My first child has just turned six months and I am looking to get a stroller and/or bike trailer. I have gratefully read other threads on the subject and realised the critical thing for me will be whether I want a stroller that can double as a trailer, like the Chariot, or go with a pure jogger, like the Babyjogger.
A potential alternative to a bike trailer is to get a baby seat for my cyclocross. Does anyone have experience doing training rides with a baby seat on the bike? My worry is that a baby seat will be less comfortable for my daughter than a trailer would be. I have also heard that bike handling is affected quite badly with a seat. I am primarily thinking about <2 hr zone 1-2 sessions.
Hey,
For the baby seat, in the unlikely event that you fall, think of the height that the child will fall from, and the speed at which their head would impact the ground. I think they should be banned.
We use a Chariot for behind the bikes, pretty comfy for the kids, lots of room etc. We already owned a good walk/run stroller so we bought a base model Chariot that only goes behind the bike. The really great Chariots are the ones that convert from bike to stroller, and the strollers can be modified to run really well, and I would buy this one next time.
Martin
My daughter loves her trailer, or buggy as she calls it. There’s enough room for her to bring a bunch of toys, and there’s a cover to keep the sun off her if needed. The safety factor is enough reason alone to get a trailer.
We put a baby seat on my wife’s cruiser. Much like the first reply, we were told that we were crazy for even thinking about putting a baby seat on a bike, however every bike store still sold them??? Go figure. Anyhow, we felt that we grew up on the back of our parents bikes and seats/helmets are much more safe now than they were 30 years ago. Now my wife and I are really just using this for a 2-3 mile ride down to a park and back so we feel safe using the baby seat in our area of the woods. We also have a tow behind double trailer for both kids and we’ve used it about 2 times. The kids don’t like it at all and we feel like we are constantly telling them to quite fighting. For reference we have a 4 yr old and 2 yr old. We started using the baby seat when the youngest was about 8 months or so.
I’ve got a Baby jogger (20" Performance) and a Chariot. The Chariot is great for traveling, it does it all, running, walking and biking as well as snowshoeing. As long as you buy all the wheels and attachments it’s amazing. I love the Chariot for cycling but not so much for running, the baby jogger is way better.
On the safety issue; I rolled the Chariot behind my bike once, I don’t know how it happened but somehow it did. I was terrified but my son, 13 months at the time, was laughing.
Unless you’re going to use a chariot for all it’s abilities I would recomend a great jogging stroller and a stand alone trailer.
Worst case senerio(true Story). Parents both avid cyclists, and bike shop owners, out for a nice ride with thier child. The wife was pulling the trailer. She was hit from behind by a distracted teenager speeding in a Pickup. her bike was totaled, the trailer was ruined. She couldn’t walk for 4 months and ride for over a year due to her injuries. The child had just a few bruises and was laughing.
They never sold another child carrier after that day. This happened about 13 years ago.
I had both. I used the trailer on roads and flat trails - and the seat on more agressive trails. Both worked well and my son was comfortable enough to fall asleep. The seat was a more expensive design that really strapped him in very securely. His head was well protected and unless I had done an endo it would have been very difficult for any injuries to occur. He always had a helmet on in either situation. I actually did flip over the Burley one time, but because he was securely strapped in nothing at all happened.
I think I used the seat until he was about 4 and the Burley until about 6. Our longest outing was about a 40 miles ride in the Burley, but I used the seat for rides of an hour or so fairly regularly. The seat does make the bike handle differently and I was never trying to ride real fast or hard.
As the father of two young kids, I would never even consider using a baby seat on a bike. Everyone has crashed or will crash at some point in their cycling career. With a little kid on the back, I think you’d be more likely to go down and even just falling over could have very bad results.
I also wouldn’t use a bike trailer, except perhaps on closed roads or trails. Too many cyclists have episodes with cars or get clipped from behind. Maybe I’m too risk averse but while I don’t mind taking the chance with myself, I wouldn’t do it with my kids. Of course if I had access to closed roads or trails a trailer might be more viable.
I’d personally get a good jogging stroller and use the trainer if you can’t get out to ride…
I got mine for 5 bucks at a garage sale, it worked just fine. I had mad a burley solo when we had just one child, it’s nice but takes up a lot of room. The child seat makes your bike handle poorly but I like being closer to my daughter so we can chit chat. It’s also nice for hauling fireword when camping. The Merckx is rated to tow 5000 with a class 3 and electric brakes.
I usually ride in the neighborhood using sidewalks or on side streets with little to no car traffic
It seems like the seat I have is more comfortable than the trailer. You can sit upright and are vary supported plus the wind is blocked for the passenger.
The trailer I have is an inexpensive, fairly heavy one but similar design to many I have seen. But when the kids are in it, they almost seem like they are reclined and don’t look really comfortable. Since we may go 2 miles max to the neighborhood park, this is not a big deal. But with them being a few feet from the back wheel, they have gotten junk in their face / eyes before. So if you do the trailer, make sure the kids have eye protection / sunglasses on.
I have found that putting the smaller kid (3 year old less than 30 lbs) in the seat and the 5 year old (about 40 lbs) in the trailer is the best combo and does not result in any fights as the above post indicates
OH BOY. That makes my kid seem HUGE at 10 months old and 28 lbs!!! He is really long though and has a big head to fit his mother’s intellect and his father’s ego.
