Bicycle Trailers vs Kiddie Seats.

"Jim Stevens" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...
: Folks,
:
: Looking to carry a bub around in the bike with us, just a hour or two
on
: flat paths ( not always sealed ) and I am trying to decide the best way to carry her. Any
: recommendations / advice gratefully received.
:
: Jim
:
:

My opinion... The trailers look cool but are expensive... (like the cool stop range) which have an
optional extra to turn it into a running pram. I ended up buying a seat that attaches to the bike
but is suspended which means bubs doesn't take all the shock you do. It was a lot cheaper figuring
that I will only get a few years out of it. Occasionally you will get someone selling the trailers
second hand and you can be lucky and get one of these.

Peter

Jim Stevens said:

Looking to carry a bub around in the bike with us, just a hour or two on flat paths ( not always
sealed ) and I am trying to decide the best way to carry her. Any recommendations / advice
gratefully received.

When I do an aus.bicycle FAQ, this question is gonna be in it 🙂

Both:
- Child needs decent head control, approx 1 year old although I read about someone who strapped
their car capsule into a trailer.

Seats:
- cheap (around $100(?))
- back & front (Bobike mini) available
- child is exposed to the elements
- child goes over with the bike in a crash (seen this happen twice)
- you can talk quite easily with your child
- must be cautious that legs are properly strapped in (and not near spokes / wheels)
- weight?

Trailer:
- expensive ($500-$1000)
- can hold 2 kids (Trek models up to 45kg)
- bike can stack, but trailer stays put
- slim chance of rolling it if you clip a gutter in exactly the wrong way at speed
- difficult to talk to your kids, near impossible with the plastic weather-shield down
- Child is not exposed to the weather (dont forget hot sunny days too) and is toasty warm in
winter/rain.
- weighs about 10-12kg depending on the model
- has plenty of 'boot' space for nappy bags, drinks, food, spare change of clothes, big doll, and
the other doll.
- Food & drink tends to get trampled into the floor (but you can just about hose it out)
- high wind-resistance
- makes your bike into a wide load
- weight of children is not directly on the bike
- can convert trailer into a stroller (very important for touring)

As you can probably guess most of my experience is with trailer. We towed both the brats 1200km
touring last year (and many km since) When they weren't being towed, they were being parambulated
with the stroller conversion kit engaged.

For quick trips, the seat is probably better/quicker but for longer ones the trailer is great.

If you wanna come have a test-run or something, feel free to come try ours (Lake Macquarie, NSW)
It's the low-end trek 'transit'. You can see them at Clarence St Cyclery in Sydney (Trek models), or
Rod Martin Cycles on the Central Coast (The pacific and Kool-stop).

I hope this helps, and feel free to email me specific questions. If you search
groups.google.com you'll probably find my other posts on this topic which are perhaps a bit
more verbose than this one.

cheersbigears, -kt

"Jim Stevens" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Folks,

Looking to carry a bub around in the bike with us, just a hour or two

on

Quoted message said:

flat paths ( not always sealed ) and I am trying to decide the best way to carry her. Any
recommendations / advice gratefully received.

You only need to see a kid in a kiddie seat go down when a bike gets dropped (wearing a helmet) ONCE
to be convinced of the value of a trailer. We ahd l;ots of adventures with our two in the trailer,
but they both came out of it happy and well. Otherwise I can recommend Kingsley's advice tips.

Cheers Peter

"Jim Stevens" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...
: Folks,
:
: Looking to carry a bub around in the bike with us, just a hour or two
on
: flat paths ( not always sealed ) and I am trying to decide the best way to carry her. Any
: recommendations / advice gratefully received.
:
: Jim
:
:

Obviously Kinglsey has it down. Way to go with the FAQ. You should copy and paste that in.

I think he hit the nail on the head when he said how you use it. I mean if you are going to tour
then the trailer is the go due to its comfort for the child and also the storage space. If you are
talking about riding around on a flat bike path round your local lake (Like Kingsley's Warners Bay
run) at low speeds and are a confident rider then the seat is ample. I am not sure that the
pedestrians on shared paths would be too happy with the trailer option as they are wide.

I dont know about the 12 months limitation. I think that depends on the baby. The thing is they have
to support their head well. My son was walking at 10months and I was able to take him out on the
bike from about 6 months.

My decision was based purely on the fact that I would only be going on slow flat rides on bikepaths
or on our local streets which are very quite. I am a bit paranoid taking my child out on to the open
road (that's just me - please do not leap in and attack me for that stance, you will not change my
mind no matter what sort of names you call me).

