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My little'un will be off to nursery soon and it is the opposite way from home from the office so was thinking about a child seat or a trailer so I can then head on to work straight from there. It is about a 15min walk to nursery so would rather cycle there than walk there and back, and MrsP wants to drive. MiniP is 7 months at the moment but sits up on her own and has done for several months.
Anyone have any decent advice or will we all explode and die if I continue to even think about it?
do a quick search of the forums - this topic divides (strong) opinions. 😈
Hamax Sleeper since she was 6 months old. Never bettered or outdone. Good enough for Swinley or blasts across London (until we moved last year). Riding in Ireland will commence today after tea. She's 3.5y.o. now.
I've got a child seat you can have for £15, not hamax bought from LBS. My little lad loved it, i borrowed a trailer once and he hated it.
This has come up like four times in the last couple of weeks.
Chariot for the ultimate trailer experience, suspension coupled with baby sling or baby holder as appropriate. Preferably the former. Chuffing expensive tho. Don't think that just cos your kid can hold her head up she can deal with being bounced around in a kiddie seat sitting up - huge difference.
Trailers are best for riding with and the kid can sit and play in it surrounded by toys and food without dropping stuff. However, they're a pain for steps, bike gates and very narrow streets etc. Also being low down is more of a risk in certain kinds of accidents I reckon.
I'm going to be in a similar position soon TimP. Haven't tried either, but I think I prefer the trailer option simply because you can then lock the trailer up at the nursery, then have your bike back to normal for the rest of the day. Plus I'm used to a trailer for doing the weekly shop.
Plus with a trailer I can keep using panniers/rack. Not sure this is the case with the seats. I stand to be corrected though.
Just for the record, I was recommended not to use a seat or trailer until little-un was 9 months old. Not sure if this is strictly correct 'cos they all seem to develop at a different rate so plucking an arbitrary age out of the air seems a bit of a cop-out to me.
Sorry I hadn't seen threads like [url= http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/childbaby-carriers-at-3-months ]this before[/url]
From reading that I think I will probably go with a child seat and walk her to start with. Although they are side roads to the nursery taxis and the like do whip down them so not sure I would be happy with a trailer and not sure about the helmet thing for a seat to start. Guess I can then hop on for a bit of the way the older she gets (with helmet). Wors is it top tube or seat post mounted? Any pics?
Cheers
Peyote.. trailers in general are probably not good until older than 9 months I reckon, but Chariot are a bit better having suspension and good baby-carrying options. Although they themselves say wait til 12 months, this is probably for legal reasons if you stack it.
Top-tube mounted seats are the worst option I reckon - seen loads of kids out at the weekend flopped over 90 degrees wobbling about in them. And if you hit a rut/kerb/pothole awkwardly even when just pootling or manoeuvring (like I have many times) then you'd get thrown onto your kid.
It's a seat tube mounted one. Can sort you some pics out tonight if you like.
Yes please
If you're near Cardiff I can show you mine.
Trailer ftw. You can use it when it's pishing rain, you can fill it with all the other gubbins you have to drag along, you can just lock it at the nursery and pick it up on the way home and my experience is that it is just fine on busy roads as drivers tend to give you more room since they are unsure of what it is. Big flag, loadsa lights, bish bash bosh done
I have and regularly use both and sometimes at the same time with 2 little ones. I find the trailer generally the better option but its much easier to lock my bike up in town with just a child seat on the back. You may want a helmet if using a seat and at 7 months your child probably won't be strong enough to hold its own head and the weight of a helmet. You often see sleeping little kids with their heads rag dolling around which is not a pretty site. I have managed to roll the trailer with my boy in and he was unhurt and not even very bothered as it has a 5 point harness and a bar over the top. Cars give you loads more clearance with a trailer than bike seat on the back.
If I take the trailer into town I lock up the bike and then use the trailer as a pushchair.