Bugaboo Buffalo - Is it really any good off road?

[MET128]

Hi,

We were thinking of getting a buffalo as we want an off road pushchair. This is important for us as we do lots of walking and I am hoping to be able to continue to do so on the local footpaths with our new baby.

I like the cameleon but it has silly small front wheels. I saw a lady in the park yesterday and she could not get it to push up the hill on a gravel path so i imagine its pretty hopeless offroad.

We had decided on the Baby Jogger City Elite but then were warned that the carrycot is very small and therefore might only get used for a couple of months. And also it does not do rear facing which is important in the first few months.

The bugaboo buffalo claims to be all terrain but as you cant actually try it outside its hard to tell. It is very expensive and I am worried that I would just end up with a very expensive pram that was still only any good for around town. It has no suspension and has smooth (not off road looking) tyres. It also has 4 wheels whereas all the offroad ones seem to have three wheels which everyone says is better for rougher ground.

Has anyone actually got a buffalo yet? is it any good off road?
Or any other recommendations for a good offroad pushchair?

Any advice gratefully received!

Thanks

I haven't had my hands on one but I actually pretty much agree with you, will it really be any good off road. I didn't know it had no suspension.. that sounds a bit :-/ to me.

The BJ Elite has no rear suspension either though, only front, which I can't help thinking the Buffalo must have and the Summit IIRC actually has a smaller footprint and has suspension on all wheels.

How off road are you talking about? Generally fixed forward facing seats seem to go in tandem with the type of pushchairs designed to go off path, up mountains etc. It kind of depends what you need really. Not a massive choice in off roading parent facing pushchairs.

How about a TFK Joggster Twist with Multi X carrycot? Or maybe one of these I recall Tiggy and I were pretty impressed by them when we saw one early on in the year. Once again cannot be sure how these things perform in the real world without buying and trying :-/

What about the all terain wheels for the cameleon? I've never seen them in person, but lots of people here in Sweden seem to have them for the snow.

The all terrain wheels are fixed aren't they? I don't think they'd be nice to push except on snow or gravel or sand

I mean the cam ones not the buffalo

I haven't got a problem pushing the cameleon up a hill and over gravel. You need to turn the handle around so you push with the big wheels forward. The other good thing is that the carrycot is huge. There's still loads of space for DD when she's 6mo to sleep in.

But for the most off road option, have you looked wraps and carriers? If there are loads of muddy puddles and tree branches on the path, I can't see any pushchair can cope. We used our baby bjorn if we went really off road.

HTH

And I forgot those kissing gates and stiles. You just couldn't take a pushchair along. We didn't realise until we actually tried. Would have got a bee if we had known. But cameleon is nice to push on cobblestoned roads too . Just a bit big for the boot.

I have a Buffalo but no plans to try it off road :) But TBH I definitely would be doing so. If you get stuck its easy enough to kick into two wheel mode and pull it along behind you. I did this to go into nursery today to pick up DS. It was easier to tow empty than to push!