Single bike for a tall person to share with a short person

[zude]

Hello, I'm new to this and am hoping to benefit from your collective wisdom. My partner and I usually commute to work by bike, but come the winter we will also be doing nursery drop offs and collections. The roads to the nursery as so busy that we don't feel it would be safe to put the two children in a cart attached to the bikes.

Our routes and schedules are such that we would ideally share two bikes (doing drop-off and collections by foot, and leaving one bike at the nursery for the other to pick up for the next leg of their journey, the other bike at home for the other to pick up for the next leg of their commute, and rotating our use of the two bikes).

Trouble is, my partner is six foot tall and I am five foot. And we both have substantial hills to climb to get to work. Does anyone know of any bikes that are easily adaptable across this range of size and would allow us to tackle the hills?

Many thanks.

Z

[hamster]

Circe tandem? That allows a child seat but the teeny frame makes it usable for either.

[zude]

Thanks for your fast reply, Hamster. Just looked up circe tandems – they look smart, but I can’t see myself managing the hills on one (about 1:3 gradient). Maybe we need two small framed commuter bikes (to use for the non-children part of our journeys)?

[philvantwo]

A bike like Mick F has got, think it's a Moulton?

[drossall]

The limitation is that the main issue in bike sizing is the length of the top tube. This tends to be in proportion to your saddle height (or in rough terms to rider height). So a compromise is going to leave one rider cramped and one stretched.

[Elizabethsdad]

The Urban Arrow sounds like your friend here:-
http://www.reallyusefulbikes.co.uk/gazelle-cabby-1/
I have a Bakfiets long john cargo and love it - only it doesn't have the electric assist of the UA. Rob at Really Useful Bikes will be able to sort you out.

[RickH]

Thanks for your fast reply, Hamster. Just looked up circe tandems – they look smart, but I can’t see myself managing the hills on one (about 1:3 gradient). Maybe we need two small framed commuter bikes (to use for the non-children part of our journeys)?

I've done many journeys that have involved soloing our Helios home - the most frequent (often once a week, sometimes more, from June 2014 until March this year) was home from the station, roughly 7.5 miles & ~1000ft of ascent with 250 ft in the last 1/2 mile.

Wherever I've come from there is almost always the 250 ft in 1/2 a mile unless I come a different way with an even bigger hill! It isn't easy but it is doable (with a 20" bottom gear).

The Helios weighs in at around 18kg or so, so around the weight of a loaded tourer, & handles pretty well solo. The only trouble I can sometimes have is grip on the steep bits when the road is wet as there isn't much weight over the rear wheel (I've sometimes wondered if I should fit reins & move to the stoker's seat on those bits! )

[pjclinch]

A bike like Mick F has got, think it's a Moulton?

Mick has a Moulton TSR, as do I. And it is indeed a one-size-fits-most where all you really need to do is pop the seatpost up and down to accommodate different riders. There's sone adjustment on the bars, but you probably wouldn't want to bother on a daily basis. It's a lovely bike, I much prefer the ride to anything with "normal" sized wheels I've ridden.

Many small-wheelers (typically folders) have this one-size-fits-most characteristic (yesterday, teaching Bikeability to P6 (Y5) kids, one had a dead brake so I lent her my Brompton, it was just a case of putting the seat down enough).

We used to have a Thorn Me'n'U2 triplet to do the school run when the sproggen were wee, and that involved me getting it up a fair hill to get back to work after dropping them, and as long as the granny is low enough it gets there. It's perhaps worth noting that at least IME it's typically easier to get a heavy tandem up a big hill without any small stokers than with them...

Pete.

[iandriver]

I'd echo the folder sentiment. I've got a couple myself. The larger the wheels get above 20" (i.e. the 26 inch wheeled Tern Joe just as one example) tend to have no handlebar adjustment, just saddle height. My guess is a 20" wheeled folder might do the job, but the range of gears can be poor and you say it's hilly. If you can put up with the bad height, then the Joe might be an option.

[[XAP]Bob]

Hello, I'm new to this and am hoping to benefit from your collective wisdom. My partner and I usually commute to work by bike, but come the winter we will also be doing nursery drop offs and collections. The roads to the nursery as so busy that we don't feel it would be safe to put the two children in a cart attached to the bikes.

When you say ' not putting the children in a cart... Are you talking about a trailer...

How else are you looking at transporting them? A trailer is one of the safest ways to do it...

[zude]

Thank you everyone for your thoughtful replies. The Moulton TSR sounds like a particularly good option, but well outside out budget, especially since we’d need two.
After this helpful discussion I’m beginning to think about how to get the wee ones to nursery just using the bikes we already have, or to change our working hours to allow us to walk. Bob, I did mean a trailer. The cars tear down one particular road en route to the nursery (despite 20mph limit). Last year I had a very near miss with my daughter in a Co-Pilot seat on the back of my bike, which has seriously put me off, particularly in dark wet evenings.

[Vorpal]

Thank you everyone for your thoughtful replies. The Moulton TSR sounds like a particularly good option, but well outside out budget, especially since we’d need two.
After this helpful discussion I’m beginning to think about how to get the wee ones to nursery just using the bikes we already have, or to change our working hours to allow us to walk. Bob, I did mean a trailer. The cars tear down one particular road en route to the nursery (despite 20mph limit). Last year I had a very near miss with my daughter in a Co-Pilot seat on the back of my bike, which has seriously put me off, particularly in dark wet evenings.

I got more space from cars with a trailer than I did with a baby seat. Maybe you can borrow or hire one to try it?

p.s There are other folding bikes (e.g. Dahon) that might suit?)

[[XAP]Bob]

Thank you everyone for your thoughtful replies. The Moulton TSR sounds like a particularly good option, but well outside out budget, especially since we’d need two.
After this helpful discussion I’m beginning to think about how to get the wee ones to nursery just using the bikes we already have, or to change our working hours to allow us to walk. Bob, I did mean a trailer. The cars tear down one particular road en route to the nursery (despite 20mph limit). Last year I had a very near miss with my daughter in a Co-Pilot seat on the back of my bike, which has seriously put me off, particularly in dark wet evenings.

Do you have a trailer? I'd try it (empty if you prefer)...

Motorists give a lot more space to trailers than bikes - and there is at least some structure to most trailers as well.

[drossall]

I think the problem is that they judge distance from the outside wheel. On a bike, the outside wheel is in the middle (viewed from behind), but they still judge distance from the outside wheel.

A trailer, or a trike, fixes that, and they know how to judge it properly.

[The utility cyclist]

A ladies hybrid frame with a variable stem. My missus is 5ft 4 and rides a globe pro, If I have a long enough seatpost this is easy enough for me to ride at 5ft 11.
but any good quality like a Marin, Trek FX and the like.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Specialized-G ... Swol5Y177N.