So, little miss zokes is getting on for six months now, and it’s time to think about getting her attached to a bike somehow for pottering around bike paths and the like. There seem to be two options: a seat where a pannier would go, or a trailer. What are the pros and cons?

Trailers seem expensive but more flexible i.e. you can carry all the paraphernalia a child requires at the same time, but I’d be pretty nervous about a motorist misjudging the length / width of the bike / trailer combo.

Seats seem cheaper (but can be expensive), not much scope for carrying stuff as well as child, and will be outgrown sooner. One assumes a seat has less impact on how the bike rides though?

What do other parents prefer?

crossbar mounted seat like the weeride, then you can chat to them as you go.

I wear a small rucksack then with the essentials in.

Weeride at 7 months is fine but the early months may be difficult eg when they fall asleep. Also hard to keep them warm in winter.

IMHO until they can easily support their head they should be in a trailer and anything else is a tad foolish [ YMMV} as other threads and this will show]

Its is also better for them for when they fall asleep and easier to pack stuff like picnic changing mat nappy change of clothes etc

FWIW it is amazing how polite car drivers are when you have a kiddy trailer

I recommend blackburn pannier and a co pilot seat, used with both my boys, they used to sleep in it too. Then upgraded to to mountain trek trailer when they got older.

EDIT: 6 months sounds young, can’t remember what age we ventured out.

Hmmm. STW just as split as our friends then. One has seat, other has trailer. FWIW, the ones with teh trailer have used it since theirs was three months, and now she’s three years and they still use it regularly. I may be approaching my own answer….

So, the follow-up question: how much of a pain is it to ride with a trailer? I assume downhill (roads, not courses!) require more care – do they have a propensity to try to wag the dog? Pretty flat where we live now, but probably moving somewhere hillier in a year or so.

We had one of those Co-Pilot seats. Was great till they got a little heavier. They certainly liked to drop off to sleep in it when they were small.
Did try the trailer thing but that was a killer to drag round off road. I remember almost dieing trying to do a lap of Keilder dragging the wretched thing. I can still remember the thighs burning now. YMMV with all the STW god like climbing ability professed on here.

Hamax siesta here, worked very well until she got a little big for it, by that point though, she was riding her own bike the mile or so to school.

With my boy I used both. Trailers are flexible but heavy, cumbersome and in my view a pretty unpleasant place to put the child for any length of time. I’d go for the rear mounted seat every time – cheaper, easier, more fun to cycle with and most importantly a much better experience for the child. They can see what’s going on, enjoy the wind in their hair, chat/gurgle/spit on you depending. +1 for the Co Pilot limo – best you can get.

We have the 2 seater burley, which has gone round the red run at sherwood pines a few times

It rolls really easily and have no complaints even on a steep hill

Both our kids have loved being in it, never any complaints

+1 for the Co Pilot limo – best you can get.

Annoyingly they don’t appear to be available here in Oz, though plenty on mail order of one description or another. I assume the rack is compatible with disc brakes?

how much of a pain is it to ride with a trailer?

Fine as long as you remeber to go wide on the corners

Also good when mini zokes number two arrives and you can take them bith out together 😉

Personally I found the rear mounted seats were much more cumbersome to use. Affected the balance and the weight was in the wrong place for going up hill.

Both work well but you know they are they.
Never tried the front facing ones

Can you borrow first to see?

IMHO trailer best at this age and a seat thingy from 18 mths ish

how much of a pain is it to ride with a trailer?

Fine as long as you remeber to go wide on the corners

Also good when mini zokes number two arrives and you can take them bith out together 😉

Personally I found the rear mounted seats were much more cumbersome to use. Affected the balance and the weight was in the wrong place for going up hill.

Both work well but you know they are they.
Never tried the front facing ones

Can you borrow first to see?

IMHO trailer best at this age and a seat thingy from 18 mths ish

how much of a pain is it to ride with a trailer?

Fine as long as you remeber to go wide on the corners

Also good when mini zokes number two arrives and you can take them bith out together 😉

Personally I found the rear mounted seats were much more cumbersome to use. Affected the balance and the weight was in the wrong place for going up hill.

Both work well but you know they are they.
Never tried the front facing ones

Can you borrow first to see?

IMHO trailer best at this age and a seat thingy from 18 mths ish

Have a co-pilot, very good. Only down side is the finger tip removing process for getting it off the rack – tend to leave the rack and seat together and bolt the rack on. 6 months sounds a bit young to be in a seat to me though as above.

I rate a trailer – put all 3 of our kids in one at one time or another (not at the same time!) and they all loved it!!

And riding with it was very easy, just remember its there.

We had a BUMPER EXPLORER (both Solo and Duo for our twins). They are a budget trailer at a fraction of the cost of the bigger brands but really worked well for us with no complaints.

Also hard to keep them warm in winter.[on a seat]

this

FWIW it is amazing how polite car drivers are when you have a kiddy trailer

this

Fine as long as you remember to go wide on the corners

and this

the trailer thing but that was a killer to drag round off road

This as well. But to me that was a positive. I could go sort of mountain biking with the missus with TheG1 in the trailer and Theg2 in her and we’d both get an reasonable workout. Getting up the Double Steep Climb on the degla red was a definite highlight (though I can’t remember if I had 1 or 2 passengers on that occasion).

Trailers are …. in my view a pretty unpleasant place to put the child for any length of time

Gotta respectfully disagree with this. A child seat is definitely more interactive for the kid but I think the trailer is a much better place for the kids to be for a long spell. Much more comfy, more toys to play with. Brother to play with/fight. Stays completely dry etc. [but less interactive]

I rarely used our trailer round town due to the shocking driving in Manchester. Which brings me nicely onto the second point, which is that with a seat you can easily nip on the pavement etc to avoid trouble spots. With a trailer that’s much much harder. Be careful not to clip kerbs on corners. Also be aware that you’re very long with a trailer. There’s loads of places where you might stop midway across a road on a bike, but with a trailer you’d still be sticking out into the carriageway 🙁

I loved having out trailer simply from an exercise point of view. You could do childcare for 2 hours and get absolutely cream crackered in the process. And at that age, any spare time for exercise it much to be valued.

Bear in mind that off road you tend to go very slow with a trailer. The uphills are slow due to the weight and the flats and downs are slow so you don’t rattle them to bits (even with suspension). But I’m talking here about semi MTB trails, not canal paths or blaze tracks.

If you get a trailer then I’d advise getting a double. You can fit one in a double but you can’t fit two in a single.

The trailer also works really well as a sag waggon in the early years of biking. We’d take both kids and one bike to the top of degla then TheG1 would cycle round the rest while TheG2 shouted abuse from his comfy double seat in the trailer. Later on we’d take the balance bike as well and swap them in and out as terrain/stamina dictated.

Bear in mind that UK cycle infrastructure isn’t set up for trailers. Loads of barriers around the place to prevent motorbike use also prevent trailer use.

We had one of those Co-Pilot seats. Was great till they got a little heavier.

We had a Co-Pilot on the back of a Kiddyback tandem. So Tired 1 pedaled from 3.5 years whilst Tired 2 slept in the seat. Great days.

Now they just suck my wheel 😉

Thanks very much guys, I’ll cogitate further and see if I can try out a trailer.

(And sorry for not getting in touch whilst back in the UK, Junkyard. It seems two months wasn’t long enough to even look at a bike, never mind ride one – families take lots of time it seems!)

Easy option

But this looks betterer 😀