Morning all. Thought I would see if anyone on here has any advice with setting up / riding around with your toddler in a bike seat. I bought a Hamax Siesta and fitted it to my 29er hardtail and quickly found that it felt very unstable, especially when almost stationary. It felt as though someone was holding the back wheel and trying to forcefully push it sideways. Obviously with my young daughter on board this isn’t a good thing!. I have also tried the seat on a ladies step-through town bike but had the same experience. The seat is mounted as near to the rear wheel as possible and likewise as close to the seatpost, so the centre of gravity is as low as possible. Any ideas what I’m doing wrong or is this to expected using a child’s seat? By the way my daughter is 2.5 stone now – and no clever answers regarding 29ers please (I know).

Your problem is the mounting method. A rack mounted seat such as a Rhode Gear Taxi is an altogether much more stable proposition. Have had both and the Rhode Gear went on the back of a tandem. If you are near Windsor, you are welcome to try it.

I think you just have to get used to it, sound like you are used to holding your bike to the side a bit when standing.
2 other pointers, check the foot rest hight – easy to foul the back of your feet when trying to give it the beans, esp if you pedal on the ball of your foot or are lanky like me. Also be careful of setting seat too low, they bounce and on a big bump or bump at speed, can easily hit the rear tyre.

We have a Siesta, it moves up and down a fair bit (quite often the tyres hit the underside) but feels safe enough.

Best tip i can give you is to stay seated as much as possible, that and you’ll get used to it!

I wobbled about all over the place to start with and now we’re quite happy on the road and gentle off road.

I went for a front mounted job (clamped on the down tube, places the child seat above the Top tube) so my little girl was between me and the bars and I could see/check on her as we were trundling along.

I dropped my seat a bit, picked some lower gearing and used flats just to be sure I could get a foot down, fine on tow paths and flater road sections, bit of a bugger on any bigger climbs. Basically I tweaked the bike to make things a bit more stable with a higher centrally mounted payload, which was fine for family rides but I wouldn’t fancy it as a long term transport solution…

Thanks for the replies. I did wonder whether it was a case of getting use to it. Perhaps the answer is to attach an equivalent load to the seat and go out and practice! It would be nice to go out on the bikes as a family and not feel as though I was about to keel over. I wonder if 26″ wheels would make the bike more or less stable?

Oh, and thanks for the offer DJ but I’m the other side of Oxford so a bit of a trek

Definitely ride seated, avoid using spds as not only can you get your foot down quicker but you can move your foot further away from the them to stop your heel catching the foot rests.

Yep it is a bit wobbly but you do get used to it, just be careful if you lift your front wheel over kerbs and the like otherwise involuntary wheelies occur!

You get used to it. I’d run your saddle a bit low so it’s easier to set off/stop. Big wheels won’t help, but it won’t be a massive difference. Lower bars/your seat further forward would improve overall weight distribution (but screw it up for riding without the seat). Or a bar bag. MrsD’s bike has a basket on the front which her bag and stuff goes in which evens it out a bit 🙂

You get used to it. When I had my rack mounted seat on the solo it felt like the front wheel was constantly lifting.
I now have a tandem with kiddie cranks for the 4 year old and rack seat for the 1 1/2 year old. Now that is a handful.

I have a £20 kids saddle bolted to the crossbar (from SJS cycles) on my town bike so that little trb holds the bars with you, which is much more stable, but he keeps whacking me in the face with his helmet and then tries to steer towards the park!

Make sure the child seat bit is slid forward as far as possible and if your heels clip their feet you can slide the foot bits upwards. This makes a big difference.

As said above stay seated and tbh don’t ride on anything bumpy 😀 Once you are moving it’s fine but things get worse when you slow down….They are a bit cr@p but do the job.

We have a Siesta, it moves up and down a fair bit (quite often the tyres hit the underside) but feels safe enough.

Although I found this to be a very effective brake and my kids moaned like hell about the dramatic noise and vibration right under their a**e 😯

Or a bar bag. MrsD’s bike has a basket on the front which her bag and stuff goes in which evens it out a bit

… but also makes the steering canal barge slow in those ‘need to turn a bit quick’ moments

Have done heaps of miles with Hamax fitted to bot 26 and 700 wheeled bikes.
One setup trick is to slide the child seat as far forward as possible on the plastic ‘runner’.

The rest is down to your own weight distribution and handling.
Imagine a long, steep, seated climb up a mountain… Weight low and forward… Nice and smooth.
Same rules!
Once you’re underway you can stop looking like a freak, but when going really slowly this approach does work.

As everyone says you do get used to it – I run a seista on my genesis day one single speed – light 700c bike with short stem and one gear is not the easiest with a rear seat. I avoid the recline mode as much as possible and mount it as far forward as possible. You also notice when they fall asleep as it feels like there is a pendulum back there. It also helps to drop the bars a bit – especially on a 700c bike, I think an MTB with a heavier front end would be better – I do feel my steering is a bit light, I tend to ride a bit more in the drops. In fact I tore past a guy on a carbon Trek madone on the cyclepath last month… he looked a bit miffed!

I just dig in and avoid out the saddle, which is not easy on a single running 42 x 18, I just plan a route with no big hills. I am well used to it now and it’s a great training ride – a sunday ride, 26 mile round trip with a cafe stop feels more than enough with a wee lump on board.

We had a rear mount (CoPilot not Hamax) for our first, but when he got a little bigger and we moved to a mid-mounted LOCT I was amazed by how much more stable the bike was.

For our second we’ve ditched the rear mount and got a Weeride until such time as he’s on to the LOCT.

Probably not what you wanted to hear.

Plenty of good advice, so thanks everyone. I did have a look at the LOCT a while ago but thought that they had stopped manufacturing, but evidently not. Seems a good design that enables you to confidently take your little one off-road. And it avoids having to have more than one bike (if you can’t afford it).

I use a Bobike Mini which mounts directly to the fork steerer. Our wee fella is coming up to 12 months, and he seems to enjoy it. It is very stable, and he can see where he’s going and what is going on around him. I cannot stand up to pedal though, and use a dropper post to aid stability when stopped.