That turns my stomach. I ride mostly neighborhood roads and in the park with my kid, but I do venture out sometimes. Scary. But I was not born to sit on my couch because its safe. I would rather my kids get run over by a car while living a active life than to stay indoors and never do anything that involves risk. But that still makes my skin crawl. I know how easy it could happen.
BTW, I know of several people who have rolled trailers with kids in them. Each of them said it was terrifying but the kid was laughing the whole time. It still scares me though.
t
Worst case senerio(true Story). Parents both avid cyclists, and bike shop owners, out for a nice ride with thier child. The wife was pulling the trailer. She was hit from behind by a distracted teenager speeding in a Pickup. her bike was totaled, the trailer was ruined. She couldn’t walk for 4 months and ride for over a year due to her injuries. The child had just a few bruises and was laughing.
They never sold another child carrier after that day. This happened about 13 years ago.
IIRC they don’t recommend helmets for kids <1 year old, I believe because their neck muscles are not able to control the motion of the helmeted head. This is not my area of expertise though (and, come to think of it, I am not sure what my area of expertise even is!!!) but it’s something to look into.
Also, x2 on the no child seat thing. I used one with my oldest son and he survived it, but I’d never do it again. If the bike falls over with a trailer the kid doesn’t even notice, but if it falls over and he’s in the seat, he’s gonna hit the ground with a dull thud. Not good.
Also, x2 on the no child seat thing. I used one with my oldest son and he survived it, but I’d never do it again. If the bike falls over with a trailer the kid doesn’t even notice, but if it falls over and he’s in the seat, he’s gonna hit the ground with a dull thud. Not good.
I’m surprised at some of the people I see using bike seats, people who look like they can barely handle a bike as it is. I’m very comfortable on a bicycle and can handle one just fine, but that baby seat is a bit of a handful for me, especially starting and stopping, etc. I think for a novice rider, a trailer is a far better setup.
Thanks a lot for all the replies, please keep them coming.
It seems safety is the main concern with the child seat. Interestingly enough, this is not something I have heard a lot around where I live, which is Stockholm, Sweden (which, in general is a very safety concerned country). Here you see people biking in the city with their child in a seat, or even with one seat in the back and one in front, all the time. Granted, most do so mainly for shorter rides to kindergarten etc, but still. You rarely see people use trailers.
I will do most of my cycling on bike paths, at least the longer rides.
28 pounds at 10 months…wow that is a healthy baby!
Our first child was 25 pounds at around 10 months old but then started walking and hit a plateau weight-wise. She stayed at the weight for about a year but grew taller; she is our “solid” kid. My little guy feels like he has holllow bones compared to his sister!
I agree with you about the whole couch / safety thing. I have good bike handling skills and at no time have I felt like what I do is unsafe.
I’m glad I found this thread. I was debating the seat vs. trailer, and the advice here is good. But now I have some questions for the trailer advocates. I live in Oregon, and where I ride are mostly country roads with little or no shoulders. There are a few area that I ride that the edge of the road is an inch outside of the paint. I worry about the logistics of a trailer on roads like this. I know I have the right to road, but there are a LOT of clueless drivers.
What have people found with the trailers? Are drivers a little more aware of the trailer, because I have had some close calls when it is just me, and I ride on that paint line, not 2 feet inside it. What happens if the trailer puts a tire off the pavement. Insta-crash?
I miss biking, and now that my son is one, I want to get back on the bike and share the outdoors with him. Am I better off taking him in the jog stroller and use the bike trainer? His health and safety win out over my desire to bike.
I’ve used both. The bike mounted seat really changes the handling on the bike but it does keep the child closer to you and therefore lets you interact without yelling back at the trailer. The trailer is easier in terms of handling. The one thing I would recommend is that the trailer have the guard across the wheels so that you can’t hook a sign post or other object–that could be disasterous. Other than that, it’s like pulling a trailer behind your car–acceleration and braking are slower and you have to allow for the trailer in judging distances, etc. Overall, I liked the Burley trailer I used better than the bike seat which came with a rack and quick release. The Burley adapted to a jogger that worked very well although longer than the Ironman baby jogger I used. The Chariot comes with kits for adapting it to jogging or adding skis for dragging it while XC skiing or snowshoeing.
You are much more noticable with the trailer especially if you are using the brightly-colored flag that many of them come with. I have been lucky in both neighborhoods I lived in that the speed limit was low and most people drove like they were in a neighborhood (and the number of cars is relatively low - at our old house, sometimes you would only see a car every 20 minutes). Most times I have been passed by cars they swing wide and are not usually going more than 20 mph I would estimate. So, I think that the the trailer has a calming effect on most drivers (excluding clueless drivers that you justly reference).
As far as going offroad, my experience may not be realistic because the neighborhoods both go from pavement to grass; no curb or big drop-offs so the few times I got a wheel off the pavement it wasn’t really noticeable. Besides, in my trailer the kids are kinda suspended in a hammock-like seat that seems to absorb a lot of what the road throws at you. The center of gravity for the trailer is low as well so even if you have a close call, I would think any “crash” would really be more of a sudden and maybe bumpy stop.
For reference we have a 4 yr old and 2 yr old. We started using the baby seat when the youngest was about 8 months or so.