Front mount child carrier alternative to kids ride shotgun?

Looking for a front mount child carrier like the kids ride shotgun. Are there any alternatives I should be looking at? I have seen the Mac ride and I still prefer the kids ride shotgun.

Likewise if anyone has one for sale (mac ride or kids ride) let me know.

Im after one too. They are expensive.

I’m leaning towards the mac ride because the foot loops can adjust for the growing kid. Junior is 2 and wearing 3-4 year old clothes.

My son had a Thule Yepp Nexxt Mini from aged 9 months to 2 &1/2 years old

Mounts to the steerer tube only, your steerer tube just needs to have 30mm of space between the bearing cover and the stem (you remove the spacers and fit their quick release bracket)

https://www.thule.com/en-gb/child-bike-seats/front-mounted-child-bike-seats/thule-yepp-nexxt-mini-_-12080106

At 2 &1/2 he was getting too big for it so now he has a Oxford little explorer seat and loves it

This bolts to the front triangle/top tube and has foot rests and he holds on to the handlebars

https://www.oxfordproducts.com//bicycle/brands/oxford/child_and_dolls_seats/little_explorer_cross_bar_seat/

I got a shotgun for my Christmas present (cheaper than macride, easier to fit to modern geo frames, works with dropper posts and easier to swap to any other bike). Daughter is 2.5 and loves it. We have been for an hours ride everyday during lockdown. Probably the best gift and best value bike purchase in years. I thought it was expensive, now it seems like a bargain for what it has given us.

If you have low stack/not much steerer showing their additional bars help keep the kids hands up but aren’t essential.

The macride adjustable foot loops thing is seen as a big selling point but is of limited value if used on suspension bikes as at even 3/4 compression there isn’t a huge amount of room between feet and tyre. Have a look at some of the reviews and people report that you can’t use the lowest settings on the macride for some bikes. While seated on the shotgun my daughter has plenty of room for her legs, and now stands when on bumpy stuff with lots of room to grow. She is slightly above average height and I reckon it will last until the end of next summer at least. If you wanted to extend the foot rests down a bit more some fairly basic engineering skills would have you sorted but I suspect that you wouldn’t want a child of that size on the front of your bike for any great length of time.

We have a wee ride on one bike and an Oxford top tube seat thing on the other. The oxford one feels a bit cheap and nasty and was a faff to fit, but it does work well. I think I picked it up for £35 from amazon Both 3 and 5 year old have been on it and it’s fine, even though I didn’t think it would be. I’ve taken them on some reasonabky rough off-road

I have seen the Oxford one but looking at the reviews people have slated it for damaging frames and just generally being a bit cheap.

Yeah can anyone review the Oxford one for slopey top tubes?

Looks like it fits a flattish one easily. £120 for the SHotgun is a lot – but I’ve had a go on a mate’s and it is very good. But if I can get an Oxford one for £50 or less, I’d be happier.

Any info gratefully received.

Hi all – I want to get the Yepp Maxi for my son, and I think I have the space (one spacer) on the steerer tube, but the A-Head adaptor, which I think I need, doesn’t look like it will fit over a very short stem? How is it secured if you can fit that on or is it even needed at all?
Thanks!
Mack

The Yepp Maxi is rear mounted, no? I was looking for front mounted with a short steerer and 50mm stem. Ended up with the Yepp Nexxt Mini, an updated version which has a more compatible bracket. Watch out for non Nexxt versions as they are a PITA with mountain bikes.

I used a rear mounted baby carrier at first with a seat belt and a bit of bounce before I bought a mac ride. It worked really well for road and canal rides and got him used to the bike.

If your based anywhere near West Yorkshire and can collect your welcome to have it for free. It’s just taking up space now.

There are some kids bike seats that are very close in design to the kids ride shotgun seat for sale on Amazon, at about a third the cost of the original.

The Thule front one is great up to age 2 or 2 1/2, mine is just outgrowing it. I think there’s an old and a new model – basically to fit it on a modern MTB, you need the newer one.

I’ve got a Shotgun too, which is cool but I do find it has a tendency to slide/angle itself backwards on the top tube. I blame that on my oddly-shaped top tube

Oops I meant Yepp Mini. I bought one (second hand) so not too much of a risk, see if it fits my mtb. Hopefully it is the newer model. Thanks for your help!

I have a weeride which was great fun. Fits well on my hardtail.

