more care on three wheels than two, since a slant or a bump hits one rear wheel and not the other.
Two things would make it ride and pedal better. I’d like to see an adjustable stem, and I’d love it if the backrest adjusted fore and aft, not just up and down. And know that the single gear spins out around 11 to 13 mph on flats, so most riders will settle in near 10 or 11 mph in Sport or reach for the throttle at those speeds.
Power (Motor)
Hill Score: 5.5 / 10
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The TK2 runs a 500W nominal rear hub motor that peaks at 1,092W with 65 Nm of torque, and pairs with an FOC 20-amp controller. At 500W, there are a few more powerful trikes on the market (for reference, the Lectric XP Trike is also 500W, the Velotric Triker is 750W). Fortunately, if you want a Mooncool trike AND a 750W motor, then you can get the TK2 Pro.
On our Black Hill test, which is about 0.35 miles of long, steep climbing that gets brutal at the end, the TK2 made it to the top both pedaling and on throttle.
- On throttle alone it took 137 seconds at a 9.1 mph average and bottomed out at 5.4 mph on the steepest pitch.
- Pedaling was a touch quicker at 132 seconds and a 9.5 mph average, bottoming out around 6 mph while I soft pedaled the whole climb.
No, the TK2 didn’t burn rubber going up the hill – but trikes aren’t meant to do so and their results are always slower when you compare vs commuters and many other types e-bikes. This is the first trike we have run up Black Hill, so I cross-referenced our numbers against the trike hill data our colleagues at Electric Bike Report have collected. Overall, the TK2 performed capably, and right in line either other 500W e-trikes they have tested.
One part I want to underline for anyone with knee or mobility issues: you can soft pedal up a grade like the Black Hill in Turbo without standing up or having to crank hard on the pedals.
Casually riding/cruising around, I was very impressed with the responsiveness of the motor – no abrupt on-off, no rocket-ship launch, and when I stop pedaling the power drops off right away with no over-run to manage. For a rider who is nervous about balance, that smooth, controlled behavior matters more than a peak wattage number.
One side note: Mooncool went with a cadence sensor rather than a torque sensor. While I usually push brands towards torque sensors, I think the TK2 is fine with a cadence sensor – at least for riders who want the motor doing most of the work. In addition, while you won’t get quite as much of a workout as you would with a torque sensor, you still get more of a workout then sitting at home.
Range / Battery
Range Score: 7.5 / 10
Min Assist: n/a
Max Assist: 36.78 Miles
The TK2 carries a 48V 15Ah battery, which works out to 720Wh of capacity, and Mooncool quotes a range of 35 to 75 miles.
In our max power range test, we covered 36.78 miles, landing right on top of Mooncool’s 35-mile low-end number. Those miles came at a test-rider weight of 220 lbs for the first 80%, and then 155 lbs for the remainder.
We think Mooncool has done a good job in terms of range on the TK2 – 36 miles is a good distance, especially when you are capped at 12mph.
(Note: We do not run minimum-assist range tests on trikes. In Eco a trike is slow enough that the test eats the entire day, and doing that in 110-degree heat is brutal. So we ran max assist only.)
Charging is where I would spend a little extra. The included 2-amp charger takes about seven and a half hours from empty, and Mooncool offers a 5-amp charger as an upgrade. The battery also comes off the trike, so apartment and condo riders can carry it inside to charge.
Components
Components Score: 6.0 / 10
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On a $1,499 trike, I care about the trike-specific parts first. Get the differential, the brakes, the parking brake, and the frame right and I will forgive a basic drivetrain. Miss those and no amount of nice cockpit hardware saves it. Mooncool spent the money in the right places here, and the components I would call out are these:
- Rear differential. Check! It does the job I described earlier by letting each rear wheel spin at its own speed through a corner.
- Star Union hydraulic disc brakes. 180mm rotors front and rear, and Mooncool went with 2.3mm rotor thickness instead of the usual 1.8mm to handle the weight this trike can carry. They are also mineral oil, so any shop can bleed them. Both levers include a parking brake lock, which you will use more than you expect.
- Chaoyang 20 x 3.0 tires. Light knobs on double-wall alloy rims with stainless spokes. This, combined with the front fork lets you ride grass and dirt roads instead of staying stuck on pavement.
- The cockpit layout. The control pod, reverse button, and horn stack together on the left so you never take a hand off the bar to reach them, and the whole cluster angles to fit different hand sizes.
The frame is alloy with a folding hinge in the middle, is rated for 450 lbs, and weighed in at 95.7 lbs on our scale. Folded, it measures 39.4 by 28.7 by 26.8 inches. One thing to know before you buy it as a travel trike: with the front basket installed you can only fold it into a V shape. To get it all the way down you pull the front wheel, which is a quick release, and take the front basket off too.
The drivetrain is a single speed with a 36T chainring and an 18T freewheel. Nothing to shift, nothing to adjust, and no derailleur to knock out of alignment, which suits the rider this trike is built for. Mooncool geared it low enough to climb, and the cost is the ghost pedaling I ran into above 11 or 12 mph. This is probably my biggest complaint about the TK2, and I do think it would be good for Mooncool to consider increasing the gear range so riders don’t ghost pedal. A lot of people ride trikes for exercise, so I’d like to see this updated on future models.
