Child carrying advice please

doctormick said:

My wife wants to buy a bike to go cycling with my ten and seven year
old daughters

Got one of those :-)

http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk/web/public.nsf/Documents/me-n-u2

Quoted message said:

but also want to be able to take my 21 month old
daughter with her. However we can't decide whether she should go for a
seat on the back or a trailer.

I never found seats terribly satisfactory. A trailer lasts until they are
bigger and has other uses. Or you can get a trailer bike with a mounting
for a child seat, whicih then turns into a pedalling-type trailer bike
later.

Best is a tricky one, though, since everybody's experience seems to eb
different.

Guy
--
May contain traces of irony. Contents liable to settle after posting.
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk

88% of helmet statistics are made up, 65% of them at Washington
University

On 4 Aug 2004 04:10:04 -0700, [email hidden] (doctormick) wrote:

..You've probably seen similar messages before but I can't find the
..advice I'm after in any archive.
..
..My wife wants to buy a bike to go cycling with my ten and seven year
..old daughters but also want to be able to take my 21 month old
..daughter with her. However we can't decide whether she should go for a
..seat on the back or a trailer.
..
..Can anyone tell me from experience which is the best/safest way to
..carry my 21 month old daughter. She weichs approx 28 - 30 lbs
..
..We live in a rural location between Brighton and London, therefore
..busy main roads and narrow country lanes. It's also pretty hilly
..immediately around us. Any ideas would be gratefully received.
..
..Regards
..
..Mike Turner

You have no business subjecting a child to that danger and air pollution! I sure
hope you don't take her where there are smokers....
===
I am working on creating wildlife habitat that is off-limits to
humans ("pure habitat"😉. Want to help? (I spent the previous 8
years fighting auto dependence and road construction.)

http://home.pacbell.net/mjvande

doctormick said:

You've probably seen similar messages before but I can't find the
advice I'm after in any archive.

My wife wants to buy a bike to go cycling with my ten and seven year
old daughters but also want to be able to take my 21 month old
daughter with her. However we can't decide whether she should go for a
seat on the back or a trailer.

Can anyone tell me from experience which is the best/safest way to
carry my 21 month old daughter. She weichs approx 28 - 30 lbs

We live in a rural location between Brighton and London, therefore
busy main roads and narrow country lanes. It's also pretty hilly
immediately around us. Any ideas would be gratefully received.

Regards

frame mounted rear seats will really throw your balance off, go for the
trailer.

penny

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

Quoted message said:

frame mounted rear seats will really throw your balance off, go for the
trailer.

penny

Plus you can stuff the trailer with lots of toys!!

Cheers,
Alvin Liau

doctormick said:

You've probably seen similar messages before but I can't find the
advice I'm after in any archive.

My wife wants to buy a bike to go cycling with my ten and seven year
old daughters but also want to be able to take my 21 month old
daughter with her. However we can't decide whether she should go for a
seat on the back or a trailer.

Can anyone tell me from experience which is the best/safest way to
carry my 21 month old daughter. She weichs approx 28 - 30 lbs

We live in a rural location between Brighton and London, therefore
busy main roads and narrow country lanes. It's also pretty hilly
immediately around us. Any ideas would be gratefully received.

Regards

Mike Turner

email [email hidden] removing the words "no chopped
ham" from the address. Keep Britain Spam Free!

I have a Trek Rocket trailer for my son and I'm very happy with it. Pretty
good aerodynamics, seems to roll well, and it's easy to attach and detach
from the bike. My wife and I each have a mount on our town bikes for quick
trailer swapping. It also converts into a jogger which I don't use much, but
is nice when we need a jogger.

Matt

Abdominal internally. Hands and arms externally.

Bill "HTH" S.

S o r n i said:

Abdominal internally. Hands and arms externally.

AIUI at 21 months, they're external. ICBW

A

Mike Vandeman said:

On 4 Aug 2004 04:10:04 -0700, [email hidden] (doctormick)
wrote:

.You've probably seen similar messages before but I can't find the
.advice I'm after in any archive.
.
.My wife wants to buy a bike to go cycling with my ten and seven year
.old daughters but also want to be able to take my 21 month old
.daughter with her. However we can't decide whether she should go for
a .seat on the back or a trailer.
.
.Can anyone tell me from experience which is the best/safest way to
.carry my 21 month old daughter. She weichs approx 28 - 30 lbs
.
.We live in a rural location between Brighton and London, therefore
.busy main roads and narrow country lanes. It's also pretty hilly
.immediately around us. Any ideas would be gratefully received.
.
.Regards
.
.Mike Turner

You have no business subjecting a child to that danger and air
pollution! I sure hope you don't take her where there are smokers....

