Cycling with toddler

[Spudlet]

Apologies if there are typos, my hands are still shaking...

Up until today I used a wee ride front seat for DS. However, this wasn't ideal as my knees kept hitting it and DS was getting too wriggly. So picked up a Hamax Siesta this weekend and have just fitted it. And well. Fucking hell. The bike started fish tailing straight off and I only just stayed upright, and we turned around and hadn't to walk home

So. Any tips on using a rear seat safely please?!

If you just have one child you need to put on a bike, you can mount a hamax sleepy seat on a pashley trike - basically, you need a child seat that mounts on the seat post (well, the tube just below it) rather than on a rack. We've done that, and it works well. The trike was second hand for about £150, however it needs constant work (dh is very good at replacing spokes) and the ride isn't as good as a normal bike. It is much cheaper than a 'proper' child carrying cargo bike/trike.

The advantages are that the child is high and really visible - out of exhaust fumes, and traffic gives you a wide berth. Being a trike, it's very stable at low speeds (but not so stable if you go round a corner a bit faster; I've been on two wheels but never turned it over). DD is now 4.5, and we're still using it every day.

It depends how much you would cycle with DS. I typically use the trike 6 days a week, and it will have paid for itself in saved bus fares/parking costs. I usually have use of the family car, and we went for a cheaper option on that basis (i.e. I could drive in terrible weather). Then DH's health went downhill for a couple of years, so he had to use the car much more (thankfully he's better now), so we got a cape for DD to wear in bad weather! For us, finding a cycling option that worked transformed where I could go with DD - a lot of things are 1-2 miles way, which is a lot of walking. You mentioned possibly selling bikes to make this work, which suggests you'll cycle quite a lot too - trailers just wouldn't be safe on some of the routes I use (dual carriageway in a city, though only for short distances), but might be an option for you.

Hmm, hadn't considered a trike. An interesting option!

The only thing to know about a trike is that if the road isn't flat, it leans. If you lean while riding a normal bike, you'll fall off, so it feels like you're falling off the trike too - expect to keep steering it into the kerb for the first couple of weeks!

Hama were wobbly wobbly rubbish imho

I got on well with a yepp maxi
Can get regular or rack mounting
No rubbish foamy bits to get a soggy bum for baby on either

Dutch make awesome seats - yepp and bobike both great

To be fair, it was a yepp maxi I didn't get on with, similar style of bike to the OP and mine was mounted on a rack.

It works fabulously on DHs bike, so I think it's just that my bike is too weedy (possibly me too...). Dh is even now googling how to best lash a Go Pro to it 🙄

I don't think I'll get a rear seat to work on my step through bike tbh, as once you stick our little tank of a ds in there, it's always going to be overwhelmed and overbalanced, no matter how light the seat is. I either need to limber up so I can clamber over the top tube on my other bike, or get a different set up altogether, I reckon. I'm happy with the wee ride for the time being though (and even happier on my other bike with ds on DHs bike ).