MTB and Child Seat Help

Magic_Dragon

Hi,

I am new on here and just about to purchase my first proper bike. I going to my lbs tomorrow with the intention of coming home with a Specializd Hardrock Sport Disc 2010 after giving it a quick whizz today.

Now I am hoping to take my son along with me on the more gentle rides. He is only just 2 and weighs about 28 lb. There is no way he would ever fall asleep and he is a wriggler so I will need something with good straps. It will need to be comfy for when I go over bumpy bits too as I intend to go on some trails with him.

There is just so much choice when it comes to Child Seats and I am a bit lost to be honest! The guy in the shop told me I could fit any child Seat to that bike but I am not so sure? I think a rear seat would suit us best.

Any advice or pointers inteh right direction would be much appreciated.

fivelittlefish

I started with a rear seat as well, but didn't like how it made the balance of the bike feel, plus it kept hitting the rear tyre.

I found this, which is brilliant - my daughter loves it. I can talk to her, she can see and I feel safer in that I can wrap myself around her if we wipe.

Expensive though...

http://www.loct.co.uk/about_us.html

Magic_Dragon

fivelittlefish wrote:

I started with a rear seat as well, but didn't like how it made the balance of the bike feel, plus it kept hitting the rear tyre.

I found this, which is brilliant - my daughter loves it. I can talk to her, she can see and I feel safer in that I can wrap myself around her if we wipe.

Expensive though...

http://www.loct.co.uk/about_us.html[/quote

Those look like a good idea! However I dont trust my son to sit still on one just yet to be safe, I think he would try jump off!. One to consider for the future though. Plus at that price I would want to make sure it was suitable!

EricE

I looked at this (LOCT) and it looked good until I saw the price. Rear seat I have was forty quid. Its a pity.

EricE

I looked at this (LOCT) and it looked good until I saw the price. Rear seat I have was forty quid. Its a pity.

pansy_pots

I have a weeride centric and love having my little one up front. Would have loved the LOCT seat but too expensive. The harness on the Weeride is good and holds my 17 month old well. Can still fit my tall near 4 year old in it too so pretty long lasting.
I think front or rear seats can be down to personal preference but I didn't like the way the bike handled with a rear seat.

fnegroni

Thinking about LOCT...

all show no go

In our house we use the Co-Pilot Limo childseat. It fits onto the back of my partners Giant hardtail no problem. It's quite expensive at around £100 but it does come with a Blackburn rack to clip the seat onto. These normally retail for around £35 on there own so you have the added bonus of a rack to use once the child has outgrown the seat. The seat is very secure with fully adjustable straps and adjustable footrests (with velco foot straps) and the back of the seat can be tilted back slightly for the childs added comfort. If you fancy stopping somewhere for a picnic for example, you can remove the seat from the rack and flip the safety bar over and behind the seat so that it can be used sort of like a deck chair for your little'un. We've use ours for both our kid's who are aged 2 and 4 and it's stood up very well. The fact that it's fitted to a Blackburn rack in my opinion makes it much more secure than the 'Hamax' type of kiddie seats which are fixed to the bike by means of a clamp around the bikes seat tube.
So yes, expensive as an initial purchase but you'll get years of service out of both the seat and rack.
Hope this helps.
Heres some more info......

http://www.madison.co.uk/productinfo.as ... ref=LL8800
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwWspilGKqQ
http://www.bicycletrailers.com/CoPilot-Limo.pro

thelawnet

all show no go wrote:

In our house we use the Co-Pilot Limo childseat. It fits onto the back of my partners Giant hardtail no problem. It's quite expensive at around £100 but it does come with a Blackburn rack to clip the seat onto. These normally retail for around £35 on there own so you have the added bonus of a rack to use once the child has outgrown the seat. The seat is very secure with fully adjustable straps and adjustable footrests (with velco foot straps) and the back of the seat can be tilted back slightly for the childs added comfort. If you fancy stopping somewhere for a picnic for example, you can remove the seat from the rack and flip the safety bar over and behind the seat so that it can be used sort of like a deck chair for your little'un. We've use ours for both our kid's who are aged 2 and 4 and it's stood up very well. The fact that it's fitted to a Blackburn rack in my opinion makes it much more secure than the 'Hamax' type of kiddie seats which are fixed to the bike by means of a clamp around the bikes seat tube.

The Hamax Plus fits onto a rack.

Bit cheaper than the Copilot too.

all show no go

Agreed, the Hamax Plus does fit onto it's own seat-specific rack which you purchase seperately from around £20 for the basic folding(!) rack.

thelawnet

all show no go wrote:

Agreed, the Hamax Plus does fit onto it's own seat-specific rack which you purchase seperately from around £20 for the basic folding(!) rack.

Technically it doesn't fold, it's just shipped like that, once assembled it looks pretty much the same as this Blackburn MTN 1 jobby. http://www.wiggle.co.uk/p/cycle/7/Black ... 300001488/

You *can* get a Hamax rack that's easily removeable, but it costs a fair bit more:

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/p/cycle/7/Hamax ... 360036825/

or, for even more money, with pump and lights:

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/p/cycle/7/Hamax ... 6824/#more

othello

+1 for the CoPilot.

We have two (as we have 2 children) and they can hop onto the bike of either mine or my wifes bike.

I then unclip the seat in 1 minute and can go for a ride, with just the blackburn rack left.

juggling mum

We used the copilot for both our kids - as kids were 4 years apart only 1 at a time. Used it from 6 months to just over 4.

Liked it because can recline with a young child - lots of head protection - feet strap in when they go through the phase of 'stretching' legs out.

Most of cycling was on roads as kids hated bumps but a little bit of off roading.

We fitted the same blackburn rack so could move seat around between my bike, tandem and hubby's bike - not on a ride but at home - although easy enough to swap round.

R+P+K

We have an iBert Safe-T-Seat and it's brilliant.
http://www.bikeradar.com/gear/category/ ... seat-25811