Cycling UK Forum

All of this information is great stuff and whilst we saw the advantages in front and rear seats before posting, it is interesting to see different views but in particular, the use of trailers and the pros and cons there and more importantly to us, the age of children and what they can use. I had considered the difficult part as being at an age where too old for a front/rear bike seat but too young to ride themselves and there are ideas to overcome this.

Unfortunately, our position has changed a little. When I said we had city/commuter bikes, we hadn't yet bought them but were all set to go with our LBS having been fitted out etc. Finances dictate otherwise at the moment so we may have to keep our cyclocross bikes. These have drop bars and it was what we were taking the girls out on in rear seats. People use them for a bit of touring too so pulling a trailer would be no problem. There is only one front seat you can use on drop bars, as far as my research tells me but correct me if I am wrong and that's the iBert seat. To my mind, as it fits on the stem if there is enough space on the stem, it seems you can attach it to the bike but in practise, how is cycling with a child like this going to work when you are in a lower position as opposed to upright positioning on hybrids? I can't really imagine it. I have no idea of the cost of changing to straight bars, thinking of other options. A cyclocross bike has a shorter top tube than a racer or road bike so if we did have straight bars, then we will have more of an upright position to use something like the LOCT as StirlingCrispin suggested, especially for our eldest daughter.

We could sell the cyclocross bikes but we only got them in 2009 and for the spec/quality of bike, we would be selling to buy a cheaper bike.

I looked at some cycling holidays and as people suggested, trailers are for hire there so we could use those on holidays but I still think they would be difficult to use on our typical rides with all these obstacles and things and the children are even further away from us than on back seats.

So many things to consider!

eileithyia wrote:As you have learnt, do not bother with American websites. Our trailer carried the warning; not to be used for children under 18 months! That was exactly the intention, by the time they reach 6-7 months they should be able to sit up and support their head thus using a child seat. As I said after this stage the trailer was only used for particularly cold and inclement weather, it was too much of a nuisance otherwise esp on tracks with complicated gates.

I was unable to use a route into Manchester with the trailer until Andrew was able to sit in a bike seat as i could not manage the trailer and gates by myself (and I am no weakling).

At 18 (when I started cycling) I went to York Rally for the first time, whilst not contemplating a family at that stage I was amazed to see the various means by which offspring were integrated into cycling, it was a real eye-opener and wonderful to see that a family was no barrier tocontinuing cycling even if it had to be modified, so just ignore the yanks and the Health and Safety cranks, they do not have the cycle touring history that we have with families IMHO.

This is so true about the gates - I forgot to say that this was talked about last night between us - that a lot of the cycle paths we use have these awkward gates - a set of bars to the left followed quickly by a set of bars to the right - I even find these difficult to cycle through on my own let alone with a trailer which we would have to unhitch. I presume they put these things in to stop motorcyclists or cars or from cyclists even going too fast when approaching a road which the track has to cross.
TRAILERS - pros, we thought good for sleeping, keeping each other company (I am sure that can be a con too), away from the elements of weather (although we would only take them out in fair weather but you can still get caught in a shower as I am sure a lot of you will have had experience of), converts into stroller - a real bonus for us but for how long with the youngest one getting ready to walk? Cons - expensive; we don't consider them as safe being on the ground and we would rather take them on bike paths than the road for safety reasons - perhaps we can be persuaded otherwise awkward with some gates/styles etc and expensive for decent ones
BIKE SEATS - front mounted - pros, more interaction, less boredom, keep an eye on them, less expensive, safer but cons, grow out of them quickly, not suitable for longer rides can't bring a pushchair (or can we???? Anyone taken a lightweight folding stroller on the back of their bike? We haven't got one but maybe it's an .)

meic wrote:The problem of frequent stops is that the child then has to be coaxed back into the trailer from the playground which they DONT want to leave!
So often I have had a wailing child being put into the trailer and I imagine what the onlookers are thinking.
That is on the rare occasions that I have run out of time (or patience, it can be SOOO boring) and we do have to leave the park before she is ready.
Normally my daughter wants to get in the trailer because she knows it is taking her to something she wants but not when it is taking her away from something she wants.

