Baby on the way, talk to me about Push chairs/Car seats.

I don't ride as many hours, so my focus is now on XC rather than enduros.. but that's as much about my wife as it is my daughter 🙂

I do as much activity as before but just in shorter bursts – still ride/run/surf plenty but I reckon training for hours on end is just a bit selfish if you have a little one. Try and restrict myself to two hours or less at a time (tricky for surfing).

We have a quinny buzz, because a friend had finished with it, so it was going free. It works okay. I've taken it on buses, trains, and in loads of cars. It fits a car seat.

I would think carefully about whether you need off road ability really. The buzz is a kind of off road compromise which is okay for me, you can go over the odd root or step (or recently I took on the local bmx jumps). For things like parks or wide woodland paths, you don't need an off road thing at all, it is only rooty singletrack or rocks where the smaller wheels will get stuck. I don't think the big wheels are a massive advantage in town. I take ours on singletracks because we have a bunch of nice walks near us where it makes sense to nip through shortcuts, but that is the only reason it is at all useful having the wheels as far as I can tell. Oh and also going down our road – which is an 18th century stone road, made out of massive lumps of gritstone, kind of like giant cobblestones, smaller wheels can get stuck in them. Other than that, we live in a very hilly town in Derbyshire, with hilly parks and woods, walk an awful lot (no car) and I doubt we really need it other than for being nice on our road.

The downside of big wheels and all that is that things are bigger and heavier, and you often need to take wheels off to put them in a car boot. For us, 90% of the use is pushing around, as we live right near town so it isn't a big problem, but it would be a bugger if you had a smaller car and drove much, or were pushed for space at home and needed to fold it often.

Oh, on the car seat thing, I think our car seat (maxi cosi one) can click into some kind of clicky base, but also works fine with seatbelts in taxis or other people's cars, and also clips onto the pram base, which is good – we use it way more than the carry cot add on for the quinny (I wouldn't bother buying that to be honest). So you get the best of both worlds.

If you do get a big pneumatic wheeled one, Schwalbe sell decent bike tyres & tubes in those sizes that don't get punctures all the time (I think they are called 'City Jet').

We also have a sling, which is often a magic sleep machine, so it is worth getting for that alone. We have a Moby Wrap, which is kind of a bit fiddly first time you use it, but seems very comfy, and very unlikely to give you a bad back. To be honest, I think people who don't have slings are more likely to end up with bad backs as they spend much more time carrying babies in their arms, which is more achey making. The sling or similar is also the only thing you can use to go on a decent proper walk in the country, unless you like lugging massive buggies over stiles, up rock steps etc. or want to limit yourself to sustrans style tracks.

Also, don't spend too much on anything, and buy things second hand if at all possible, even if you have rich grandparents. Some babies just don't get on with some stuff, and you'll end up selling things off / chucking them out (like our baby doesn't get on with the £100 Quinny carry cot), better to get 2nd hand so as not to have a big financial hit. NCT do 'nearly new sales', which are like cross between a big jumble sale and a fight* – if you turn up super early to them, you can get stuff very cheap. Our local one lets pregnant women in 15 minutes early too.

[three wheelers] Often very unstable when lifting over kerbs though.

Really? I can't see that being any hassle – you're on the two back wheels going up or down a kerb, same as any pram. How can it be less stable?

Joe

*at our last one locally it apparently really did kick off between two people wanting to buy the same fancy pushchair!

Oh, and I haven't done any really long rides yet, but I've still got in a few off road rides, and about 100 miles a week on the commute, biking doesn't have to stop just because you have a baby around. Helps that I can do a decent 6-10 mile mountain bike ride in 45 minutes to an hour total, starting from our front door – a big reason why we moved to Derbyshire before having the kid.

Joe

Really? I can't see that being any hassle – you're on the two back wheels going up or down a kerb, same as any pram. How can it be less stable?

Probably down to my technique, but when lifting up a kerb I tend to lift the back wheels so all weight is on the single front one. It is a double so quite a lot of weight is pushed onto the one (pivoting) wheel.

