Ok I want us to become a Cycling Family. Where do I start?

[FillyjonkIsMilitantAboutFruit]

Right bit of a brain dump here but very interested in other peoples thoughts

am about to sort out and sell vast swathes of baby crap (oooh whole other thread about Issues here) so I should have some cash . Enough to spend about £300 on my bike, plus fixings for car, helmet for dd, etc.

I have ds 3.5 who will have a decent xmas money bike, and dd 21 months who has around £50 to spend on something like a decent trike or similar (PIL into such things. can sub a bit more here)

I have the world's crappest bike, it is too big for me and very heavy and putting me off cycling. I need a new one, preferably one for women. I do have one of those kids seats that go on the front but I hate it oooh so much, its impossible to cycle properly with it.

dp has no bike but can sort himself out given cash. he is a low priority really, he can have my old bike for a bit.

The ideal is for us to use the bikes to get round and about and also to head off with them in the car on occasion.

So I need

1. A bike that I can have on the road, with some method of conveying dd. I don't do bike trailers for numerous safety neurotic reasons so she needs to be on a seat.

1. Thoughts on adult trike

1. Thoughts on whether it is acceptable/safe for a 3 yo to be on the pavement while I am trundling along the road (we are talking quiet back streets in the early afternoon-the back from nursery run, which is about 2 miles-not the M4 in rush hour, btw). He has a bell and is trained to use it.

will come back and witter more as I google for stuff.

Any more thoughts

oh and can I take ds running with me on his bike, do you reckon? Through the park and so on?

[ScummyMummy]

i love ideas like that, filly. I'd be an absolute sucker for something like this if I had lots of dosh and young kids and occasionally have fantasies about customising my own milk float with a comfy sofa on the back for my kids. But tbh, I think a bike seat and good bike might be a better buy unless you're pretty loaded.

[FillyjonkIsMilitantAboutFruit]

oh yes the more i think on it its a trailgator for the Jonks

oh hey though, does that mean dd HAS to be on the front? can i fit a child seat AND a trailgator

[Twiglett]

its a ridgeback motion

[DumbledoresGirl]

Trailgator is stable enough for child - my dd is very happy on one, but I find it quite unnerving, but then, I can't stand tandems either. You do feel every wobble made by the child and I spend a lot of time shouting at dd to stop wobbling! but that might be me. Eg I would be nervous riding with the trailgator on a busy road.

[Twiglett]

child seat would have to be at front with trailgator you can't do a back seat and a trailgator I don't think

[DumbledoresGirl]

Trailgator and rear seat are definitely not compatible. If they were, dh would have both on his bike!

[ScummyMummy]

I think frogs said that's what she does, filly?

[fennel]

DP does back seat + trailgator on his bike, but he's amended it specially with an extra bolted on bit. You can't buy the equipment to do it. He even cycles with a front seat, back seat and trailgator, on occasion, but that's a bit top-heavy for most people.

I think you'd have to be a pretty competent cyclist to cycle with a child seat + trailgator, wherever you put the seat. Balance is tricky.

[foxinsocks]

you also need to think about the weight issue if you have both kids on your bike (even if one is on the trailgator).

I'm not sure how heavy your 3 and 21 month old are but when mine were that age, I couldn't have them both on my bike because the ratio of their weight to mine meant that I found it too hard to cycle and balance (and you need to factor in the weight of the trailing bike iyswim).

I know that may sound wussy but if you are small framed or relatively light, it can be a problem!

[FillyjonkIsMilitantAboutFruit]

really fennel?

oh bllx, back to square one

might just get the stuff and take ds out on my own, but thats not the same

can someone talk to me about trailers? I am petrified of someone driving into the back of my kids, flag notwithstanding.

[FillyjonkIsMilitantAboutFruit]

oh no am not small framed or light, thats not a problem for me. oh thank god for that eh

otoh i am quite strong. and I HAVE been a competant cycler in the past. god i used to cycle in london rush hour.

[frogs]

I have a very minimalist front seat for those occasions, Scummy, one of those that is pretty much just a seat on the tube with a couple of little straps for the child's feet. Fine for short distances, less comfy for long ones. Most of the time I'm just hoofing dd2 around to nursery, and she goes in an aging Hamax seat on the back. But will have to rethink the whole plan shortly, as we're moving a couple of miles away and will have to bike the children to and from existing school/nursery, which is too far and not safe enough for ds to cycle alone. Am liking the trailgator bars, though I'd imagine the whole arrangment must be slightly less stable than a trad trailer bike.

[FillyjonkIsMilitantAboutFruit]

my kids OTOH, are small and light

[FillyjonkIsMilitantAboutFruit]

this seat i already own and i HATE it

any advances?

what are the over the handlebars ones like?

oh dd won't go in a pushchair, i am hoping she'll do the bike. can't see her in a trailer though, tbh.

[foxinsocks]

I'm quite strong but even I found both kids together a challenge

(sorry Filly, was not meaning to cast aspersions about your weight!)

[ScummyMummy]

how old before it's embarrassing to be on a trailgator? Having a real problem with twins of totally different cycling proficiencies atm. One is getting v discouraged- still finds the act of peddling quite difficult and tiring- while the other bombs off into the distance. I was thinking a better bike might help- they have cheapo ones which aren't that great- but maybe we need a trailgator (they're 8)? Really want to start dragging them off on cycling adventures but when I do it often ends prematurely because one of my mini companions threatens to become a hot frustrated crosspatch (understandably).

[fennel]

Scummy, my neice went on a tagalong last year at just 9, cos she can't cycle at all, but I think most children of that age would be embarrassed.

you need a tandem, with the implication that both people are cycling together, but actually the child on the back can take it easy.

[FillyjonkIsMilitantAboutFruit]

lol

am not especially fat but very large framed

when i have short hair, which is Never Again, I occasonally have been called Sir

[foxinsocks]

I think a better bike (or at least one that's the right size) can make a big difference

otherwise, I've seen some children who look that age on trailgators round here - I guess it's what he thinks of it!

[DumbledoresGirl]

I think you should try out a trailgator or child seat or trailer or whatever before buying as I thinkit is hard to judge what you could cope with without first knowing iyswim. I would have thought I was up to a trailgator no problem having once or twice pulled my two older ones around in a trailer when they were little when we were on holiday. The thing with the trailgator is the balance issue. So I would recommend trying one out for a day (hiring from a hire shop) and seeing how it will work with your family.

[fennel]

I managed a 3 and 2 year old on front and back seats fairly well, even when pregnant with no 3. My 3yo wasn't particularly big for her age.

it's partly practice, my sister is very small and skinny but cycles with her two seriously hefty children in a trailer, she's just fit and persistent.

[glitterfairy]

I have a raleigh all terrain series 10 filly and love it. It has very comfortable suspension loads of gears and in the country I can ride on tracks as well as the road stuff. My two eldest have the same models slightly smaller frames and my youngest is on the size below.

By the way riding on the pavement when they are little and walking along beside them seems ok to me. I just hate it when people let kids ride bikes up one way streets and things on the pavement and when cyclists do not obey the laws of the roads.

[ScummyMummy]

What kind of bikes do your kids have? Went on a tandem with partner at battersea park the other day- it was fun but I'm not sure i would fancy it for a proper trip. Re balancing filly- I couldn't ride it at ALL when partner was at the back. He's probably 6/7 stone heavier than me though!

[ScummyMummy]

lol @"seriously hefty" fennel.

[fennel]

Tandems are great for long trips, but you need the right tandem for the people on it, and probably the heavier person on the front. My friends had two, their 2 children went on the back, they went all over the place on long cycling holidays.