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  • Recommend child's bike seat for 18 month old
  • makecoldplayhistory
    Free Member

    Looking for a child seat recommendation. My son’s 15 months old but will be 18 months old when we begin using it and is about 11 kg. He’s small for his age as he was born with serious heart problems but has been all fixed up and is growing quickly.

    It’ll be attached to a hardtail (yet to be bought / decided on); I imagine full sus bikes can be problematic for attaching seats to.

    Safety is important – obviously, as is comfort. One of the few times I’ll ever say, ‘money’s no object’. I’d also like one that can be easily removed without leaving a huge bracket so my bike stays looking pretty.

    I’m tempted by trailer type ones but

    a) My son’ll do his best to climb out of it.
    b) I’m worried about the saftey.

    Thoughts on

    Hamax Sleepy

    Hamax Smiley

    Thanks a lot,

    Mike

    monkeyp
    Full Member

    Kangaroo – without doubt. Safe in between your arms, can see everything gong on, you can talk to them and always know they are OK.

    OK – so it does make pedalling a little bit awkward (not so much to make it a pain though, just a bit ‘knees out’), and the mounting can seem like a faff if you want to remove the bar (in actual fact, once set up it’s a 5 minute job), but the benefits outweigh the negatives.

    It will also pretty much fit on anything aside from a bike with drop bars.

    Our kids loved it and I have even put my (small) 4 year old in it! I have done long off road routes no probs.

    rewski
    Free Member

    I used one of these copilots for both my boys, rode mostly offroad.

    carlosg
    Free Member

    Weeride Kangaroo was our choice when carlosjnr mk1 was little , we sold it 2 months before mrs carlos caught on with carlosjnr mk2 so we’ve had to go buy another. Being able to talk to each other makes a big difference to a family ride.

    tonyd
    Full Member

    Weeride +lots. They’re also pretty handy when attached to a full susser as it makes for a more comfortable ride for junior. Both mine were in a Weeride which we just passed on to friends.

    natrix
    Free Member

    I’ve got the sleepy and the smiley (one for me one for the wife) and I wouldn’t recomend spending the extra for the sleepy, in my opinion it doesn’t recline enough for the function to be of any use. The smiley is great and in my opinion is far better than the weeride kangaroo, neither myself nor my wife could get on with it. In my experience the weeride is OK for ten minute rides, but anything longer it gets in the way of your knees and is painful. You can still talk to the child in the hamax type seat.

    Trailers have seat belts in so once buckled in he wouldn’t be able to climb out.

    PS My daughter is two and a half and still only 10kg, so he’s not that small for his age 🙂

    bigG
    Free Member

    ibert
    Because I’m a short arse, and ride a small bike I found that the weeride wouldn’t work for us. My chest was pressing on our daughter’s helmet causing her to be bent forwards.

    The ibert sits further forwards,and allows her to still feel involved, whilst I can get a comfortable position to ride too.

    She absolutely loves it.

    monkeyp
    Full Member

    we looked at the iBert, but I think you need a lot of spacers under your stem for it to work, otherwise i’d have probably gone for that.

    makecoldplayhistory
    Free Member

    Thanks guys.

    I’m a short arse too so might want to try a crossbar mounted type before buying one.

    FunkyDunc
    Free Member

    Weeride here, but just found that it won’t fit on any bikes now that I have. I just sold the bike it used to fit on.

    All my bikes are small.

    Jnr FD is 3 now as well so getting too big for the seat 🙁

    osteo1
    Free Member

    Weeride +1 brilliant innovation!

    neilc1881
    Free Member

    Yepp Maxi here, and they do a bigger version too.

    woodlikesbeer
    Free Member

    Got a Hamax Sleepy off ebay for £15. Decided against a front mounted seat as cars behind wouldn’t be able to see I had a toddler on board.

    Garry_Lager
    Full Member

    If you’re just going to use it for recreation – ie mainly off-road at the weekend, then the front mounted ones are best IMHO. You can take the fitting on and off as part of the outing, and it’s great to have the wee one up front. Need to establish that your legs can comfortably accommodate the seat.

    A rear seat is better for more practical stuff, like transportation involving the road – stuff like the nursery run or going to taking the bairn to the dentist. Can detach the seat and be left with either a normal rack or nothing at all, depending on the design – this is great if you drop kids off somewhere and need to cycle on yourself.
    The Hamax rack and seat ones are v stable – reassuring from the safety point of view.

    leffeboy
    Full Member

    On the trailers don’t be worried about the safety. I used one for many years in town and found the drivers gave me much more space than when I used the bike seat. I also dropped the bike a couple of times on ice 🙁 with the bike seat (going very slowly it has to be said) which also isn’t a problem with the trailer. Then finally you can use it all through snow/rain etc. with now problems. In the end I much preferred the trailer to the seat but used both and I felt safer off road with the trailer

    piffpaffpoff
    Free Member

    We had a co-pilot limo rear seat on a rack and a cheap trailer from ebay. The co-pilot limo was very sturdy with lots of side support. I did once drop the bike on its side at Glentress when our 2yo was in the seat (oops) and she was totally fine, not sure if the same outcome would have happened with other seats with less side support. Another benefit is that you could use it as a self-standing seat during stops, you took it off the rear rack, flipped the safety bar up and over the back and voila, a fairly clunky looking deckchair! I tended to use the seat for shorter journeys around town – library, nursery, shops etc.

    We found the trailer much better for longer journeys – they are dry, can have books and toys in with them, and snacks. I never took the trailer on a road though, I didn’t feel safe doing that.

    rewski
    Free Member

    Good point piff, my boys used to love a cheeky nap in the copilot, we’d even take it off with him still asleep stand it up and have a picnic without disturbing the wee fella. Good resell value too if the you chuck in the Blackburn bike rack.

    triple_s
    Full Member

    Have you thought about getting a cargo bike?

    I had a Co-Pilot Limo on my Tricross prior to getting a Kona Ute with a Polisport Guppy on it, it’s so much better (ok a cross bike isn’t going to be the best for a child seat) but the Ute is awesome, I’ll have 2 in the back when my youngest starts going to nursery later in the year. The centre stand is really useful for loading/unloading.

    You can get a Minute for £500 from Chainreaction at the moment, when I no longer have to ferry my boys around I’ll probably get one for commuting…

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