And the clicky base is an Isofix (as discussed ^^^^^^^^) 😉

To be honest, I think people who don't have slings are more likely to end up with bad backs as they spend much more time carrying babies in their arms, which is more achey making.

Yeah SOME slings are rubbish, some are great.

Re pushchair wheels – we found that the small wheels of the kind found on pushchairs that fold up small ie the Zapp are okay but if you have to walk for any period of time on rough pavements etc they are a bit annoying. Bigger or pneumatic wheels make it way easier if you have to walk somewhere for 15 mins or so.

Like I say, pneumatic 10" wheeled sturdier one for trips to the supermarket on foot, small plastic 6" wheeled one for round town (cos it fits in the car and is dead manoeuvrable in shops).

And the clicky base is an Isofix (as discussed ^^^^^^^^)

Ah, okay. The point I was making being that you can get a clicky base, on a child seat that also works fine with seatbelts, so you have all the advantages of both types.

Probably down to my technique, but when lifting up a kerb I tend to lift the back wheels so all weight is on the single front one. It is a double so quite a lot of weight is pushed onto the one (pivoting) wheel.

On ours, the front wheel sort of locks out, so it can only pivot a weeny amount, enough for turning smoothly, but not enough so anything goes weird if you go up things with it.

On ours, the front wheel sort of locks out, so it can only pivot a weeny amount, enough for turning smoothly, but not enough so anything goes weird if you go up things with it.

Fair enough- ours is either fixed (for off roading) or 360 pivoting.

Can I just say one thing at this point. None of these are mine or Fatsimon's 8)

I Have a Mama's and Papa's Pliko, we were given the seat by a close friend so I knew it hadn't been in an accident, and I got the pliko from freecyle. We did purchase the ISOfix base for the car seat and personally I found it better than the base that was provided for seat belt use.

I was also told to stear clear of quinny's as they are pretty but not practical.

Personally I found TBjnr liked her pram to fall asleep in on walks into town, so one that fully reclines was a mist for me. I also found that being able to take the car seat out with her alseep in and clip it onto the pram without having to move or wake her up was a god send, I knew I could drive to town and get most of my shopping done without waking her up.

BUT – you will find all babies are different, I recently met a mum who's little one hated the pram, and they ended up getting one of those sideways sling things, I have another who's baby will happily sit in the pram but never fall asleep in it.

My advise – go with freecycle, try and see what works for you and pass on those that don't

A single front wheel can turn sideways as you lift it onto/off a kerb and stop the buggy dead – it's pretty dangerous actually – worth bearing in mind.

Our Quinny Zap is ace, btw. One of the best bits of baby kit I've seen. Not for a lil baby though as it doesn't go flat and they can't see you.

We have a baby jogger city elite it is great but….. The mrs found it heavy for lugging in and out of the car plus you have to take the wheels off. So we bought a cheaper lightweight Graco for shopping duties. If I had my time again i would have got the city mini ah well you live and learn (expensively!!)

In the same boat here – 1st one on the way and I've been asking around for advice. All those we know who have kids are advising us to buy a Phil and Teds. The advice being that we live in the country and have a dog who needs walking (big wheels bit) and also that we are planning on two kids (god willing) and the stackem-up function of the P&T is ideal. Most who have had other pushchairs ended up buying one when they had a 2nd child anyway…. John Lewis have them at 289 at the moment. Second hand values are good too. Maxi-Cosi with isofix also!

P&T are very strong but for some reason awful for getting flat tyres. Maybe a tubeless conversion would work?!

Just put gunk in the tubes.

Depends on how quick you intend to turn 2 kids around. If you plan for 2 now you'll only end up with twins for the "second" child ;0)

you'll only end up with twins for the "second" child ;0)

Someone who lives near us (our neighbours are friends with them) wanted a third child. They ended up with triplets. 😯

We were put off by quinnys by the fact that every one we looked at (in a few shops) was broken, didn't seem a great selling point!

Re slings, my usual plug for my friend Phil at little possums[/url] she will sort you out. We tried on a few at nct the other week and I'm going to a Kari-me. It looks complicated, but it's actually dead easy to put on.