Our little one is nearly 9 months now, and I’m itching to get out on the bike with her.

Can anyone shed any light on how long you can ride for with a rear child seat? We’re looking at getting a Big Dummy for the job. Her nursery is near the wife’s work and would be a 45-50 minute commute. Is that realistic for a 9 month old. I’d love to try it before the summer’s out.

Any tips/advice would be great!

All depends on how strong and developed the child is.. How strong she is.
Is she crawling / standing up?
Took our 9 month old in a stem mounted seat at 9 months… She was nearly walking and very strong though.

1. You don’t need to buy a cargo bike to fit a child seat!
2. I rode for up to an hour on my MTB with both of my kids when they were young. They were older than 9 months when we started though; probably more like 14 months and 18 months respectively.

Firstly, AWESOME news for you! Things start getting really fun after about nine months. Little Miss CFH started walking at nine and a half, which was entertaining!

Re the bike, it’s really about head/neck and sitting strength. How long can she comfortably keep sitting up, and keep her head comfy (With, I assume, the added weight of a helmet). I’d suggest, sadly, that a 50min commute is a little out of that range at the moment.

Start off with nice, fun little rides to the park, etc. Make sure she knows that it’s a good, fun thing to do. Make it an adventure! Then, gradually build up the length of the rides to the pub park with her until you’re confident.

However, if she’s not sitting up strongly, hold off for a while.

She sits pretty well now, and is definitely on the move, crawling etc. Shes astonishingly flexible. All in all I’d say she’s a strong sitter. But I think she thinks it’s boring now.

Am aware I don’t need a cargo bike. But I want one. Also planning ahead. You can get 2 kids on a cargo bike. 😉

We threw ours in a bike trailer from 6 months, well propped up, but as others have said, depends on development really.

We had a front child seat for a while too, which was great, you feel like your really protecting them as your arms come round the seat to reach the bars and it’s easier to chat to them too…”oh look, a duck!” “Quack, quack” …etc etc.

I’ve got a cargo bike (rocky mountain blizzard with an xtracycle) for the nursery run / family trails, and a weeride on my cotic soul.

The cargo bike, with its huge panniers is great for all the clobber I end up having to carry around – changing bags, spare clothes etc. I do about 3 miles to nursery, then carry on for a couple of miles after that to my office. It isn’t the most efficient bike, especially with the big air brake on the back, so I wouldn’t want to do loads more than that every day!

The weeride is good for doing ‘proper’ rides, but even now at 20 months, he bounces around a bit too much on rough stuff to really enjoy it. He loves smooth swoopy things though. The limiting factor though is the fact that riding with him up front makes my knees hurt.

Dave

edit: forgot to say… first had him on the cargo bike (in a yepp seat) at 6 months, and first on the weeride (in chamonix of all places) at 10 months.

If you have other options for days when it doesn’t seem a good idea e.g. extreme weather etc I’d say it is an excellent option, and fair play for considering it.

I regularly used to take Jr in a trailer on a ~22 mile round trip on the cycle route through Chester to Hawarden Bridge and back out the other end to Mickle Trafford then back home to Chester. Now Jr is in a rear mounted seat and enjoys looking from it, but our useage has changed markedly as we no longer live in the same area. Much shorter trips now.

Hamax’s top model, under 91 Euros delivered, is reclinable which might be useful:

http://en.hollandbikeshop.com/bicycle-seat/hamax-bicycle-seat/hamax-caress-child-seat/hamax-bicycle-childseat-caress-grey-black-with-red-cushion/

EDIT Note seattube and rackmount options are available and are listed differently.

I waited until Li’l J was 12 months and then the rides were short, 2 or 3 mile gentle pootles.Neck strength was the deciding factor for me. Plenty of stops to feed ducks ,play on the swings etc. He fell asleep on a couple of (rare)occasions…
I reckon 45 minute each way would have been too much for us at that age.He’s three in August and now he loves the local singletrack best.
😀
btw we have the reclining Hamax seat too.

Enjoy.

Hoppy Jr has been carted around in various bike seats and trailers since 4 months, he used to just nod off and we could get 2 hours or so out of him. He’s good for longer than that now but does like to swap between trailer and balance bike as he goes along.

If later on you decide to go for a Tag-along, take care to choose one that doesn’t have too much slop in the joint that attaches it to the bike. Ours was a nightmare for the rider because it would constantly flop from side to side, upsetting your balance, but worse…. I once set off from a junction and wobbled a bit and the resulting flop of the tag-along was so violent that it threw little Gti Junior right off, into the road in front of the car behind us.

