My daughter is nearly 2 and I’d like to start taking her out in a child seat fitted to my old fully rigid P7. Just quiet roads, round the park and towpaths – that kind of thing.

When I was a kid my dad had me in a seat on the cross bar which I loved then and like the idea of being able to protect her with my arms. Most seats seem to go on the back though now.

Any suggestions of which to buy and tips for use would be much appreciated. For example, do most of the ones on the back require a rack to be fitted first?

Cheers in advance

PL

Hamax, we’ve done some hundreds of miles with it and it rocks. If you have a small frame you need another mount – £10 from LBS.

Child no.1 and the cantilever seat was clamped to my seat down tube, there were no issues, other than the my heels clipping the seat foot wells, whilst it was fitted, although I did cry when I removed it, to see it had crimped my tube. Not a happy bunny.

Child no.2 and I bought another seat post and seat, fitted the same cantilever seat to the seat post and have had no issues, no further damage to my frame and it’s far enough away for me my heels not to clip the foot wells. This makes it a much quicker job to switch between child mode and singletrack mode.

two popular styles of rear seat are hamax and co-pilot.

hamax seats attach by a hefty clamp onto the seat tube as the only fixing point. although some people are initially disconcerted about the amount of “bounce” in the seat due to the mounting beams flexing, this actually provides a bit of suspension for the little passenger and makes for a comfortable ride.

the co-pilot seats fit onto a rack that you fit onto your bike. while this provides a more secure – and hence more re-assuring – fit, it is a slightly bumpier ride for little passanger.

you can still get attachments that fit the child between you and the bars. the downside to this is that it is less universally fitable. many bike warrenties are voided by use of such a product, it can be hard to fit if you have large tubes/tubes to close to each other/too small a bike/top tube slopes too much/etc, and some people find they cannot rotate their legs with the child in place. so this product is more of a gamble.

this, which i came across recently, looks like a fantastic product –
http://www.loct.co.uk/
about the same price as a child seat, it looks like it works well, but i have no personal experience or feedback on the product.

hope this helps!

I’ve got an OK baby seat that goes on the front, clamping to the downtube. FB jnr loves it as we are able to chat and he can see what’s coming, rather than my fat ar$e.

Drawback is that it helps if you’re bandy legged as you can catch your knees/thighs on it. The weight limit could be an issue, think it’s 13 or 15kg. I s’pose it’s the only benefit of jnr being on the 2nd %tile for weight he’ll get more use from it.

No concerns about damaging the bike- we bought a basic Trek to act as the mule for child riding duties.

Hamax works well and as others have said has give so it’s stops your little one feeling the bumps badly. Once you’ve fitted the clamp it is very easy to remove the seat and re attach. You may need an additional mount if your frame is small.

The only niggle I have, which isn’t a fault with the seat, as having the weight at the back and so high up can act like a pendulumn when cycling on trails. You really have to work the bike hard on corners, else the front wheel ploughs out.

Agree with WipeOut – also watch onsteep climbs,as I have had to be rescued by a passer by after nearly falling over backwards with the kid on the back, and not being able to get the front wheel back down,or get off the bike!

Had a Hamax for 6yrs now. Youngest lad and now my nearly 2yrs old daughter are using it. We have been around red sections at mabie and green/blue loops etc. They love it, especially when you get some speed up on berms.

Mine is like brand new after 6 yrs so its quality kit

If you want a front-mounted seat, the most populer one is the Weeride.

BoBike also make a nice one, available with a windscreen, but this looks like it will only work well with the swept bars of a typical Dutch Roadster.

Have an LOCT – it’s awesome. Amazing what you can ride offroad with confidence. Can’t recommend it highly enough.