Hello All
I’m looking to start dropping my 2 1/2 year old son off at nursery by bike.
Some of the trip will be on road so I’m not that keen on a trailer and would much rather have him sat in front of me if possible.

There seem to be quite a few seats around that offer this option but I’m wondering if anyone has any recommendations and actual real world experience of them?
Also, once installed, whether with a child or not, is the bike still pretty usable? The idea would be to drop him off and then continue to work but that would make my commute around 15 miles each way. I don’t want to do it on an unrideable clown bike if i can help it.

Any help gratefully received.

Cheers

I went for the Weeride after much research and advice.

Pro’s- Seems comfy for the wee one, the seat comes on and off in 10 seconds (so I can ride the bike around without the seat on, only the mounting, so you can dump the kid seat at nursery rather than leaving it on), doesn’t upset the balance like a rear mounted one can.

Con’s- Get’s in the way of the knees a bit on shorter top tubes, not quite as universal fitting as I had hoped, if you have a short head tube, or in my case a funny taper, it doesn’t actually fit on! I think you need about 5mm or so of headtube protruding above the top tube weld for it to work. I can use it on my commuter and Road Bike no problem, but current MTB won’t work sadly.

So not perfect but still recommended from me.

I went for a Hamax.

I know the Weeride has its merits but TBH they can see plenty from the Hamax and have loads of fun. I also think at the age of yours they may wiggle about too much – at least when they’re behind you all they can do is bash your bum rather than change gears / brakes and so on.

weeride is good and as stated you can remove the seat just leaving the crossbar really quickly, its just attached with a thumbscrew.

its ok on the flat but if you have to climb any hills then the knees out pedalling style isnt so comfortable. One thing I found really useful on that bike was a cheap T-Mars Dropper. Makes setting off a bit easier and means you can still get a decent pedalling height.

I’ve just backed the MAC-ride seat via kickstarter which is a modern version of the LOCT seat:

Awesome – thanks gents. That’s exactly the kind of feedback I was hoping for.

I’ll do a bit more research whilst bearing all of that in mind.

Cheers

your in plymuff arent you? I got mine from Go-outdoors by Laira Bridge.

We have used a Bobike Mini with 2 kids. It mounts to the fork steerer (assuming you can remove 20mm of spacers) and the seat/child moves with the bars. IMO is less intrusive than the Weeride.

We bought ours from the Dutch Trading Company.

Yeah that’s right Jam Bo. I might pop down and take a look. Cheers for the heads up.

The BoBike was the one I was looking at initially TroutWrestler. It looks pretty good.

We bought a weeride after much research and it’s a really good bit of kit. As others have said on smaller frames you do feel a bit like John Wayne riding it but that’s more than outweighed by the interaction with the ‘rider’.

Asda sell the basic one online, so you can get a bit of cashback on it aswell.

Another Weeride evangelist here. The only issue I’ve found is that it’s a bit cold sitting up front. Have had to fit a bell to the alpine – small_fiat has taken to changing gear & I needed something to distract him

That MAC-ride looks cool.

I have one from a company called Polisport.

The model I have is called the Bilby Junior.

Really nice bit of kit and would recommend for sure.

Ash!!

How are those of you using the Bobike finding it? My assumption is that putting a childs weight on the steerer will seriously impact steering, which considering I want a kids seat option to take off road, would be a recipe for disaster.

Tenacious – look into that a bit more – there’s an age where you shouldn’t be taking a young kid off road/over bumpy trails on a bike due the fact their spines haven’t formed properly yet – or something.

Hi

I’ve got a couple of the LOCT seats. Brilliant bits of kit and used with my 2 girls.

As the children grow you do need to slightly splay your knees but then I found they were getting too tall anyway when that happens.

These aren’t made any more but do turn up second hand so they are worth looking out for. Of course, they are rather handy when going off road as well.

smurf

These aren’t made any more but do turn up second hand so they are worth looking out for. Of course, they are rather handy when going off road as well.

The mac-ride I linked to up there is very similar to the LOCT with some tweaks to make it easier to take on/off etc. looking forward to getting mine.

Also, once installed, whether with a child or not, is the bike still pretty usable? The idea would be to drop him off and then continue to work but that would make my commute around 15 miles each way. I don’t want to do it on an unrideable clown bike if i can help it.

I used a Hamax (which is easy to take on and off the bike) and left this in the nursery buggy park during the day.

We’ve used a SafeTseat for our daughter and it was brilliant.

The seat clamps under the stem with the childs legs going either side of the steerer tube. I really liked it as it meant that I was always aware of how my daughter was doing, she could see where she was going and I could talk to her easily. Things I didn’t feel were easy with a rear mounted seat.

you need to have 10-15mm of spacers under the stem to make it fit.

http://www.safe-t-seat.co.uk/

By sheer chance 😉 we’re going to be selling ours if you are interested?

Weeride. So many happy memories…

04-08-07_1639 by Steven Townley, on Flickr

I’ve just ordered an ibert safe-t-seat. Mainly as all the other options look really clunky.

They really are good!

Got a trailer free from a competition and it is great. On the road it is pretty obvious, you are big and yellow, and I am given much more space than when I am solo. Plenty of space for luggage/PE kit/book bags/papier mache alien (homework)* and whatever else.
*some of this may be more primary school, but it will come…

Edit-stated post, picked up campervan from garage, finished post. Saw the last picture, missed your purchase. Still, only cost £7 for a new fog light to get through the MOT so not all bad 🙂

Edit edit, then realised that someone else bought something, not you OP. Might just go back to bed…

We have Co-pilot limos, a Hamax and a Weeride one for the top tube.

The Co-pilot limo appears to be the safest, it’s so sturdy (bulky) and has a lot of coverage. Downside is it needs a specific Blackburn rack, it has zero suspension and you have to mount by getting your leg over the top tube. We use these for daily commute in traffic.

The Hamax one has a bounce to it, but feels more exposed in traffic. I had hope this would be useable with panniers but no, because the feet bit run down the sides you can’t.

The Weeride is the nicest for interaction (like a big cuddly ride someone here once said) but mounts to a heavy bar which fits along the top of the top tube from the headtube to the seat post, like a brace. It’s a faff to fit so not easy on/off. The seat is quite wobbly and very exposed – doesn’t feel totally safe. I don’t believe their marketing saying it would fit a 4 year old.