This is true - we don't want any unwarranted attention! This is new territory for us. We want it to be an enjoyable experience and will be worried if the children don't enjoy it without people thinking we are forcing our kids back onto bikes, especially front seats and how unsafe is all that, blah blah blah. I should think some people even have strong views about trailers.

We have come to conclusion that we will have to make compromises in considering what we end up buying as nothing will suit all of our needs. It's now deciding which things are more important to us and which we can make compromises on, which is proving to be difficult

Thank you all so much for your encouragement and advice.

We are looking to do 20 to 30 miles a day, something like that, with plenty of stops - if we see duck ponds, parks, etc. We anticipate a long stop for lunch with time for kicking around a ball while we have a picnic, go for a little walk to stretch their legs - although the youngest has only just started to learn to walk.

It seems people go from childseats to trailers to tag-alongs whereas some go straight from childseats to tag-alongs; some miss out childseats and do trailers from the off (especially if their children are very young) and some even have tandems!

We still like the idea of front mounted seats and have started looking at trailers too. I don't even know whether my children are average height, weight etc, so I could find that out which would give me an idea of how long they could be in a front seat for.

But I don't see the problem in doing 20 to 30 miles a day with plenty of stops. I'm not put off after getting your replies so thanks for that. Some of the websites were American. One had posted about a specifc front mounted seat and whether anyone had used it and what they thought of it; one response was from someone accusing the parent of having no regard for safety of their precious little one if they intended to put him in a front mounted seat! The original poster's response was for people to stick to answering the question please or post elsewhere as this was not a thread for which type of bike seat or trailer thank you very much!

I think I'll buy the Carlton Reid book too, for information on touring with families. I looked at the free podcasts on itunes but whilst there is a lot I could learn from it (being recently new to cycling), I couldn't find the one on families.

Thanks for your responses. I have a child coming up 3 years old and another who is one and a half. They are down to midday naps only now. We have taken them out in rear seats, the eldest one more so but she gets bored. The youngest one has only been out once never cried at all, but not sure if she really enjoyed the experience! We looked at front mounted seats so that we could interact with them and they would not get bored but either the forum posters say they are unsafe (which wasn't the question a lot of people were asking but nevertheless, got a bit of stick from wanting a front seat) or it was cruel to have them in a child seat for anything over an hour. I found a lot of the posts were difficult to understand - how many people have their children strapped up in a car seat for over an hour in a stuffy car, only then to shift the car seat onto the buggy so the baby has no opportunity to have a stretch?! We are now looking at trailers as well but you miss out on chatting with the children whilst cycling out and about.

We have recently joined the CTC and decided to take up biking as something the whole family can do and to encourage the girls as they got older, so I thought I would post here.

Thanks very much for the links. I will check those out now. It's good to read some positive views where people are regularly taking their children out and about.

Hello - not getting much response to my previous thread and have been looking all day for some advice and now come away more despondent about the whole thing! Here is me trying to consider a child seat when, for my purposes, I shouldn't be event taking children in them. A lot of forum posters are saying that it is unfair for a toddler to be placed in a seat for any length of time and just short trips to the shop is what they are made for.

So the question is, how long would you or do you ride with a two year old in a bike seat?

Seems like a biking holiday is out for a while

Hi there - I am looking for a front child's bike seat for more than a trip to nursery - we want to take our girls on day trips. We have tried rear mounted seats but we don't like the girls behind us, particularly as they are now starting to become more interactive and they will not just want to sit at the back all day.

One of our girls will be 3 in the Summer and the other is one and a half. We need something that is comfortable and supporting if they fall asleep. For us, we are 5'5" and 5'7" so not tall people but we don't want to have our legs in an awkward position for cycling on long day rides. Our bikes are city/commuter bikes.

We looked at the Weeride but people say their knees hit the seat. We liked this seat though as there was a head rest for when falling asleep and lots of padding to make it comfortable. Anyone any experience of these at all?

We also looked at the ibert seat but whilst this may be fine for the eldest, we are not so sure about the support for the youngest.

If anyone could give us any information/advice, we would really appreciate it. Thanks very much