Ideas for transporting a 4yr old and a 1yr old by bike

[Tom B]

So child number 2 is on back order and due for delivery this summer.

At some point I'll be needing to get a one year old and a 4yr old upwards around by bike. Both for school and nursery runs and for pleasure / utility.

My son has been in a child seat since 9months old which has been perfect.

I've got a trailer and I'm not over fond. It's fine on trails and things through its a pain with barriers. But it's a bit wide for the roads and would be a pain on trains etc.

The lad is currently getting going on his frog 40 but it'll be some time before he can ride independently or manage to stay on it for 20+miles (even with a trail gator) and I can't have the back seat and trailgator.

I am considering one of the Circe tandems in their child carrying format's.

https://www.circecycles.com/products/solutions/child-carrying/

They're dear but seem to retain value. I'd really like to try before I buy does anyone know where you can hire them?

Any other ideas?

Constraints are...

Must fit in my shed
Must be transportable ideally on a roof rack and train.
Must be good value.

 

[Dan77]

They don't appear to show their prices which is usually a sign that they're very expensive.

I've been having similar thoughts but for a now 2yo and severely disabled 5yo. The bike that looked suitable with effectively a wheelchair on the front and with electric assist that I think I would need for all that weight came to over £7k, so that's not going to happen. That's without figuring out what to do with the 2 year old but I would think that would have been easy enough to sort if it wasn't a non-starter to begin with.

 

[sheddy]

Maybe have a look at the https://www.cyclesprog.co.uk/ website

 

[Richard Fairhurst]

We have a Circe Morpheus which I've used for transporting our (now) 4-year old since he was very small. We use it with a child seat on the front, so that Junior is facing me as we travel.

It's a great bike and we've enjoyed it very much. As he grows, we're now faced with the decision of whether to upgrade it to full recumbent tandem mode, or to sell up and switch to another tandem we have (a Bike Friday Family Tandem... yes, I do suffer from n+1 syndrome a bit!).

Good things about the Morpheus:

• Bullet-proof and very safe.
• It can go on a car roof if you have a suitably hefty tandem roof rack (we bought one off eBay and customised it a bit).
• Talking face-to-face with your kid is more fun than him/her staring at your rear all day.
• Adaptable - you can use it as a cargo bike (I've collected a Christmas tree on it a couple of times!), and it can of course become a recumbent-style tandem.
• Carries two kids if you like (one on a rear seat, one on the front) though we've only ever used it with one. I guess you could put a tagalong on the rear rack - the Roland Add+Bike is excellent; I've not tested it on the Morpheus but don't see any reason why it shouldn't work.

Disadvantages:

• Not cheap. We bought a 'seconds' frame from Circe (though there weren't any signs of use), sourced the parts ourselves, and got a local bike shop to put it all together. That saved a bunch off the list price, which I think is £2500-ish.
• Not particularly light, though with an Alfine 1x11 I can (slowly) get up the Cotswold hills round here.
• Too big to go by train.

Morpheuses are pretty rare - I'm not sure I've ever seen another one in the wild, though we did encounter an (adult) touring couple on a Hase Pino once, which is similar. The Circe Helios, which is a traditional kid-friendly tandem, is much more common - there are quite a few round here (Oxfordshire).

 

[straas]

Do you have something like Simply Cycling near you? (https://www.simply-cycling.org/)

The one near me has a huge range of different specialist bikes, I think it's about £2 to enter and have a go on a few of the bikes round a track. Could give you a steer on what might work before spending money?

If I had the garage space I'd be interested in something like this