any tips for first ride with baby on the back please?

popette

Hi,

I just bought a new MTB so that I can attach a child seat and go out with all the family on our bikes. I picked it up yesterday and I'm going out with my youngest later today while the others are all at school/nursery. Just wondering if there are any things that I need to be aware of or any tips that you might have for safe cycling with a baby on board.

Thanks all

london_commuter

Hi,

Firstly, you will have great fun and so will your young one. My 18 month old much prefers riding with his dad than being cooped up in the car!

You have to aware of the extra weight at the back of the bike. Sounds obvious but on a couple of occasions I have looked over my shoulder and started to wobble dangerously. So when you intend to do this just slow right down or even stop until it is clear. Soon you will get used to the new handling characteristics of the bike. The only other thing was that after strapping the baby into the seat DO NOT lift the handlebars even slightly to manoeuvre the bike. Again I did this once and almost ending up flipping the bike :-(.

Good luck!

Ian Sims

I agree with london commuter comments. One thing you can do to combat the slight instability is to put a lowrider rack on the front forks and have panniers up front with what ever you need to carry. Depending on the seat you have, there may be no room for panniers at the back anyway.

The other thing is to take it easy to start with. Keep it short and keep it fun, until they're used to it. We've now progressed from having my son in a child seat (up to 100 km in a day), to having him stoking on the tandem, with kiddy cranks; he's just under 4 years old. So we no have space for our daughter on the child seat.

Have fun.

baudman

My tips depend upon the answer to this question - How old?

popette

one is 10 months and one is 26 months but he's a very big boy. I've taken them both out now and really enjoyed it. I'm not sure how good it's going to be as a training method for the etape but it was great fun.

plain lazy

yeah, as mentioned keep your weight forward and be especially carefull when getting off the bike as the centre of gravity it now behind the back wheel. Also the bike will behave very differently so be careful when banking. i made the mistake of lifting the front wheel to jump a kerb with my little one on the back and ended up pulling an Eddie Kidd style wheelie......very scary. i take my little one mountain biking but as i have to ride about 4 miles to the woods, i get my wife to drive the nipper in the car and meet me at a layby. I know you dont need to be told this but wrap the nipper up to keep the wind out. as they are sitting still and wont be generating and heat. its great fun, you'll love it

baudman

You've done all the hard stuff by now.

As said - just ride carefully/safely. Not the time for speed records.

t4tomo

Get a seat that is positioned in front of you, not a rear one. Much better for stability and communication plus you can offer some protection to them should the worst happen.

No good for Eddie Kidd Wheelies but there you go, although I have managed a small bunny hop off a speed bump with a 5 year old on a cross bar seat down the driveway to the hockey club.

popette

is it ok to have one and the back and one in the front?

t4tomo

I guess so, It will certainly get you fit. On a practical note though will you be able to get your leg over (pardon the expression) with a seat both for and aft. I swing my leg arond over the back wheel with my cross bar mounted seat, but the rear seat prevents you from doing this.

I guess a handle bar mounted one (I used to have one of these when they were smaller) and a ladies step through frame and a rear seat combo woud work.

With reference back to the leg over, if you get to three kids then you will struggle without resorting to a tandem.

popette

I've got four kids! the problem we have is that our four year old wouldn't be able to keep up and just wants to ride for a few metres and then get off again. My 9 year old is fine riding solo, my 10 month old goes on the back of mine, the two years old on teh back of my husbands but that still leaves us with a daudling 4 year old.
Why did we do it??

t4tomo

I've got 3 and I know the feeling: 8 year old is fine, almost a strong a peddler as Mum, ^ year old is getting there but its hard work and is more inclined to want a lift on the cross bar seat and 4 year old thinks she can keep up on her ltttle bike with stablisers rather than going on the cross bar seat!! ARGGH!!

baudman

Trail-Gator for the 6 year old who can ride their own bike, but is hard work?

Richard_D

The other thing to be aware of as they get bigger but before they migrate to Trail gators or equivalent is that they can sway the bike as they lean left or right to look round Mum or Dad. We also had some trips when my kids thought we weren't going fast enough so we got pats on the back to go faster.

baudman

Richard_D wrote:

We also had some trips when my kids thought we weren't going fast enough so we got pats on the back to go faster.

Giddy up?

trailstaron

Hi there, I've interestedly read all the posts above as I'm planning on getting a child seat for my son to start taking him out.

I'm an experienced, confident rider, but I'm just wondering what other peoples experiences of riding in city traffic are like, as wherever we go we're going to have to ride on busy roads to get there. ie do you feel save with your precious one sitting behind you, as I know from experience the quality of some peoples driving!?

Random Vince

have a look at www.xtracycle.com they make a frame extension which will put a rear mounted seat's centre of gravity back infront of the rear wheel.

they do a child seat system that goes from the child on a seat through to sat holding (and i think strapped onto) the rear load platform.

i'm planning on getting one if i have a family.

cgfreedom

Thats pretty good resistance training right there! We have 4 boys in our house hold 11, 9 , 4 and 2. There are many products we choose from and the best we settled on was the top tube mounted seat which I have had my 9 year old on. However these bike frames today do not allow for the old clamp on saddles, but I now have one that gets them on which I ride off road its very stable and I do do wheelie's to keep them entertained. See for yourself on youtube\littleonescometoo. Happy resistance riding

SmellTheGlove

@ trailstaron

Confidence is key so you'll probably be OK there. Be sure of a good setup, it might sound obvious but having your heels clip the nipper's toes every other minute is a distraction.

I used to find myself taking the lane more often than not if only to make us more visible from a greater distance. I also learnt the phase timings of practically every local junction just so that I could keep momentum by slowing down early and accelerating through the greens. I don't do that half as much when I'm solo.

All in all, having the littl'un on board is a great feeling and just so much fun on a bright cold morning, or any time come to that.

Special K

All your comments are a great help to me as we work out how / if we put our 10 month old onto one of our bikes.

Also, do you put your kids in helmets too? Thoughts or suggestions welcome, thank you.

Underscore

Special K wrote:

Also, do you put your kids in helmets too? Thoughts or suggestions welcome, thank you.

Yep. Our son doesn't normally do hats but seems happy to wear a cycling helmet.

cycledad2

trailstaron wrote:

Hi there, I've interestedly read all the posts above as I'm planning on getting a child seat for my son to start taking him out.

I'm an experienced, confident rider, but I'm just wondering what other peoples experiences of riding in city traffic are like, as wherever we go we're going to have to ride on busy roads to get there. ie do you feel save with your precious one sitting behind you, as I know from experience the quality of some peoples driving!?

My experience is that drivers behave very differently to normal. As a regular commuter i find it very disconcerting. I use a mirror which helps me see whats going on, when a car is hanging back.

On the whole though i know that transporting my boy by bike, is better for him than using a car, which is my other option.

ave_it

One thing to watch out for is your child pulling down your shorts/pants. :shock:

My daughter managed to pull my shorts down over the seat one time so I make sure they are fastened securely now!

RichSbus

The ibert seat allows you to have one on the front and then the hamax on the back, I haven't tried putting both on yet but as there are only 14 months between our two I think we will do next summer when the youngest is big enough. Let me know how you get on please.