Indeed. Lock the little [censored] inside all day and make sure they get
plenty of telly. That way the peeeedos won't get them and they won't get run
over.

doctormick said:

You've probably seen similar messages before but I can't find the
advice I'm after in any archive.

My wife wants to buy a bike to go cycling with my ten and seven year
old daughters but also want to be able to take my 21 month old
daughter with her. However we can't decide whether she should go for a
seat on the back or a trailer.

Can anyone tell me from experience which is the best/safest way to
carry my 21 month old daughter. She weichs approx 28 - 30 lbs

We live in a rural location between Brighton and London, therefore
busy main roads and narrow country lanes. It's also pretty hilly
immediately around us. Any ideas would be gratefully received.

This has come up in rec.bicycles.* many times. You might use Google
Groups to search for the discussion.

The usual run of discussion is, one camp believes baby seats on bikes
are dangerous because the bike can fall. They accept only trailers.
And as Guy pointed out, the trailer can have other uses (e.g. hauling
groceries).

The other camp says the baby seats are adequately safe, pointing to the
common use of baby seats, the lack of any injury data, and the natural
care of parents. They mention that trailers are heavy, more expensive,
wide enough to be a hassle in traffic, hard to transport, etc.

Of course, being wreck.bike discussions, each side knows they're
absolutely correct! ;-)

My experience: I used a bike seat with our daughter until she was far
beyond the recommended weight limit (whatever that was). I used it long
enough that I had to reinforce some of the attachments to the bike.

From there, when my daughter was three, we went to a kid-back
attachment on our tandem. This worked until my daughter got to be too
much of a teenager to be seen with her parents. ;-)

Caveat: My wife never hauled our daughter; it was always me. And I had
(and have) _lots_ of experience with heavy loads on bicycles and on
motorcycles. I knew how to handle the balance issues when loading the
kid, when standing over the stopped bike, and when riding very slowly
through tricky spots. If your wife is less strong or less experienced,
you might try a practice ride with a 30 pound bag of sand.

--
--------------------+
Frank Krygowski [To reply, remove rodent and vegetable dot com,
replace with cc.ysu dot edu]

Reply to Doki

Quoted message said:

Mike V*ndem*n wrote:

Did he? The bozo bin is working, I see. ;-)

--
Mark, UK.
We hope to hear him swear, we love to hear him squeak,
We like to see him biting fingers in his horny beak.

(doctormick) said:

Can anyone tell me from experience which is the best/safest way to
carry my 21 month old daughter. She weichs approx 28 - 30 lbs

A trailer.

doctormick said:

You've probably seen similar messages before but I can't find the
advice I'm after in any archive.

My wife wants to buy a bike to go cycling with my ten and seven year
old daughters but also want to be able to take my 21 month old
daughter with her. However we can't decide whether she should go for a
seat on the back or a trailer.

Can anyone tell me from experience which is the best/safest way to
carry my 21 month old daughter. She weichs approx 28 - 30 lbs

We live in a rural location between Brighton and London, therefore
busy main roads and narrow country lanes. It's also pretty hilly
immediately around us. Any ideas would be gratefully received.

Regards

Mike Turner

Sorry, just sold my trailer last week. :-)
I like trailers much more than the seats. See Penny's post. Around
here (Salida, CO-Mtn town in southerrn Colorado), you'll see lots of
mountain bikes pulling a trailercycle (Tag-A-Long etc) with the 4-8 year
old riding it, and the trailer with the baby attached to that. We
thought of doing that with our tandem, but figured that my daughter
would be in the next time zone, so gave it a pass.

Shawn

S o r n i said:

Abdominal internally. Hands and arms externally.

Bill "HTH" S.

Bill are you getting tutored in posting style by Crazy?

scurry said:

S o r n i said:

Abdominal internally. Hands and arms externally.

Bill "HTH" S.

Bill are you getting tutored in posting style by Crazy?

Jeez, between you and Monique, EVERYBODY'S PICKING ON ME!

