weed eater

we've carried our baby daughter in a car seat in our Christiania trike since our she was 3wks old. she's now almost 11 wks and we are borrowing a Chariot trailer with the infant insert. She seems to like that fine too, and it works better for longer rides, as the Christiania is a bit much beyond four or five miles.

We don't own a car though we have used a borrowed or rented one more often than usual since becoming parents. I am so grateful we figured out the baby-on-bike thing a while back, otherwise we'd both be going out of our minds. We take the little one on the bus a lot, too, and she enjoys that as well.

spambait11

Seems Burley has a solution for kids 3 - 12 months called the Burley Baby Snuggler. Don't know how well it works though.

magiccx

We started pushing our little one around in a Chariot with the Baby Sling around 3 months old. Took her for walks a runs on our local hard pack gravel trail. Shortly after that I started to pull her behind the bike in the Chariot, started off with 30 min rides and worked up to 1:30 junts. This last summer when she was a bit over a 1 year old I'd take her out for close to 2 hr long rides doing a local loop around a lake. There is a big shoulder/bike line the entire way and lot and lots of bikers, so I felt it was safe (less likely to get hit by a car). Kinda fun pulling her, makes hills a real work out and I',m using my Cross bike so 36x26 is my lowest gear and makes me dig deep on steeper and longer hills.

She's out of the baby sling now and we have passed it on to friends with a new born and they have started taking thier little out for walks in a Chariot on a trail near them. I know of people that take their kids mountain biking in Chariots (couple years and older).

Never thought about putting a car seat in there. Once you have them in the sling, their heads are not moving and they don't tip forward. We'd just time hour+ long rides with nap time, head to a local lake or something and then picnic once there. I looked at a lot of options and everything pointed to the Chariot (Cougar 1) so we got that.

I also use the trailer now and then to haul clothes to work (I bike commutte 30+ miles each way) and it's great for utility work like that too. Holds many bags of shopping too!

Sancycles

Perhaps the Japanese bicycles such as the Maruishi Frackers have something for your need. One of their model has a carrier wherein you can lay your baby.
Take a look at this one:

Ka_Jun

Frackers?!? Best name for a rig model, ever.

LostViking

My daughter is just rounding 15 months and my wife bought a seat that we''ll attach between the handlebars and the seat of my hybrid. I don't think the weather will allow us to ride for another month at least. We did buy a helmet for her as well...why risk an unnessessary head injury?

I think the trailers are a great option, just think that baby would get more of a kick out of the experiance in a seat with a better view and the wind in her hair. The Baby Bjorn idea seems really iffy to me. I do agree with those who say that you should wait until baby can wear a helmet and keep her head up...that seems like common sense to me.

spambait11

As long as you don't get baby sick this way... which I did.

Six jours

Was it the view that contributed to her illness, or the wind in her hair?

spambait11

The wind. Nice for me, since I was doing all the work; not so good for baby. I thought I dressed him pretty warmly too. We invested in a trailer shortly thereafter.

Six jours

In case you couldn't tell, I'm poking a bit of fun. There's no real evidence that being exposed to wind will cause illness. Babies get sick, is the bottom line. Don't blame yourself.

spambait11

I won't doubt what you say, but, for me, the correlation was just too close. He greatly enjoyed the ride though, runny nose and all.

wrobertdavis

BS! This thread is making me ill. An infant is not a young child by a long shot. They are considerably more fragile. I think the OP should get an education about the difference so he won't even consider the question.

Bob

10 Wheels

You don't know anything about babys untill you post pics of your GrandTwins.

wrobertdavis

You caught me in irate grandfather mode. If you insist.

idoru2005

We recently started biking with our 9 month old. She's able to hold her helmet on her head pretty well. We use a BoBike Mini. I've posted some photos on Flickr:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/dsantos...7614701139440/

clancy98

newborns can't even hold their heads up WITHOUT a helmet on. Why would you put the baby in danger?

JeffS

Same reason people endanger them by putting them in a car?

JeffS

My daughter definitely enjoyed her bobike. Sadly at 2 years she's just about outgrown it. I made a stem change on my bike once to give her more knee room, but the end is near.

idoru2005

Hi JeffS,
When I learned about the BoBike, my baby was only 4 or 5 months old. But I bought the seat anyway. I started practicing putting the helmet on her at about 8 months just to get used to it. She hated wearing it, but as soon as we got her on the bike (which I recently installed on the Bianchi), she stopped fussing with the helmet and just enjoyed the ride.

When I first brought the seat home, my wife was very very skeptical about it and very worried about me taking our daughter out for rides. As you can see from the pictures, she was sold after the first mile.

xeney

My husband has nixed the front-mounted carriers for our 19-month-old. He's been in three car-related wrecks where he went over the handlebars, and he just doesn't see how that would not be incredibly dangerous. So we are sticking with the trailer, which she loves, but it's not so great for errands. If I had it to do over again I'd get a double trailer so I could haul some groceries.

droptop

my dad used to have a seat that was behind his. i was quite high up, like where a rack would go. he would do 40+ miles like this. he did this until i was old enough to ride my own bike.

xeney

Husband is willing to consider a rear-mounted seat, but I am not interested in one of those since it would mean I could not use my rear rack/baskets for carrying groceries anyway. I'm better off with the trailer in that scenario.

gfrance

My boy is coming up on 8 months and we recently got a rear child CoPilot seat. Then got a Giro Me2 helmet. He fits fine in the seat and the helmet fits fine (though it took some time to get fitted).

However, when you put him in the seat with the helmet, it seems to flop down into his face.

I'm wondering if this is just part of the design problem of this kind of seat when used with a helmet...

Any thought? Anybody use this kind of combination?

Snow_canuck

And the marketing department.

LostViking

Wind does not make a kid sick. Bacteria, germs and viruses do. Infants and toddlers are always getting sick as thier immune systems are still developing - exposure to people with illnesses makes (all) people sick, unless they have the required anti-bodies. I wouldn't deprive my kid of "the wind in her hair" to avoid illness anymore then I would seal her up in a bubble to avoid exposure to the common cold.

That said, sounds like the rear mounted seat might be marginally safer than a seat mounted between seatpost and head tube. Might be academic - as they grow out of them so quickly. I'm already shopping for a new solution as the little one has grown out of our current set-up.