I've a feeling now the weather's getting a teensy bit warmer, my little boy is going to want to get out on my bike. He's going to outgrow the front-mounted seat we used last summer (max weight 15kg) sometime soon, but that's not a bad thing as its a pain to pedal with. So, recommend me a rear-mounted seat with a decent maximum weight. Pannier-rack mounted is a possibilty, but if its not that gives more flexibility.

Co Pilot Limo up to about 20kg and comes with a blackburn rack to fit it to the bike and lots of protection for the child if you crash

used to take my daughter round chicksands in one

One of these? I've just bought one, for £45 it's worth a punt 🙂

Children now outgrown them, but we had 2 different ones. First a Hamax, the exact model is no longer around but the current ones are very similar and there is a link to one above. We went for the non-reclining version. That had quite a heavy bracket bolted round the seat tube into which the twin prongs of the metal support arms of the seat fitted. Nifty button system to show they were locked in and the seat was then cantilevered over the rear wheel on the support arms. Gave it a bit of suspension but sometimes had a slightly unerving amount of bounce, although it got round the green and blue at Dalby with no mishaps. Left you with a heavy bracket on the seat tube that took a bit of time to fit and take off again so tended to leave it on what was basically a hack bike. No attachment to the seat stays so no issues with fiddly fittings but, whereas on my 20 inch frame the bracket came halfway down the seattube, on my wife's 14 inch frame it would have fouled the front mech so that led to plan B – a Co-pilot Limo.

This fits on a Blackburn EX1 rear rack which is included in the price. The rack is a bit of a pain to take on and off but the attachment seemed a lot sturdier albeit straight over the back wheel and with no in built give. On balance for offroad I would probably feel safer with the co pilot but both company's products seem fine. The Hamax are a bit cheaper ( although they do their own rack mounted system that is about the same cost as the co-pilot – sorry got no experience of this, only of the seat tube mounting version ).

One issue to check on is the fit of the Blackburn rack. You will need the frame to have rack mounting points -obviously- and on my wife's very small frame I needed to get some longer strips to join the front of the rack to the seatstay mount points. There are a number of posts around including a review on Wiggle that say it won't fit bikes with disc brakes, and although it is a standard rear rack and SJS cycles and CRC seem to think it will fit most bikes I found a posting on a US forum that quoted Blackburn as saying they didn't make bikes for frames with disc brakes and didn't approve of the much posted fix of putting in a cylindrical spacer between rack and frame.

I think Madison import Blackburn so they should be able to give you the official view.

Last point is make sure you tie the little blighter's feet into the foot stirrups with the straps provided or there is a risk of them trying to insert foot into spokes. On balance I suspect the spokes will win.

I like the Hamax sleep recliner. Valid up to 22kg and does provide a more comfortable ride than something bolted to a rear rack right over the back wheel. My kids have now outgrown ours so I have 2 Hamax sleepy recliners for sale. £20 each plus postage. Would prefer delivery/collection but post could be an option. One is navy blue and a slightly older one is royal blue. Both great condition as neither used that much.
Regards
Chappers.
kevin.chapman@thomsonreuters.com

have you also thought of a trailer ?

I did have a rack mounted seat which was very good but as they get bigger and heavier the bike gets more unweildy and difficult to hold up when stationary.

We had a philips aluminium trailer that went everywhere – awesome and with two kids in is a great training tool.

They do have to be over a certain weight and be able to support their head but I think that applies to the rear rack seats as well.

Mines not quite born yet, cant wait to get young Jimmy a trailer, a bike seat, and all the other bits and bobs.. 🙂

cheers for all the advice.
Chappers – ygm

Co pilot limo, love the way it can be easily taken off and sat of the ground or reclined with out the child waking ip

I'd second what MadBillMcMad said – do consider a trailer. Definitely more expensive than a child seat, but less faff – especially if you are wanting to use your "proper" bike regularly without the kids as well. We had a Burley trailer that went off-road around our place in Scotland all the time with the kids bouncing around in the back and loving it.

We sold ours on eBay once the kids were riding their own bikes, so I'm sure some deals available there.

–Kristan