The fork is a forged alloy unit with 40mm of travel on a quick-release dropout axle. That dropout makes folding easier, but I would still take a through axle for the front-end stiffness.
Up front Mooncool used a half-twist throttle rather than a thumb throttle. I normally argue for a thumb throttle, but on a trike where you cruise at a steady speed with your wrist relaxed, the twist works great.
The other nitpicks I have with the TK2 are small:
- The metal fenders rattle a bit, though I understand why Mooncool used metal since it lets them color-match six paint options.
- The plastic knob that clamps the backrest feels thin, and moving the backrest up or down is not precise.
- Cable routing into the top tube is busy and could be tidier.
None of these change the value picture. For $1,499 you get a certified battery, hydraulic brakes with thick rotors, a real differential, lights and turn signals, and two steel baskets, which is a solid package for a trike at this price.
Screen / User Interface / App
Screen / App Score: 6.5 / 10
The Mooncool TK2 comes with a 3.5-inch full-color TFT display, mounted in the center of the BMX-style handlebars. It is anti-reflective, rated up to 1,500 nits, sealed to IPX5, and spec’d to work from -4 to 158 degrees Fahrenheit (I kind of found it funny that they talk about such extreme temps, especially since I was already melting riding this around in 105 degree heat).
There is no app for this trike, which means everything gets adjusted from the screen. No pairing ritual, no login, and no scenario where you cannot change a setting because you left your phone at home.
The advanced menu lets you adjust screen brightness, an auto-off timer (I leave mine at five minutes), miles or kilometers, wheel size, the speed limit, and a password lock. There is a battery page with voltage and charge cycles, an HMI page that is there for a shop or tech support, and a trip reset.
You can run the TK2 with three assist levels and a 12 mph cap, or five levels with a 15.5 mph cap. If you are new to a trike, start in the three-level, 12 mph mode. There are things you have to learn about riding one of these, and you can move up once you are comfortable.
One quirk to know: if you are in Turbo and you switch down to the three-level mode, the trike gives you nothing until you click down to Sport, and it will not let you climb back up. It takes about two seconds to sort out, and is a little glitch I’d like to see updated on future models.
Bike Model Options
The TK2 comes one way: one frame size, one low-step folding frame style, fitted to riders from 5’0″ to 6’3″. That is a wide range for a single frame, and between the seat post drop and the height-adjustable stem we found that the trike did actually fit that range of rider heights (we have one team member who is 6’3″, and he was comfortable).
Where Mooncool did give you choices is paint. Six colors: Vibrant Orange, Cyan Green, Slate Gray, White, Serenity Blue, and Lavender Purple, all at the same $1,499.99 sale price against a $2,099.99 MSRP. Six options at one price is generous at this end of the market, where a lot of brands hand you black and one other color and call it good.
The upgrade I would spend money on is the 5-amp fast charger. If you ride daily and pull the battery inside every night, cutting a seven-and-a-half-hour charge roughly in half is worth it. Mooncool also sells a trike cover, a tricycle carrier rack for hauling it behind a vehicle, plus a trailer and a pet carrier that mount to the trike. It ships 90% pre-assembled with the tools included, and it carries a one-year warranty with free replacement parts and a 30-day return window.
Mooncool has a deeper trike lineup if the TK2 is not the right shape for you. The TK Pro sits at $1,699.99 and the TK2 Pro at $1,999.99, and the FT1 fat tire trike comes in under the TK2 at $1,349.99. Trikes are this brand’s specialty, so it is worth looking at the whole range before you buy.
Is the Mooncool TK2 Worth Buying?
Mooncool did a really good job with the TK2, especially when you consider it’s priced (currently) right at $1,499.
Everything a trike needs is here. The rear differential keeps you balanced through turns, the parking brakes hold it still, reverse gets you out of a garage or a tight spot, the brakes handle a long, hard descent without fading, and the payload rating means you can load it up.
So who is it for?
- The person who has not been on a bike in 20 or 30 years and has never touched an electric one.
- The rider who took a spill on two wheels and does not want to risk another.
- Anyone dealing with balance or mobility limits, since you can soft pedal this trike up a steep hill in Turbo without needing to push hard at all.
- Riders who need to haul groceries, garden supplies, or a dog.
- RV and camping folks who need it to fold, with the caveat that a full fold means pulling the front wheel and the front basket, and that 95.7 pounds is not a one-person lift into an SUV.
Who should look elsewhere?
Anyone who wants to pedal faster than 12 mph and get a workout at that speed. The single gear will spin out on you, and you’ll find yourself keeping to 12mph. Same goes for real off-road riding. Dirt roads and grass at 8 or 9 mph, yes. Anything rougher, no.
The things I would like Mooncool to fix are the kind that make a good trike better: a through-axle front fork for front-end stiffness, a backrest that slides fore and aft with a sturdier clamp, and cleaner cable routing up front. None of them stopped me from enjoying this trike, and it surprised me how much I enjoyed riding it around.
If you are shopping for an electric trike in this price range, the TK2 belongs on your list. Two thumbs up, Mooncool.
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