Mrs Fisha is due to drop a baby Fisha in May. As the time gets closer, its time to start thinking about all the £££££ … errr necessities of having a little-un. One of the things which seems to be an endless pit of options is buggies etc. There are so many of them.

Having pushed a our friends kids around in a silver cross 4 wheel average buggy thing I came to the conclusion it was crap. The frame was all flexy and it seemed to go where it wanted to go.

I have in my mind that a 3 wheel thing with larger wheels would be good for us as we have horses stabled at a farm and would like a buggy that is going to be able to bump over the yard and farm tracks without too much fuss and generally be easier to push.

And what about these travel system things …. are they good? or is it better buying seperate things?

I know that there are plenty on here who have little ones and would just like opinions / experiences / recommendations as quite frankly … I’ve no idea where to start.

If it helps:
– would like something thats not going to flex all over the place
– it needs to handle the bumps well
– we have a large 4×4, so folding down space isn’t the top priority
– i dont mind paying reasonable money if its going to be good ( although I realise that the most expensive isn’t necessarily the best )

thanks! …. my life is going to change …. waaahhh! 😀

It depends on your needs, so make a list of what you would like it to do.

We used one of these

I like running so it is perfect. Hight so no bending,large foot clearance, very stable (you can tweak the front wheel) has full sun/insect cover as well as full rain cover. Drinks and snacks console, suspension, good braking and is fast and lightweight. Perfect for off-road and miles of running. Probably a pain for crowded city streets.

With my first Grandchild on the way we bought my daughter one of these travel systems. Hauck? seems good to me.
The car seat to buggy touch is good, saves lifting the little’uns out when they’re asleep.

We have a Quinny buzz 3. Its a 3 wheel travel system which ticked most of our boxes. we bought a second hand chasis and buggy and new car seat and pram. We raced about £300 doing it that way.

3 wheelers can be a PIA as the can tip on cambered corners. Get something that fits in your car with minimum fuss – trust me you’ll have enough to deal with without fitting wheels etc when it’s pissing down and windy.

Get a three wheeler for off road duties and a cheap three wheel pushchair for shops etc. much easier. Mothercare ones are perfectly suitable pushchairs – there a copy of the bugaboo or something.

We went round this loop with our son, now 10months. We had a silver cross to start with but frankly it was completely useless, as you say they go where they want! But we had to have it because it was what my wife imagined a pram looked like….. 🙄
We’ve now got an Out’n’about 360 nipper and it’s fantastic, will happily go across a ploughed field, we live on a farm and can vouch for it!
Similar to a Phil and Teds, but 1/3 of the price and very lightweight.
Best advice I can give is go to a real shop (not the magical interweb) and look at some 😀

as above – go to a shop and try them out. like bikes they all handle differently. the shop we went to had a ‘test track’ with steps and a small rock garden. it was really useful as the 3 wheeler quinny i thought i wanted tipped all over the place. also be realistic about where they will really be used. a mountain buggy is great in the open countyrside but a real pain scooting round shops etc

Seems to be a tricky choice. Fancy something light and manouverable when out and about. Though three wheelers are out as mrs blobby doesn’t trust them.

Also a Quinny is out as it sounds like its named after a womans private place!

Is it really possible to have a decent run at a good pace with a baby buggy? Have my doubts.

Oh and any views on slings? Good for long walks or asking for back trouble?

I’m about to sell a bugaboo gecko if your interested. Devon based but might be about to ship. About £200.

Have a look at a stokke xplory with travel system bit like marmite but really easy to manoeuvre and your little one is very high up so you can interact, only issue is price as ours was 1200 with all the bits

anything else is just pretentious middle class oneupmanship..

Our second was born nearly a week ago give or take 2 hours. This time we bought 2nd hand off a neighbour. We bought their quinny buzz with all the associated accessories. They spent close to a thousand quid on everything, we bought it for 200 quid and it’s in great condition as theyre lastly and go everywhere in the car 🙂

Do you actually, really need one? We’ve used slings and carriers exclusively, and they’re so much less hassle – no problems fitting it in the car or on a bus, no faffing about folding and unfolding it, no problems getting around shops or other more adventurous places, and saves an awful lot of money…

I tried and hated slings and carriers so as above the simple answer is to try stuff.

No 2 is due very shortly and I’m perfectly happy with using our Quinny Buzz again. the uk distributors were also very good when a piece got lost during travel in the airplane hold and replaced the part foc.

As to £1k for a buzz system, eh? ours was less than half of that iirc. kiddicare was the shop iirc.

They bought every single piece that was available, the undertray, clip on bag, car seat, Iso-fix seat base, carry cot, all the relevant rain covers, the foot muffs. Winter kit, it’s quite ridiculous tbh

I’m pretty sure we have all that too….

What Bencooper says… keep it simple.

And I loved carrying the sprogs in slings when they were young

Slings (the Wilkinet is great), a cheapo pushchair (like the Maclaren Volo) and a decent baby carrying car seat.