I also tried a yepp mini but couldn’t get it to fit any of my bikes. I’m not sure having the weight of the child affecting your steering is a good idea anyway.

The weeride seat provides a good amount of protection and support for when they are small. It’s not especially comfortable for the adult though, riding with my knees out kills my back.

As with virtually all kid stuff, there’s some annoyingly bad design, such as sharp corners and straps right where my knees rub. Nevertheless we’ve had plenty of fun with it.

I have a Thule Nexxt Mini (front mounted) for my 15 month year old son. I initially tried to fit it to a 1997 Rockhopper. The steerer bracket is not great for threadless headsets as you have to remove the spacers to get it to clamp and then the top tube on that bike is short so I had a lot of knee clash that made it impractical for more than 30 minutes riding.

I then tried fitting it to a old dutch bike we have for the nursery run and it works so much better, quill stem suits the bracket and the mounting point is way higher which means my legs are now below the seat and just tap the bottom of it as I pedal comfortably. Given where Thule are based and the graphics in the instructions I think this is more the intended use. Contrary to what someone said above the impact on the steering is marginal and on the weekend we rode 45km including extensive sections of ‘gravel’. Brillant!

In the meantime I have got a modern secondhand 29er (Voodoo Bizango) and hoping that the 5cm longer top tube will mean I can mount it without knee clash.

I reckon the Nexxt Mini is the solution for this year and then hopefully by next summer he can understand the instruction ‘hold on’ enabling us to switch to a Mac Ride or Shotgun; at the minute his primary response to enjoying it is to wave his arms and bounce up and down in the seat so not ideal for a seat with no straps!

Probably the best gift and best value bike purchase in years

We have the MacRide and I agree with this. To counter the highlighted negatives, if the headset spacer is already fitted it takes seconds to remove or re-fit the MacRide and it works fine with a dropper if you have enough post showing. I also like that it doesn’t touch the frame and the saddle design means small kids don’t go anywhere, it’s really grippy.

But if I was buying again now it would be a tough choice between the two.

I picked up a Nexxt Mini to go on my modern enduro bike, cos its got a slack head angle the back of the bracket would foul the top tube, I already ran my stem as high as it would go too! Tried a wee ride but the bracket wasnt happy with the low profile front end of the frame and the slack head angle also. The nexxt mini didnt play nice on my road bike, think it is only designed for inch steerer stuff, the weeride did fit on my roadie but because of the shorter top tube, I couldnt reach over/around the weeride when my child was in it!

Have picked up a trailer for now, which is nice as can load his spares and more into it. Once he can hold on to things properly I will be getting a macride.

We have the Oxford one, would not fit my Tarn with a heavily sloping top tube, but does seem to be okay on MrsMomos bike (Laura Trott halfords special). As said, it feels fairly cheap (I think I paid £30 from amazon) but the kids are fine on it, I’ve only ridden that bike around the garden when I first fitted it, but I’d have had no concerns about using it had it fitted my frame.

We have got a WeeRide but both of ours have now outgrown it (thankfully!), wouldn’t fit on MrsMomos bike as it hasn’t enough head tube to fit too, same with my full sus. I also had to bodge it a bit to work with the Tarn (long top tube).

I ended up buying the macride (don’t think I’d seen the shotgun back then, also my experience with the Oxford put me off that style of seat) and it’s one of the best things I’ve bought, I’ve had some great rides with both of my girls on the front of the bike now, they’ve both done the blue at sherwood and the eldest has done some of the red with me.

Love our Weeride and so do the kids. Much nicer to ride, the bike feels a lot more balanced and fast. The kids have a lot more fun being up front too as they can see what’s going on – would never go back to a rear mounted one. The shotgun style one looks great but I feel like my kids would stop paying attention and fall off it!

So… got the Thule mini but didn’t fit my Yeti, stem gets in the way. Not sure if the weeride would be much better, mixed reviews above. Any thoughts on best option for a 9 month old, with a Yeti with a shortish steerer tube ? Would rather front mounted. Thanks !

If you want to use the Thule can you not change the stem somehow? Difficult to understand without a picture I guess.

I have a brand new in packaging Feva Star seat if anyone is interested. Retail is £85.

I bought two thinking that we’d have one on each bike for each child but daughter #1 got a bit too big and it was easier to use a trailer with the two kids hence one never got used. Message if it’s any good to you.

https://www.mbr.co.uk/reviews/products/feva-star-child-seat-review
https://www.fevastarseat.com/