Carrying a child on bike

[Chiefwiggum]

My little girl is tall for her age (3) and so is now too heavy for the rear mounted seat, currently on the bike. She is too young too ride a tag - a - long type bike. What other options are available, are the top tube seats any good? Any advice gratefully received.

 

[Dormouse]

In Denmark trikes with covered cabins at the front are used for carrying 1-2 children around in. I have never seen one in the UK though.

 

[beanzontoast]

Failing that, you can get back rests for tagalongs with a harness on. Kids have been known to fall asleep on tagalongs and fall off.

I remember having the same fear many years ago about rear mounted seats - even though my son was strapped in securely, I recall spending entire journeys talking to him to make sure he hadn't nodded off. A toddler leaning to one side suddenly really upsets the balance of the bike. Maybe designs have inproved since then?

 

[ufkacbln]

Dormouse......

The most common in the UK is the Christiana Trike;


Velorution

The ultimate though is certainly the Nihola "Big"

 

[Bigtallfatbloke]

One thing I would say....at the risk of preaching to th e converted....make them wear a cycle hat. 10 years ago I spent three weeks pottering around the German islands of Fohr, Sylt and Amrum on an old mtb....with my (then) younger son in a seat on the back...we had a great time...but he had no hat on because I didnt have one and I thought it unlikely we would fall on such a flat island and we weren't dong any distances more than a few km. I was right...we didnt fall.

When we returned to the uk we continued to plod around...but for some reason I decided we should both wear hats...we took a serious tumble on the high street and both of us landed on the pavement (thankfully)....there was a large mark on his hat afterwards where his head had hit the concrete.
The strange thing was I recall that he didnt even cry...just looked at me with a confused look on his face as if to say..."you prat!"

 

[User169]

Great, aren't they?-

The prices on that link are extortionate. They cost nowhere near that much in Holland.

I really wish that I could be bothered to start importing these. There should be far more of them around.

To be honest MP, those prices look pretty comparable to Holland; I was pretty taken aback when I realised how much Bakfiets cost.

 

[User169]

I saw the second type in my link with a hub gear, in a pretty expensive shop, for about £300 when I was in Amsterdam in June. Maybe the ticket was wrong.

Not sure what the bottom one is, but the top one is a Bakfiets cargo. It sells for about 1200 gbp in the UK according to the link and they go for about 1400 eur in the shop up the road from me. I'm trying to persuade Mrs Delftse that we really do need one.

If you want something even more pricey, these look pretty good...

http://www.triobike.dk/

 

[PrettyboyTim]

I have a trailer I gto from eBay for £60, which I use three days a week for dropping my son off at nursery. I've heard people say that on the flat you should hardly notice a trailer, but I've not found that to be the case with ours - there's a definite drag. Of course, that might be due to it being a bargain basement trailer rather than a better made model. Anyway my son (also 3) loves going it in. I do find it a bit difficult to hear what he's saying to me from back there though.

I think if you go a bit more expensive, you'll get a lighter trailer (ours is something like 19kg unladen.. ), but for short journeys I've not found it a problem (although it does take a while to go uphill!)