Bike to Carry a Co-Pilot Seat

Alexei

Hi All,

I am currently looking for a bike suitable to take a co-pilot taxi child seat.

I currently own Bianchi and Cannondale road bikes, and would like to stay with a similar name I trust.

I think to take the child seat the bike requires bosses on the seat stay and eyelets just above the drop outs.

I went into Evans today and they were about as useful as can be expected.

Does anyone a) have any experience with the Co-Pilot Taxi?
b) recommend a mountain/hybrid between 600-700 quid that I can fit it to.

Cheers

Alexei

chuckcork

Alexei wrote:

Hi All,

I am currently looking for a bike suitable to take a co-pilot taxi child seat.

I currently own Bianchi and Cannondale road bikes, and would like to stay with a similar name I trust.

I think to take the child seat the bike requires bosses on the seat stay and eyelets just above the drop outs.

I went into Evans today and they were about as useful as can be expected.

Does anyone a) have any experience with the Co-Pilot Taxi?
b) recommend a mountain/hybrid between 600-700 quid that I can fit it to.

Cheers

Alexei

Why not a seat behind you, mounted off a bracket bolted to the seat tube?

As for the type of bike, I've tried my girl (18 months &11 kg) on a child seat on a variety of bikes, and in terms of stability found the Dahon Speed TR folder the most stable, and it OK as well on Sirrus and a Dawes Audax (not recommended for drop bars though)

cycledad2

good choice on the co pilot but i reckon you want the limo, not the taxi.

The taxi is an upright and when yr little un falls asleep they will sag all over the place. The limo has a good recline and reclines in such a way that the little un is offered a lot of extra protection and the side walls stops their head from rolling of the seat. The limo is imho the safest seat on the market.

The taxi is too expensive for what it does. You could buy a hamax plus for that money or a prong mounted siesta or siesta clone for a lot less

The CTC guide to family cycling (amazon link on my blog) is written by a chap that used a limo ( on a drop handle bar tourer!)

Re bike advice. What you need is a long wheel base and stable geometry , (plus seat stays bosses and eyelets ). The mountain bike wheel immediately reduces your wheelbase, so if your looking for a hybrid get a city hybrid with a 700 wheel. Avoid the racier geometries and harsh rides. I'm not sure what you plan to do with said bike, but have you considered some of the dutch or german male commuters? batavus \azor etc with £600-700 you'll get a very practical and masculine child carrier.

robertjmiller

The Co-Pilot is great but I don't think it is compatible with bicycles that have rear disc brakes because of what is required to install the Blackburn Expedition Plus Rack

n707301

I have a Co Pilot limo and while I cannot fault the safety aspect of it, I simply cannot get round the lack of luggage. Going anywhere with a young child generally requires nappies, wipes, nappy bags. a change of clothes, bottled/expressed milk, food, etc. I have to question the competance of the designer who neglects such important aspects.

Anyway, rant over, back to getting it to work with disc brakes.

Unfortunately my bike and the blackburn rack was stolen. The replacement bike I have (Tam Saunders, thankyou so much!) is disc brakes and has a topeak rack specifically designed for disc brakes.

Ignoring that the topeak rack is completely incompatible for securing the CoPilot seat (it needs a specific shape at the top of the rack) the main problem is that the width of the rack at the level of the legs of the seat is simply too wide. Now this is obviously not the blackburn rack, but to make the blackburn rack fit you would need to bend the legs outwards to increase the width, and I'm just not convinced the seat would then secure onto the rack without a lot of forcing.

Like I say though, i no longer have the rack to try this out.

robertjmiller

we use our Co-Pilot to take our daughter to and from day care which is short trip and it works well for that. however, I agree that it leaves you struggling to manage toddler gear during long trips and/or errands.

salsajake

Co pilot limo used on Kona Jake cyclo-cross bike (fine for forest rides, canal paths etc) - can be had for around £600 new. Also used on my wife's Trek 4500 mtb, we have blackburn racks on both so we can both take him out.

Jake is a much nicer ride than any hybrid nonsense (hybrid = good at nothing, useless at everything)

robertjmiller

My wife has been using a CoPilot Taxi on her Kona Jake cyclo-cross bike and loves both the bike and the bike seat

salsajake

jakes and co-pilots both sides of the pond!

Word of warning, on the mtb you may end up losing the top sprocket, because of the rack bolt protrusion, I just adusted the top limit screw so it won't drop in and lock the chain. She doesn't mind, although if it was bottom gear she couldn't get, that would be another story! All gears are go on the Jake though, which is good as I also use the pannier rack for my commute

flester

Taxi works fine on a Specialized Hardrock Rigid with the Blackburn rack. The bike is plenty sturdy enough and taking off the seat leaves a useable rack unlike the seats clamped to the seat tube. There was limited clearance for the chain in top gear before I fitted this rack but an extra washer on the cassette side cured that.

NFMC

I've used mine on two Specialiased Sirrus bikes. Found them both to be near perfect with the rack and the co-pilot on the bike.

I'm a hefty 16.5 stones and the bikes coped perfectly with me and my two boys. The youngest is just a bit too big for it now which is a great shame.