We have twins who are now 11 months. At 6 months, we bit the bullet and made our most expensive baby related purchase… that of a Thule Chariot Chinook trailer. It was expensive, but in no way bad value. We live in Portsmouth, and the only place we could find that either stocked a range of Thule trailers, or would get any in for us was Leisure Lakes in Coventry. They were excellent as they had a Chinook in stock and ordered us a CX2 to compare. ( I really wanted the CX2 on paper, as it is sleeker and lighter, but when seeing them, the Chinook looked so much nicer for the money. Better put together, better features and generally a nicer place to be for the kids).

We have so far used it most days. We ditched our other twin buggy and now just use this for all foot and bike activities. We can cycle to the shops, lock the bikes and push them around, then cycle home again.

If we had only had one baby, then we’d probably have thought about a clip on bike seat, but with 2 this is a great solution. They almost always fall asleep in it, so can just park them up outside when you get home and they snooze on for another half an hour or so.

(will try and uploads some pics if I can!)

If they’re in a seat you need to wrap them up really well ‘cos they’ll get really cold with the breeze – don’t forget you’re pedalling and they’re sat still. Ours were 14-15 months before we tried, not saying it can’t be done sooner though, strength of neck etc is the main factor, is she in a forward facing car seat yet? Obvs the car is going faster etc but the same rough principal applies i reckon (but I am a bit of a worrier when it comes to the sprogs). Also agree that 45 mins is way too long 10 mins tops for first outings with a steady build up.

In Amsterdam, they just seem to have those things that wrap around your body lots of times and then they just get on their bike and ride…

Rachel

Trailer (CX1) was also one of the best cycling purchases we’ve ever made. In use from pretty small (4 months I think?) through to 3+ years. Carries all your crap (including their bikes when they’re bigger) and keeps them warm and dry in all weathers (including snow).

Use for a commute depends on your logistics I guess – if there’s room to leave it folded up at nursery then that can make things easier. Doesn’t help with your cargo bike want though 😉

I got given a trailer and found I hardly used it as too big to fit in the car and I did not like using it on the road. From 1 they can go in a front seat, at 2 they are handy on a balance bike and then by 3 my son was riding a pedal bike like a loon.

I’m also a seasoned Chariot user. I have never liked the idea of strapping a child high up in a child seat on the bike. If you ever have an off or the bike falls over with child in seat, which is quite easy to do as the bike becomes very top heavy, you have the child’s head taking the full force. For our 4 I started putting them in at around 3-4 months; as soon as they could hold their head. None of them have had any kind of mobility problems as they have got older.

bit of a hijack here – but do people find the stem mounted seats much different to the rear ones?
reason I ask is that I can’t fit the seat on the seat tube as the front derailleur cables go down it. only option (apart from a different bike), is using one of those stem mounted seats.

8 months on the front of a Kona Minute in a wee ride. As long as they can keep their head up then should be fine for half an hour. I find that at that age the helmet is so loose fitting to be pretty much pointless.

Falling asleep is the biggest issue, as long as they’re warm I find that kids start to drift off after 15 minutes, it must be really relaxing buzzing along watching the world go by.

I’m considering a trailer just to see how I get on and to accommodate the sleeping issue!

i had a rear carrier mounted on the seat tube with the front mech cables routed down there. They weren’t full length outers so just slid the clamp behind the cable and job done.

I had ours in a LOCT front seat from 12 months up until 5+ years (daughter was small) and they loved it

Also had a trailer for when i took the two of them out and both enjoyed it too.

Now both on their own bikes and sometimes not enjoying it as much!!!

This reminds me must dig both of them out and put them on here to sell, not my two have had their fun

Go for a front seat – much easier for you to keep an eye on them and talk to them as you ride. They also get to see more than your ass.

AS it happens, I’ve got one for sale:

In use with a happy 1-year old:

£10 + postage (or collect from Newcastle/Hexham)

Other advice: Wrap them up warm regardless of the weather, and just go for short rides (unless they’re screaming for more). Don’t go too fast, keep it smooth and whatever you do, don’t stall going up steep singletrack and fall off. That’s not a good thing at all. :-S

ir_bandito – AS it happens, I’ve got one for sale:

Rough idea on postage? my little one is now 12 months and I’m itching to get out with him.

podge – ygm

good to know thanks – i’ll look out for one locally (devon way). cute nipper btw ir_bandito!

cute nipper btw ir_bandito

Yeah, he knows it too 🙂

“i had a rear carrier mounted on the seat tube with the front mech cables routed down there. They weren’t full length outers so just slid the clamp behind the cable and job done”
me too.