Shotgun Child Seat for Mountain Biking | Take Your Kids On The Trail

If you’ve been looking for a child seat for mountain biking, could the Shotgun be the answer?

I’d always been envious of people with a bike trailer – I had dreams of a lovely maternity leave with lots of bike trailer rides, but it never happened, we had no storage for a trailer and they can be costly if you aren’t going to use them regularly. When we moved house and the nursery drop became different I then had lovely ideas about commuting by bike and how it might happen – and then thinking of how I would get up and down the steep hills with a toddler, laptop, a change of clothes and where I would leave a bike or how I would get my bike onto a cramped commuter train just made things far more complicated than simply hopping on the bus, dropping off and continuing on to work.

Family riding hasn’t really been something we’ve done, we’ve tended to just carry on with our own riding and encouraged the girls onto their bikes separately. Our first family riding setup was a WeeRide, which was fine for my 6ft partner Nathan, but useless for 5ft3in me with my small bikes. The seat just doesn’t fit due to the lack of top tube space between the rider and the bars to fit a child and seat. I did have a go at trying to trying to make the WeeRide work for me, this resulted in a comedy ride with friends, me on a borrowed bike, slightly too big for me, but able to accommodate the WeeRide and toddler on board. Every time we stopped, I needed assistance in the shape of the handily placed seawall on the Blackpool promenade, or a couple of friends holding arms out to catch me, the bike and the small girl!

When I saw Barney using the Macride I saw that a different kind of seat set up might work better for us. Perhaps we could ride as a family. Around the same time, I got advertising targeted at me on social media for the Shotgun, so was very happy to test it out for Singletrack.

Out The Box

Collecting the Shotgun seat I was given in a large shoebox sized package, containing the seat and all the tools needed to fit it. The handlebars are a £27 extra, but they were also included in the kit for me to test. Nicely sized grips gave something grippy to hold on to. The other option would be for her to hold on to my bars directly, which she can do quite comfortably. This has the added advantage of it being one less thing to put on and take off your bike, plus you’re less likely to lose the little plastic shims they come with taking them off and on all the time. I suspect for younger riders though they give them a specific place to put their hands, which could be an advantage.

The metal foot pegs are textured for non-slippiness, this plus the rubber strap that goes over their foot means they are pretty well secured in, even over the bumpy stuff. Freya was pretty relaxed about having her feet in there. There are two loop settings depending on the size of the child’s feet and what footwear they are wearing. Freya’s feet didn’t really get in the way when pedalling but I do need to adjust how I ride slightly with her on board, a slight knees out position is needed.

The fact that all the tools are included means that even if you aren’t that mechanically minded or perhaps only have basic tools, you can still get it all set up with no assistance. The instructions are clear enough, though it took me a couple of goes to get the seat clamped tight enough, which I suspect is partly because of the steepness of my top tube.  Attempt number one of the down the garden path test showed I’d fitted the seat at far too sloping an angle for my daughter to sit there without sliding back into me.

On The Trail

I can’t say I am that well practiced at riding with a passenger, the garden path test made me quickly realise the only way I was going to be able to stop and get my feet down on the ground properly was by dropping my seat first. This is purely because of my height and the small space on my bike. Thank goodness for dropper posts!

Before the garden path testing my daughter had already declared how keen she was to ride with Mummy – she had seen the box and the picture of a female rider with a little boy onboard. I was quite chuffed it was Mummy she wanted to ride with and not Daddy. I do wonder if she would have decided that she needed to be on Daddy’s bike if there was a male rider on the front. I also showed her Shotgun’s own marketing video of a Dad-Daughter picnic ride. Freya decided that is what we were off to do.

There’s no avoiding hills where we live in Calderdale. I might have selected a flatter route for a first proper ride, but big sister wanted to ride off road, to test out her newly fitted new knobbly tyres, so a ride from the front door it was. We headed up the paved bridleway from our house in the direction of the Pennine Bridleway. I selected a nice easy gear with the extra load on my bike and pedalled off, part way up the hill realising it was just the two of us and that Nathan and Alice were far behind, forgetting that she’s only got five gears and isn’t that used to her new bike yet. I needed to stop and wait. I dropped my seatpost to its middle trail position rather than all the way down. This resulted in quite a wobble as I negotiated putting my right foot down, my left leg in the air as I hopped to clear the bike and catch it with a two year old on board saying “Mummy don’t drop me!” Lesson learned, drop the seat all the way down!

It feels a bit odd with a passenger on my bike – used to zipping up and down things on my own, it feels slightly unwieldy and strange, the weight more than the steering. Also, pedalling requires a bit of adjustment, slightly knees out – much easier if you are a flat pedal rider, which I’m not, but it would be far more practical in these situations to be one. Slowing the pace down and chatting to my small passenger made me relax and enjoy it. Freya didn’t flinch when we starting descending gently towards our snack stop. After the snack stop, a small push to the summit of our ride and it was downhill all the way to home on a roughly surfaced bridleway, Freya giggled and shouted all the way back to the road, and on to home clearly enjoying the downhill.

Back home it looked like the Shotgun seat had slipped back again, it’s worth remembering to take tools with you should you need to adjust mid ride. I think the shape of the Knolly is the issue there, it doesn’t seem to be an issue on other bikes, and further studying of the installation video helped get a snug fit.

Falling asleep when riding isn’t an option unlike other sorts of child transport options such as a trailer or other sorts of seat. However the child is so engaged in the ride this is unlikely. Fortunately each ride has been exciting and enjoyable for Freya and she’s only ever decided to ride or have a little walk, which means I have to walk too and push my bike.

We began testing the seat when Freya was just a month or two from turning three. I think this was probably perfect timing – she was able to listen about where to put her feet and hands. Not too big for adding lots of weight to the bike, though enough that you might want to to think about in terms of your suspension setup, especially when you consider the added weight and the extra snacks you need to carry for bribery. The seat is advertised for 2-5 year olds. With a sister who had just turned six when we began testing, I did wonder how long you’d want to be using it for – honestly I can’t imagine me being able to ride with a 5 year old on the Shotgun off road, the handling would surely be really off when off road with a child that size. What I do wonder though is if it could make a very practical option for a short school drop off where you don’t have huge hills.

Overall

I’d be more than happy doing a blue or green trail centre route with the Shotgun seat. Our rides have all been local straight from the door rides on bridleways ranging from grass and mud to local farm tracks that have been surfaced in some way with concrete and gravel. Much of what you can do riding with the Shotgun depends on what your child enjoys and their personality – Freya loves riding, she is happy to get on and ride, I can reassure her she is going to be fine. I don’t feel tempted to ride anywhere too rad with her – I’m well aware how she bounces when she falls over or falls off her own bike, but I wouldn’t want her to fall off because I’d taken her down a trail that was too steep or bumpy. And actually I think probably the Shotgun would be the most fun on some lovely flowing trails – something which we lack in the Calder Valley.

Freya already planned the next ride as soon as we got home, two miles downhill to the park in town for ice cream – which set the tone for further family rides throughout the summer. Apologies if the bars are a bit sticky.

Review Info

Hannah Dobson

Managing Editor

I came to Singletrack having decided there must be more to life than meetings. I like all bikes, but especially unusual ones. More than bikes, I like what bikes do. I think that they link people and places; that cycling creates a connection between us and our environment; bikes create communities; deliver freedom; bring joy; and improve fitness. They're environmentally friendly and create friendly environments. I try to write about all these things in the hope that others might discover the joy of bikes too.

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