Touring - biking with babies

The wife and I recently returned from a week in Europe (Lindau, Bregenz, Zurich). We were amazed by the amount of bikes with paniers and child trailers. We even saw quite a few tandems with bags on them. I started to remenisce about a couple trips I've taken and now we're totally hooked on the idea.

We have a 4 week old son, so we went shopping for a kinderwagon for him. We even found one with an optional baby hammock for kids who aren't big enough to sit up. We like the Chariots because they convert to a small footprint stroller for better manuverability in the super market than the longer 3-wheeled jogging type strollers.

The owner of the "Fahrrad" bike shop in Lindau is very helpful and extremely friendly. He said he and his girlfriend have done many trips with their baby boy, including 6 weeks in South Africa with a Santana tandem and a CTS Chariot.

He insists that tandem is the way to go, both for the togetherness of the couple and the extra power in towing the trailer. You have fewer paniers than with two bikes, but the trailer should make up for that. It also seems easier to get on trains and such with one bike (albeit a big one) and one trailer than with two bikes and a trailer.

I have zero experience with tandems or with kid trailers so I'd like to now if any of you have tried a tandem/trailer combination for long distance touring. How about extended camping trips with very little children? Are there any websites of people who have done long trips with little ones? Pictures and equipment lists would be great!

Does anybody want to sell a used Chariot or a touring tandem?

Thanks,
Hardwired

I have no experience with tandems but I do use a child chariout for my 21 month old. I started pulling her at 6 months old and she likes it a lot. She sits back there looking at books and playing while daddy dies up front.

Mine is the Trek Transit Delux with a nice and easy to use ball type attaching design. It was one of the best I tried and it tows very smooth. It can carry up too 100 lbs.

I would highly recommend it if you have a place to purchase one there in Israel.

Also, a huge welcome to our forum. It is good to have you and I hope you find it a pleasant place to chat about bikes. We can be pretty annoying in the political forum though so be prepared. :D

The trek also has a shade that will block bright sunlight and mesh for keeping bugs out.

We have the Chariot Double with all the attachments and we just love it as does our son. If he sees it you had better want to get out for a ride because he will not stop whining until you do. It is by far the best, most comfortable and safest system of trailers anywhere.

We also use the ski attachements for winter XC skiing and the running strollers as well. Now if we could just get some floats on it we would he able to do all our triathlons with him in tow for the entire trip.:D

You cannot go wrong with the CTS Chariots. We like the double for the obvious reason that there is room for two kids which we are hoping for soon and it is just that much wider and more stable for the higher speed runs and if you are doing any off pavement riding.

Good luck.

We pulled a Burley D'lite with our tandem in the early 90's with two kids (2 and 4 yrs). There was a cocker spaniel in there ocaasionally. We got a lot of looks on the bike paths.....It was great fun. The whole thing was really quite stable. It is long and you need to remember that you are 12 feet long front to back. This is especially important while cornering and passing other bikers.

I personally would not put such a young infant in the trailer. It is possible to crash and there is not an pratical way, that I am aware of, to get a helmet on them. 10 years ago Bell was recommending that the kids be at least 6-8 months old and well able to hold up their heads. There needs to be neck strength to hold the addtional weight. I am not sure if those recommendations have changed. I would look into it.

The Chariot site says that the little baby options are only for use in "stroller mode". They say that any high speed activity requires a helmet, and that requires a kid large enough to wear a helmet.

It's not a crucial issue for us because there aren't any Chariot dealers in Israel. We will be in California in November and will probably buy something then (preferably used). I am just doing research now to help make up my mind. Our little one should be past the minimum age/size by Nov. God, they grow fast!


PS to DaBikiniMan - Thanks for the welcome. And don't worry, I'm not afraid of politics. I am a little surprised by the pro-gun slant to this group, though. In my part of Israel you don't take out the garbage unless you're packing, which is also the reason my wife won't let me bike to the train. Oh well...

Very sorry...

I just realized that I put and extra "i" in DaBikinMan.
I guess Freud was right!

- Hardwired

I think that Chariot still recommends that infants be about 6 months old before using the bike trailer option. Out little one has about that when we started. I think the factor they use as you mentioned is that they must be able to independently hold up their head before using the trailer. Helmets for infants are very easy to come by now and very light. Our little guy just loves his helmet and has never complained about having it on even in the beginning.