How safe is the Thule Urban Glide 2 Double?
Safety was one of the areas the buggy scored particularly well in during testing. Thule has built the Urban Glide 2 Double with adventure in mind and, with heavy-duty materials, large sturdy wheels and a solid metal frame, you can certainly tell.
The padded seats are suitable from six months and are supportive enough for a child weighing up to 22kg. Spacious and with room to grow, with no gaps for little fingers to get caught, you can also buy a bumper bar if you want to make the seats even comfier.
The bassinet can be used from newborn up to six months and is fixed to the double buggy using adapters. Liz occasionally found these fiddly to align with the bassinet but, once in place, felt very secure. The carrycot lies flat and is both deep and roomy, which makes it a cosy and protective place for babies.
What about the harness?
The Thule Urban Glide 2 Double has a five-point harness that is secured by connecting the two shoulder straps to the seat's main buckle. The harness is also well padded and can be tightened by pulling down on the shoulder straps.
How stable is the Thule Urban Glide 2 Double?
Well-engineered and robust, the Thule Urban Glide 2 Double has been built to cope with any terrain. The three-wheel, triangular design feels solid and allows for good weight distribution whether there’s a baby, toddler or both inside the pram.
The frame is made from metal with strong plastic parts that don’t flex, and it has a built-in suspension so that the Thule can cope with all manner of bumps.
Thule advises against hanging a changing bag off the frame, as the buggy has more than enough storage space in its accompanying basket, but Liz hung hers to one side of the handlebar to perform a topple test. The buggy remained stable with and without children in the seats.
What about the brakes?
The Urban Glide 2 Double comes with both a footbrake and a handbrake to give parents extra confidence on all terrain.
The footbrake clicks on with a red lever located in the middle of the back wheels – you use the bottom of your foot to engage the brake and the top to release. It’s a quick movement that can be done in any footwear and securely holds the pram in place, even with two children and a changing bag inside.
As this buggy is designed for an active lifestyle, the integrated twist handbrake helps to control the speed when out jogging or walking down steep hills. Our tester found this really useful and reassuring.
What’s the Thule Urban Glide 2 Double like in day-to-day use?
There’s no doubt about it – the Thule Urban Glide 2 Double is a large, specialist pram, yet it still performed well in many aspects of daily life, making it suitable for urban, as well as country, surroundings.
Measuring 80cm wide, it’s not as compact as the Mountain Buggy Duet V3.2 (65cm) or the Out n About Nipper Double V4 (72cm), but that’s to be expected of an all-terrain buggy that offers as much versatility as this one does.
Liz has a narrow front door so she couldn’t wheel the buggy into her house, which also made it difficult for her to store. But it’s worth bearing in mind that most external doors measure between 76 and 96cm, and doors for shops and cafés must be around 84cm wide for wheelchair access.
The buggy performs well in wide supermarket aisles, but may find particularly tiny shops harder to tackle. Liz used the pram to take her daughter to nursery, to the park and on dog walks and found there was very little room if she encountered another double buggy on a pavement.
However, the three-wheel design allowed her to get on and off trains with ease and, although she didn't get on a bus during testing, the Urban Glide 2 Double will fit into a free wheelchair space as long as there are no other pushchairs alongside it.
What about the seats?
The Thule Urban Glide 2 Double comes with two forward-facing seats, which can be used from the age of six months and independently reclined using one hand. Thanks to an infinite recline, you can choose any setting between upright and lying flat.
As each seat can hold up to 22kg and a child measuring up to 111cm, they are pleasingly spacious – 31.5cm wide and 53cm high – with more head room for Liz’s eldest (four) than any other pram she tested. They each have a padded leg rest and also come with a handy mesh pocket in each seat which can fit a small water bottle, snacks or toys.
Unlike convertible prams, the seats aren’t removable, but you can attach one bassinet or car seat over the main seat by fitting the brackets to the frame. The bassinet is parent-facing and is made of thick, high-quality material. But as the cover is secured by two toggles and Velcro, it doesn’t feel quite as secure as similarly designed carrycots with a zip. It also has a large lip in front of the opening which is ideal for stopping wind, but partially masks a baby’s face from view, which some parents may not like.
Each seat and the carrycot comes with its own UPF 50+ sunshade with a peek-a-boo window for checking in on your children. The hoods slide open smoothly and give good coverage, with only a small amount of winter sun seeping through when Liz’s preschooler was fully reclined. The hood can be unzipped to extend further with side mesh windows for extra ventilation.
Is there a rain cover?
The Thule Urban Glide 2 Double doesn’t come with a rain cover, so you’ll need to purchase one separately for £65 – worth the extra cost if you’re using the buggy with its two main seats.
It Velcros to the frame, fitting over the seats effectively and keeping both children nice and dry. Part of the cover is a thin, waterproof fabric rather than all plastic makes it more compact for storing in the basket.
In testing, we found that the rain cover didn’t fit over the whole buggy when the carrycot was attached as it became too bulky. As such, you’ll need to buy a separate rain cover for the bassinet itself, costing a further £40. Unfortunately, we didn’t receive one for testing.
How easy is the Urban Glide 2 Double to push?
Being a sporty pram, this is an area you would expect the Thule Urban Glide 2 Double to perform well in – and it really did.
This is largely thanks to three big air-filled tyres, measuring seven inches (20cm) at the front and 15 inches ( 38.5cm) at the back – larger than the Mountain Buggy Duet V3.2’s 10-inch (25cm) back tyres. They even come with a reflective edge on the rims and on the canopy for improved visibility.
The tyres glide over all terrain including flat pavements in busy town centres, hard, bumpy ground, muddy marshlands, gravel and sports fields. Liz covered around 10 miles and they coped just as easily with harsh terrain as they did with flat, smooth ground. Thule does, however, warn that this pram should not be used at excessive speeds.
The buggy's built-in suspension makes it a smooth ride for kids and a dream for parents to push, and the three-wheel design means you can apply very little pressure when raising the front wheel up kerbs.
Its ergonomic handlebar allows you to get a good grip and moves up and down for different heights. Liz and her partner (6 ft 3) comfortably pushed the buggy with their usual step and could easily steer it one-handed.
The front wheel swivels for a tight turning circle, which helps if you need to manoeuvre the pram around smaller spaces. When you’re out jogging or need a more stable ride, the wheel can then be locked.