http://www.ctc.org.uk/blog/suzanne-forup/on-two-wheels-my-new-bike-accessory-%E2%80%93-toddler
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Resources
"cycling again with my toddler"
(13 posts)-
Posted 11 years ago #
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I love seeing todders bright eyes taking in all that is new on the rear of a bike! I do wonder though when some parents ride with a massive rucksac on, with toddler in the rear, face wedged against the bag! Get panniers people!!
Posted 11 years ago # -
My toddler loves being in the bike seat & howls if he (very occasionally) has to go in the car
Posted 11 years ago # -
DaveC - as someone whose child will soon be old enough to ride in a seat, I would love to combine panniers & infant, but haven't been able to find a solution that allows this. Are you (or anyone else) aware of any?
Posted 11 years ago # -
@BenN MrSRD resolved this problem by getting a secondhand hamax seat, and small panniers. won't work with fullsize ones, but the EBC cheapest work fine.
I've also seen a number of childseat mounted bikes with front panniers, but I think that would be tricky to load.
Posted 11 years ago # -
@BenN - I'm sure I saw a specific rack/child seat/pannier set from one of the Scandinavian companies a few years ago. Very pricey, as I recall, and the panniers had a fold down corner for use with the child seat, so had slightly reduced capacity with a seat attached.
<wanders off to check>
Yep - it was the Hamax Plus (review) however they appear to have discontinued the panniers, although retaining something similar in terms of rack/seat combination.
As already suggested, any of the "springy" seats can be tweaked to work with a rack, but care needs to be taken with mounting to ensure that the seat doesn't hit the rack, and there will be restrictions on the pannier size and positioning.
The other option is to go for a front carrier to keep the rack free, but these only work for small children (unless the bike is specially designed for this purpose) - you can't get your arms/knees around a bigger child who could still fit a rear mounted seat.
And then there are trailers...
Robert
Posted 11 years ago # -
Sorry BenT, we have just thrown out an old Himax type seat, you could have had! We got it for a fiver at the local car boot sale. I still have a spare clamp if you want to be able to swap the seat between bikes without the use of an allen key and 15 minutes! I'll bring it in to work tomorrow if anyone wants it.
Rear seats do tend to have a little spring in them, but I prefer these in Roibeard's link as they appear to fasten to the rack?
Oh and very important/helpfull!! I bought and fitted a sturdy bike stand for Josie's bike when we got the seat. **** I would not recomend leaving the child in the seat with the bike standing unattended **** but they are handy for parent to have the bike resting on the stand while you pop the wee one in the rear seat.
Posted 11 years ago # -
We have a Bobike childseat with panniers beneath- there is also a Bobike seat fro smaller children on the front but you do need a sturdy built-for-it bike- they love it though!
Posted 11 years ago # -
My wee lad loved his bobike front seat from c. 6m-12m
Made it much easier for MrSRD to also use taglong and/or panniers. but I don't see how people use them for much bigger kids.
Posted 11 years ago # -
We used teh Bobike front seat complete with windscreen (I've swallowed many a fly sucked over the top!) until ours were around 2 years - then put them onto the back which is a much larger seat. They complain as they much prefer being in front but they fit into the back seat until age 4/5 or so. I far preferred them on the front as the weight is much easier to handle. For a little while I had one on front one on back....didn't get very far...
Posted 11 years ago # -
To manage bike seat and panniers I got a front seat too - a Weeride in my case.
Hardly notice it's there from a weight distribution point of view... but having to pedal like a frog is a bit of a downside. Fine for the drop offs I do - wouldn't like to go any real distance though.Posted 11 years ago # -
I still have a Bobike front seat that my kids are too big for- £20?.
Posted 11 years ago #
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