Phil & Ted. Tried pretty much all of them, & Phil & Ted is still the best. Had to laugh at that daft romantic notion that slings & carriers are a viable alternative. Trendy, granted but 5hrs in you’ll be glad of wheels.

Is it really possible to have a decent run at a good pace with a baby buggy? Have my doubts.

Not sure about a good pace, pushing someone else is harder work, but I just saw it as a part of training. I had great runs, some of my son’s earliest memories being out and improved my distance running.

As far as stability is concerned, it never came close to tipping over.

if you are not into running then I’m sure there are more suitable alternatives.

We have a mini Gixer arriving early June, and have spent quite a few weekends looking at prams. Quite a minefield, Mrs wanted a Stokke to start with, but it was abit of a faff to fold and change around the different bits. We had a look at most of the curent travel systems and eventaully ended up looking at the 2nd pram we started with. We have bought a Silver Cross Surf which seems well made and is piss easy to fold, and swap between car seat and pushchair / cot – no adaptors, just straight on and off.
I tried a lot of prams in the shops and some of them were real difficult to lock and unlock in the folded position – bad enough in a shop, but would be a severe pain if you are in a car park / outside in the osiisng rain with a screaming baby in your hands.
The only way to find out is to go to a few of the retailers and try folding, unfolding, changing to car seat etc.

Does get pretty pricy – but i suppose the load is quite valuble!!!!!!!!!

Maybe they’ve come down a hit then clubber or you got a great deal – either way it still saved us a fortune buying theres

I’d say it Definetly depends on your priorities ,if your Definetly going to be going off road with it often then I would go for a 3 wheeler,I’m not aware of any 4 wheeled prams that cope with this well.
As stated before Phil & teds seem to be the best of the 3 wheeled bunch at a price.
With 4 wheels the world your oyster,we have Bebe confort Loola up travel system which I cannot fault.
The Stokke ones look fantastic but at £900 upwards are serious money.
Quinnys look the part but have read quite a few reports on t’internet about them being a bit fragile long term.
Best to get out and trial run a few, the Mamas and papas stores normally have a good selection.

Also re.Cots ,have a look at Amby nature hammocks instead of a regular cot,our little one has one and has slept much better in this than a regular cot.

Had to laugh at that daft romantic notion that slings & carriers are a viable alternative.

Been viable for two years so far 🙂

They’re definitely not trendy – you get parents with the latest alloy-wheeled pimp-buggy looking pitingly at you – but I’ve got no inclination to change. Plus, it’s good exercise, and you get properly close to your child.

well they’re trendy amongst some in a different way 😉

But it does make the point that there isn’t a right answer.

Bencooper +1. Done it with 2 sprogs all over the UK, Europe and in the US and Canada

You can do all these weird things, which don’t involve doors as wide at a disabled toilet, and which do involve stairs. And you stay close to the sprog you love.

I wonder if these mega prams and their rise correlates well with the rise of the soft-roader 4×4 by people who can’t steer or park, yet want to be seen. 😉

or if the modern use of slings, etc coincides with the rise of slacktivism, faux greens and Chelsea ecowarrior hippies?

Back atcha 😉

Buy 2nd hand. You’ll want a system that does pram for 3 months or so, then you’ll not use it again (unless you have another) so don’t waste loads.

Might be worth getting something suitable if you’re going to do off-road stuff, but by far the best thing to buy from 6 months is just one of those everyday stroller things with the umbrella fold. We got one after getting peed off with the Quinny Buzz 3. I think it’s a cossato, about £60. It’s been great. Taken it to Spain twice, Cyprus and Berlin and used almost everyday. On kiddie no. 2 now and still as good as new.

There’s a reason they’re still about from when we were young and the design is the same!

We have a Quinny Buzz 3 and it has been great over the last 11 months. We also got a Maxi Cosi car seat which can fit onto the Buzz frame with some adaptors which are supplied with the car seat.

We have also found that on walks where a buggy would be too much hassle, a baby bjorn carrier has been great.

Enjoy your sleep while you can!!

What you really need to do is work out what you are going to be doing. Long or short trips? On or off road? In and out of the shops or just strolling about? Always using the car or some trips from the house? Will you have a sleepy baby or an easily disturbed one? Think about all that realistically and you might see the advantages and disadvantages of the different types rather than just being confused.

Unfortunately, as the last question highlights, you won’t know all the answers until the baby arrives. It’s not bonkers to have more than one pram, lots of people do this though there is no n+1 equation 😉

To answer the questions above for our family:

Short trips of 30 mins to 3hrs.
Short off road, longer about town.
In and out of the shops.
No car so mainly public transport, lots of trips from the house.
Sleepy baby (pumps fist and yells Americanism).

