Child carrying advice please



D

doctormick

Guest
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 protected] removing the words "no chopped
ham" from the address. Keep Britain Spam Free!
 
doctormick wrote:

> 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

> 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 protected] (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
 
MV blurts:

>You have no business subjecting a child to that danger and air pollution!


No - get her a mountain bike instead and a small trailer and let her enjoy
nature.. ;-P

Steve "silly rabbit....."
 
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


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

penny
 
"pas" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> 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 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
>
> email [email protected] 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" <[email protected]> writes:

> Abdominal internally. Hands and arms externally.
>

AIUI at 21 months, they're external. ICBW

A
 
Mike Vandeman wrote:
> On 4 Aug 2004 04:10:04 -0700, [email protected] (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 bastards 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 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.


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
> 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.
 
[email protected] (doctormick) writes:


> 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 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


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 wrote:

> Abdominal internally. Hands and arms externally.
>
> Bill "HTH" S.
>
>

Bill are you getting tutored in posting style by Crazy?
 
scurry wrote:
> S o r n i wrote:
>
>> 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.
 
S o r n i sez:

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


If you can't stand the fire, don't light your own farts! Or, at least,
do it with your pants on.

Un urm ill orl!

--
T o m Dillon
Lakewood, CO
Z to S to email
 
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
 
On 2004-08-04, Sunastar penned:
>
> Un urm ill orl!


wtf does that mean?

--
monique

"Get a bicycle. You will not regret it, if you live."
-- Mark Twain
 
On 2004-08-04, S o r n i penned:
> scurry wrote:
>> S o r n i wrote:
>>
>>> 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.


We pick because we love. Much like scabs. *g*

--
monique

"Get a bicycle. You will not regret it, if you live."
-- Mark Twain