gravelpot
05-19-05, 10:27 AM
I was finally able to take my 1 year old son out for the maiden voyage in our Burley d'Lite trailer last night. I was hoping to be able to take him to school in it tomorrow to celebrate Bike to Work day, but after the problems with our short ride last night, I don't think it's going to happen.
The main problem was with his helmet, which is the Giro me2 model. I was pretty psyched about the helmet when we bought it, because of the "dial adjustment" on the fit ring. The ring is padded, and there's a knob on the back of the helmet that lets you tighten or loosen the ring to fit the kid's head.
Once we started riding, two problems quickly came up with the helmet:
1. The way he was sitting in the seat, his helmet wasn't hitting the "helmet pouch" netting, and so the helmet was getting pushed down over his eyes, which he didn't like.
2. It turns out that the fit ring in the Giro is held in to the helmet by two pieces of velcro, but the velcro attachments are just glued to the inside of the helmet. After a few minutes of him fussing with the helmet, one of the attachment points came unglued, so the fit ring was essentially separated from the helmet.
We made it to the neighborhood park without too much fuss, but when I tried to get the helmet back on him for the ride home, he put up a huge fuss, and the fit ring mess was just making it worse. Finally I had to take the helmet off for the last few blocks of the ride, and he finally calmed down. I didn't want to condition him to think that the trailer is some sort of torture device, but I also don't want him to get too accustomed to riding without a helmet, either.
So as far as the helmet itself goes, I think I'm going to go back to REI and exchange the Giro for a Bell, or at least something that has a more secure attachment mechanism. But I'm afraid that we might not really be able to use the trailer until he's tall enough for the helmet to hit the helmet pouch instead of the back of the trailer seat. The seat tension adjustments are a bit strange to me, so if anyone has any great tips on how to tension the straps behind the seat to work for shorter kids, I'm all ears.
The main problem was with his helmet, which is the Giro me2 model. I was pretty psyched about the helmet when we bought it, because of the "dial adjustment" on the fit ring. The ring is padded, and there's a knob on the back of the helmet that lets you tighten or loosen the ring to fit the kid's head.
Once we started riding, two problems quickly came up with the helmet:
1. The way he was sitting in the seat, his helmet wasn't hitting the "helmet pouch" netting, and so the helmet was getting pushed down over his eyes, which he didn't like.
2. It turns out that the fit ring in the Giro is held in to the helmet by two pieces of velcro, but the velcro attachments are just glued to the inside of the helmet. After a few minutes of him fussing with the helmet, one of the attachment points came unglued, so the fit ring was essentially separated from the helmet.
We made it to the neighborhood park without too much fuss, but when I tried to get the helmet back on him for the ride home, he put up a huge fuss, and the fit ring mess was just making it worse. Finally I had to take the helmet off for the last few blocks of the ride, and he finally calmed down. I didn't want to condition him to think that the trailer is some sort of torture device, but I also don't want him to get too accustomed to riding without a helmet, either.
So as far as the helmet itself goes, I think I'm going to go back to REI and exchange the Giro for a Bell, or at least something that has a more secure attachment mechanism. But I'm afraid that we might not really be able to use the trailer until he's tall enough for the helmet to hit the helmet pouch instead of the back of the trailer seat. The seat tension adjustments are a bit strange to me, so if anyone has any great tips on how to tension the straps behind the seat to work for shorter kids, I'm all ears.