Sorry, Another child related post. This time offroad prams

I'm looking to get some sort of offroad friendly pram for bridleways and the like, instead of rattling the normal one to bits. I'm guessing larger diameter pneumatic tyres are a starting point. I've seen some 3 wheeled 'rough terrain' types in mothercare but they don't seem to be up to much.
I do remember someone on here mentioning one that could also be converted into a trailer too, cant find it now though.
It's to suit a baby of 1 month plus.

at 1 month+ you should be carrying them in a front mounted inward facing baby sling.

Get a bike trailer that can be converted? I have a Croozer which can be a trailer, stroller or push-chair. You'll have to wait until baby is about 10 weeks though and you'll need a baby sling for it.

Ballsofcottonwool – says who?

so it will last a good while I'd be looking at getting a buggy that will convert from a pram to pushchair and has adapters for your car seat and keep the baby in that on rougher journeys while they're ickle. Most decent baby car seats have a cushion that holds their head still.

There are tons of good options for good off-road buggys, unfortunately Mothercare doesn't really seem to cater towards the sort of people who want them. look in your local Yellow pages for independant Pram shops, you'll have better luck there (or should do)

your car seat should also be able to be strapped into most kiddie trailers (some will be designed for it and others will simply take a little ingenuity)

I have twins and we have a Mountain Buggy, the are expensive but they are really well made. We got our second hand on ebay.

I got the terrain version as the front weeks are fixed and it will really cope with anything, including the deep snow and subsequent deep mud we have had recently.

You can also get a carry cot to use with a baby, or attachments to fit a car seat.

Says Me.

A sling carrier gives you far more choice of where you can walk and they're easier to park up in the pub/cafe.

mtbfix – the Croozer looks good. Where did you get it from?

sorry, Park a sling carrier? what i'm thinking of wouldn't need parked?What are you calling a sling carrier?

I always park my wife in a seat before going to order the drinks.

I'd also opt for the baby sling (Baby Bjorn, although others are available) up to one month as the baby will be very small (and light) and unable to support its head.

I still carry ours around in a sling sometimes, but he's now 4 months old and getting heavier so I tend to use a back mounted carrier which is better for my back.

We also bought a Chariot bike trailer which is excellent and converts into a three-wheel off-road buggy quickly and easily. I managed to push him up and down some fairly tight and steep singletrack with no problems. The best thing is that it has suspension to cushion him on the 'drop offs' (or steps as they're also known) a big front wheel to cope with the bumps, and powerful bar operated brakes on the back wheels. The down side is that it is very long when in this mode and also very expensive if bought new (I got mine from ebay for a similar price to a new mountain buggy). It has a baby-sling which can be used as soon as his neck was strong enough to support his head but while he is too big for the proper seat.

Chariot are the dogs bolx but not cheap at all. You can get a baby sling for it to hold tiny babbies, it's a trailer, it's a great pushchair since it has 20" wheels which roll beautifully, far better than anything else I've pushed, and the centre of gravity is super low for great lifting over things.

The more expensive ones have decent adjustable independent leaf spring suspension too not a token plastic linkage like some.

But again – not cheap 🙂 I'd also second a sling for small babies moving to a rucksack carrier for bigger ones – it's really better all round, as long as you or your SO are prepared to carry the LO. Close carriers are the best I've seen for front mounted. Super comfortable and really wide soft shoulder fabric instead of diggy-in straps but there are millions of others around. Slings are nice cos your baby's cosy up against you and feeling the love, rather than being plonked in a chair and wheeled around like baggage 🙂 We did use pushchairs from about 6 weeks (see below), getting more and more as she got older. Now she never slings (9 months) but for walking we use a macpac rucksack jobbie instead of a chair.

Dr Bakes – the baby sling doesn't need the baby to support its own neck (the baby support does, not the sling) since it's basically a hammock. Our lass came out in ours at 6 weeks on the bike, and a fair few times in pushchair form.

Oh and never shop at mothercare for anything, it's crap and overpriced.

Baby Jogger do the proper running push chairs – up to 20" wheels. Not recommended for the very young (shaking and all that). As above – not cheap.

+1 for Chariot.

Not suitable serous off road use when the baby is 1 month old though.

As mentioned above they are expensive but in my opinion are well worth it. They are bombproof.

LOL @ ballsofcottonwool

Modern day child rearing is a tricky business it seems. So much to buy, so little time (before they grow up)…

Just looked at both the Chariot & Croozer & they both look ace. Will probably get one of those baby bjorn things for now. Ta.

My mate's got this one and they've found it very good for what you want it for.
Out n about
I think it's what I will be getting in April.

We had an Out n About 10K, 16 inch wheels and no front swivel on the leading wheel, a great thing if you can still get them.
When buying one of these, check for the balance, imagine baby is on board, you should be able to push it easliy on the two back wheels, it should feel really light and agile, a lot of these out too much weight over the front wheel, you need to be able to loft it easily over obstacles, and baby will love to wheely!

Our Bugaboo is pretty good offroad, you can flick the handle over to have the big wheels at the front. They also do a replacement set of 'snow' wheels to swap out the castor style wheels. Means it's good in shops and good off road. Baby Joggers are also good. Wheel size is definitely key and avoid anything with suspension type wheels. If I use the Bugaboo off road with the sprung castors the springs tend to cause the castors to dig in when they hit a lip, the replacement snow wheels tend to roll over the obstacle as do the main wheels. Both these prams will take a Maxi-cosi car seat (with adaptors, more expense, gets worse than buying extras for bieks) so you'll manage with a little one. The bugaboo also comes with a completely flat carry cot type arrangement for when they are very young.

Both are expensive but very good, also consider a well known quality pram looked after will have a significant Ebay resale value which should go some way towards reciouping the initial outlay.

I'd also recommend finding a good local shop, we were going to buy a Quinny as our second pram but the lady in the shop practically refused to sell us one and pointed us towards the baby Jogger. it's been a brilliant pram and we've since heard of other people with Quinnys wishing they'd bought something else.

My God the parallels between prams and bikes is immense, use your LBS, what wheel / tyre choice, upgradeitists……

We have a baby jogger city elite and it's ace offroad.

Got one of these

Mothercare Urban Detour

10" pneumatic wheels. Can handle anything that we've tried it on.

If I use the Bugaboo off road with the sprung castors the springs tend to cause the castors to dig in when they hit a lip

That's cos bugaboos are insanely overpriced and the suspension on them is a toy. Chariot suspension is great. And for all my warnings about Chariots being expensive they are the same kind of price as Bugaboo 🙂

Jane Slalom Pro. Works great for us and it has a disc brake on the front for a bit of extra trail status.

You can get the full travel system which includes a cot that can be used in the car which also converts into a chair for awake time and the frame itself folds easily and pushes well.

+1 for the Urban Detour, but the front carrier has to be better at 1 month old IMHO.

We used a Mountain Buggy Breeze for all sorts of terrain since the boy was a few months old. It ploughs through mud and copes with rocks and rough ground really well. Not sure if they make that model any more but I'm guessing the other models would be pretty handy at off roading too.

Mos

There's some more Chariot related info over on the bike forum here

A top tip from that thread is that it is apparently cheaper to buy Chariots and accessories from biker-boarder.de in Germany.

Or get someone with a kid to mule them from the States like we did 🙂