We’ve got a carrier and a lightweight buggy that cost £90. We use the carrier for local and off road stuff. The buggy goes on the bus to town. Even when we’ve had a car baby is sleepy(yes!) so not too disturbed when transferring her. If we did longer off road stuff I’d want something capable because I have a bad back. Liliana is 8 months now though so cycle trailer is more likely 🙂

I’m glad we didn’t spend much cash, mainly because we don’t have loads. Children can be expensive so it’s a good thing to spread your resources.

baby jogger city mini for us

3 wheeler but very stable, easy to steer with 1 hand, which is useful!
solid ally frame very well made
adaptors for maxi cosi car seats very useful, pram attachment very good too,
it folds down 1 handed instantly, though not as flat as some – still easy to stash in the car etc

also have baby bjorn sling which is good- especially when very small,
a wrap around thingy my wife likes again good when small
and a little life backpack carrier thing which is good too

of them all the city mini gets used the most, especially now hes a bit heavier, use the backpack a lot too

Whats wrong with you all !

Mountain Buggy all the way !

http://mountainbuggy.com/

That’s funny – she seems to have mislaid her baby while strutting down that runway…

We cheaped out first time and got a “chico” something or other decided which was suprisingly sturdy and worked well offoad for ~£100 but the missus decided something more compact and lightweight was needed so we got a mclaren effort – reasonably well constucted but far less stable than el cheapo even for a four wheeler and the MIL couldn’t operate the strap buckle so the chico one still seems to get the most use.

Just had second sprog so started looking for a good double thus time we thought we’d spend a tad more and got looking at the Phill and Teds lot. very nice and look like they hold a bit of value second hand but too pricey for us in the end. wound up going for another cheap job “Grecco” I think inline thing weighs a ton but will shift two kids pluss shopping pretty effetively will see how it goes…

Don’t buy one of those flimsy looking “quinney” showers of shite or any of the other overpriced underbuilt crap for yuppie parents to sachet about the shops with. We didn’t bother with a travel system but they are a good idea when they’re young only trouble is its useful for six months or so and then you need a new seat/pushchair or another clip in thingy for the pushchair overall quite costly but more conveinient I suppose its not like you can really flog em on though.

End of the day go with what suits your needs and budget if its going to have a rough life look at its build quality and avoid small wheels unless its only ever going to be used in shopping centres. look at what is included too rain covers and foot muffs are an essential as is a decent pull over hood sun parasole type thing are cheap tat chucked in as an extra and pretty useless.

Like anything price does not always equate to function or robustness.

Neo Concord Carbon ftw!

What I actually got was a bugaboo from the almighty eBay, so less than half price. A dedicated baby seat that’ll fit on the buggy frame and a backpack for off road duties as the bugaboo is rubbish on tracks, sand, mud etc.

A friends just got a baby jogger which seems like a good bit of kit they’ve got a small wheeled version but I think you can get one with larger wheels and it’s instant folding. No ‘pram’ bit though if that’s an issue

You know how ther are people on here who habitually buy very expensive bikes the flog them at a great loss a few months later? Well, there are people ho do the same with baby stuff.
Look for a quality buggy second hand would be my advice.
We got a Jane 3 wheeler tandem buggy when our second arrived. It had various add ons and would have cost us £465 new.
Got it for £250, less than 6 months old and mint (used outside once!) from a girl whose man worked offshore and cleary had more mone than sense.
Used it heavily for 2 years then sold it for £200. Result 🙂

Not a quinny if you ever go off road with it – we got through one frame, and the second one got creaky pretty quick.

We used a sling for most things, and probably would again, only good thing about pushchair things is that if you have one with a car seat, you can bung a sleeping baby straight on the buggy from the car.

Bear in mind that for many people that fancy pants travel system big pram thing gets swapped at 6 months or so for a small, cheap maclaren, as they are way more convenient.

avoid small wheels unless its only ever going to be used in shopping centres.

LOLocks 🙂

We Had a Quinny Buzz 4 for our first, did everything we wanted it to including walks offroad around Thetford forest.
Still use it now.

No2 is on the way so we bought a SH Phil & Teds with all the double kit, had to buy a few bits and I changed all the bearings in it, but saved a fortune over new, and should still see a fair chunk back in a few years too.

With the quinny, we just got the Buggy and Maxi Cosi adaptors to take the car seat, you dont need the layflat Pram (Thats why all the ones you see S/H are mint) !!

We will now probably sell the Quinny which will see back the cost of the s/h Phil n Teds 😀

buy second hand… is my best advice.

We’ve been through 3 buggies since June,

a £700 Jane travel system which was frankly shit, was called slalom pro.

A quinny version of teh same thing which was much better quality and ease of use.

Now we have a seemingly unbranded one that my mum picked up from the recycling centre at the dump for £10, and its better than teh previous ones by quite a margin. light, swedish, 3 big wheels, folds down really quite small for a big 3 wheeled buggy.

I’d be looking for a mountain buggy as advertised up there by unfitgeezer

I have a P&T for sale in classifieds at the mo if you are interested