Bill "where's Lucy with the football?" S.

http://www.specialtyoutdoors.com/misc/babyseat.jpg

here's how they do it in some countries. We built one like this ourselves
for around town, it's actually much more stable than over the back wheel as
the CG doesn't change a whole lot and the kid is inside your arms. I'd
still go with a trailer for off road.

penny

In rec.bicycles.misc S o r n i said:

Jeez, between you and Monique, EVERYBODY'S PICKING ON ME!

i've been consciously holding back, fwiw. i'll be back when there's a
lull.
--
david reuteler
[email hidden]

JohnB said:

pas said:

http://www.specialtyoutdoors.com/misc/babyseat.jpg

here's how they do it in some countries. We built one like this
ourselves for around town, it's actually much more stable than over
the back wheel as the CG doesn't change a whole lot and the kid is
inside your arms.

I've never liked this kind of arrangement as it places the child at
some risk in the case of an emergency or sudden stop. At least the
example you show has a rigid back that should help prevent the adult
crushing into the child. the worst are those clamp on saddles that go
on the top tube with two foot supports attached to the down tube.
However I don't like the idea of the child being flung forward onto
the handlebar clutter or worse, which even with strapping is possible
with some arrangements. At least if they are on the back they have a
soft back to knock into.

John B

trust me, it's much more stable than the baby on the back of the bike.
After all, three million third world cyclists building them at home can't be
wrong!! The one we built had a little seat on the top tube, foot rest and
no back the kid just held onto the handlebars. I don't know about trails but
it was great for the bike path

The rear tyre thing is just - bad. You have to remember to compensate for
the weight of the kid everytime you stop. The kids' weight, and you could be
riding with an extra 30# back there, will really throw you off even if you
have to swerve. If you are really worried about "risk of emergency stop"
or a kid being flung around, perhaps you should not take your baby out at
all... there's going to be risk no matter what.

penny

doctormick said:

You've probably seen similar messages before but I can't find the
advice I'm after in any archive.

My wife wants to buy a bike to go cycling with my ten and seven year
old daughters but also want to be able to take my 21 month old
daughter with her. However we can't decide whether she should go for a
seat on the back or a trailer.
Can anyone tell me from experience which is the best/safest way to
carry my 21 month old daughter. She weichs approx 28 - 30 lbs

We went through almost exactly the same scenario with the result that I
would fully recommend you take the trailer option.
We took three of ours from six weeks onwards in a trailer then onto the
backs of tandems/tandem trike.
Our first daughter went into a kiddie seat from which we learned their
drawbacks. The centre of gravity is so high that it had a big effect on
handling, making the bike top heavy. Wheeling the bike became difficult
and great care had to be taken when parking.
Parking the trailer was a doddle.

My wife also rode a tandem with one child on the rear using kiddiecranks
and pulling the trailer behind with our youngest.
Another big advantage is that they can take other luggage - shopping,
teddy bears, camping equipment.
At 21 months you may need a light car seat strapped into the trailer,
depending which model is used (we had a Burley).

When able to pedal, say about 3 1/2 to 4yrs old I would also recommend
moving on to a tandem rather than using the pull along trailerbikes.
This will develop pedalling techniques whereas a trailerbike can have
the child just sitting there freewheeling.

Quoted message said:

We live in a rural location between Brighton and London, therefore
busy main roads and narrow country lanes. It's also pretty hilly
immediately around us. Any ideas would be gratefully received.

As much as it sounds odd, trailers are very safe and other vehicles give
*much* more room than they do to solo bikes and trailerbikes. Just make
sure you have low enough gears to be able to grind slowly up the hills.

John B
http://www.hampshirecycletraining.org.uk/

pas said:

http://www.specialtyoutdoors.com/misc/babyseat.jpg

here's how they do it in some countries. We built one like this ourselves
for around town, it's actually much more stable than over the back wheel as
the CG doesn't change a whole lot and the kid is inside your arms.

I've never liked this kind of arrangement as it places the child at some
risk in the case of an emergency or sudden stop. At least the example
you show has a rigid back that should help prevent the adult crushing
into the child. the worst are those clamp on saddles that go on the top
tube with two foot supports attached to the down tube.
However I don't like the idea of the child being flung forward onto the
handlebar clutter or worse, which even with strapping is possible with
some arrangements. At least if they are on the back they have a soft
back to knock into.

John B