Cheers Peter

Quoted message said:

Trailer:
- slim chance of rolling it if you clip a gutter in exactly the wrong way at speed

Yep, a trailer-towing acquaintance told me how his trailer rolled going around a roundabout, and he
only noticed after having dragged the thing on its side for about 10m (he IS a strong rider)! Now
they have an intercom fitted so that kiddie(s) can keep dad fully informed of their attitude (not
just happy/grumpy, but also vertical/horizontal)...

&roo

Add Kid seat - up high can see the world and engage at your level trailer - down low sometimes can't
see the forest for the trees. Difficult to share info "look Jemmima cows"

mind you I think most kids are diplomatic as they think "god, dad you do rabbit on, just let me go
back into my space - I'm tired of cows"

cheers

col

kingsley said:

Jim Stevens said:

Looking to carry a bub around in the bike with us, just a hour or two on flat paths ( not always
sealed ) and I am trying to decide the best way to carry her. Any recommendations / advice
gratefully received.

When I do an aus.bicycle FAQ, this question is gonna be in it 🙂

Both:
- Child needs decent head control, approx 1 year old although I read about someone who strapped
their car capsule into a trailer.

Seats:
- cheap (around $100(?))
- back & front (Bobike mini) available
- child is exposed to the elements
- child goes over with the bike in a crash (seen this happen twice)
- you can talk quite easily with your child
- must be cautious that legs are properly strapped in (and not near spokes / wheels)
- weight?

Trailer:
- expensive ($500-$1000)
- can hold 2 kids (Trek models up to 45kg)
- bike can stack, but trailer stays put
- slim chance of rolling it if you clip a gutter in exactly the wrong way at speed
- difficult to talk to your kids, near impossible with the plastic weather-shield down
- Child is not exposed to the weather (dont forget hot sunny days too) and is toasty warm in
winter/rain.
- weighs about 10-12kg depending on the model
- has plenty of 'boot' space for nappy bags, drinks, food, spare change of clothes, big doll, and
the other doll.
- Food & drink tends to get trampled into the floor (but you can just about hose it out)
- high wind-resistance
- makes your bike into a wide load
- weight of children is not directly on the bike
- can convert trailer into a stroller (very important for touring)

As you can probably guess most of my experience is with trailer. We towed both the brats 1200km
touring last year (and many km since) When they weren't being towed, they were being parambulated
with the stroller conversion kit engaged.

For quick trips, the seat is probably better/quicker but for longer ones the trailer is great.

If you wanna come have a test-run or something, feel free to come try ours (Lake Macquarie, NSW)
It's the low-end trek 'transit'. You can see them at Clarence St Cyclery in Sydney (Trek models),
or Rod Martin Cycles on the Central Coast (The pacific and Kool-stop).

I hope this helps, and feel free to email me specific questions. If you search
groups.google.com you'll probably find my other posts on this topic which are perhaps a bit
more verbose than this one.

cheersbigears, -kt

John Doe said:

I dont know about the 12 months limitation. I think that depends on the baby. The thing is they
have to support their head well. My son was walking at 10months and I was able to take him out on
the bike from about 6 months.

Yeah that's about what we did with the baby v2 since he was a bit bigger. However the doco that
comes with the Trek trailer does say "one year" so I figured I should include a note about it.

-kt

"kingsley" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...
: On Tue, 24 Jun 2003 23:16:53 +0000, John Doe wrote:
:
: > I dont know about the 12 months limitation. I think that depends on the baby. The thing is they
: > have to support their head well. My son was walking at 10months and I was able to take him out
: > on the bike from
about
: > 6 months.
:
: Yeah that's about what we did with the baby v2 since he was a bit bigger. However the doco that
: comes with the Trek trailer does say "one year" so I figured I should include a note about it.
:
: -kt

Too true. Best to go with the minimum recommended.

Peter

Jim Stevens said:

Folks,

Quoted message said:

Looking to carry a bub around in the bike with us, just a hour or two on flat paths ( not
always sealed ) and I am trying to decide the best way to carry her. Any recommendations /
advice gratefully received.

Its probably been raised already, but the anti-car baricades on bike paths generally means that a
trailer won't fit through, a tandem won't fit through, an adult tricycle won't fit through, a bike
with panniers will only just fit through. Some of the recumbents can fit under them though!

Stairs are problematic too. Not sure where you are, but there are a few bike paths that have flights
of stairs in them.

Quoted message said:

Jim

Adrian

---------------------------------------------------------------
Adrian Tritschler "][email hidden] Latitude 38°S, Longitude 145°E,
Altitude 50m, Shoe size 44
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