Since I last posted we've taken her out for a short (10-ish mile) ride and she liked it okay, but then she fell asleep. I really do not like the way she sleeps in the Chariot -- she just slumps over because there is no other way for her to go. We cut our ride short because we didn't feel good about the sleeping position.

We're going to try it again this weekend and see how she does.

Those look great, too bad they are not available here. I guess if you speak German (maybe they have someone who can speak English on staff), you could contact them directly. It would be interesting to find out the cost.

There 71 euros if you in need of one Im sure I can help you get one let me know..

Simon

Jen,

What a little cutie and soon to be one! That is so great. You two are going to have so much fun when you start riding. She will obviously be staying very well hydrated too as she already seems to have that covered. Good girl! She is going to ask for a camelback on her second birthday!

I'm pretty sure our trailer says its only for one year and up. And and plastic kid seat on the back would probably be the same too. Is there a way to rig the trailer to hold a bucket car seat?


I have a newborn right now and I'm dying to get out, but I'm not sure I would do what your trying to do.

How are you going to keep this babies head from flopping around? I'm not Dad of the year or anything and I hate it when people try to tell me what to do/not do with my kids, but I just don't see a newborn or baby less than one year old enjoying that type of stimulation; that's an awful lot to experience for someone so new to the world and their senses. I would think about who your trying to entertain here.

How are you going to keep this babies head from flopping around? I'm not Dad of the year or anything and I hate it when people try to tell me what to do/not do with my kids, but I just don't see a newborn or baby less than one year old enjoying that type of stimulation; that's an awful lot to experience for someone so new to the world and their senses. I would think about who your trying to entertain here.

That's why I recommend the bak. You could easily put the carseat down in the box.

(Sorry, posted on wrong thread.)

I have a newborn right now and I'm dying to get out, but I'm not sure I would do what your trying to do.

How are you going to keep this babies head from flopping around? I'm not Dad of the year or anything and I hate it when people try to tell me what to do/not do with my kids, but I just don't see a newborn or baby less than one year old enjoying that type of stimulation; that's an awful lot to experience for someone so new to the world and their senses. I would think about who your trying to entertain here.

From first hand experience I can tell you that they do enjoy the experience. The jostling is not significantly more than what is experienced in a car, at least our smaller cars :). It is very similar to what is experienced in a stroller. Not a whole lot of head flopping. The real head flopping starts when they first go to the upright car seats and they fall asleep. They look like they came from the boneless chicken ranch. The difference from a stroller is the speed and how quickly you can get into trouble on a bike. I usually take mine out for their first spin around 1-2 months. Infrequently after that, and start to take them out more starting around 8-10 months depending on their personality, season and my energy level, lol. They really are quite durable!

http://www.bundlings.com/rich/boneless.jpg

Different cultures, different attitudes. According to the Copenhagen girls on bikes website, this is a newborn with its mom:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/16nine/2437454786/

Here is my theory on the original thread topic. I think with a special custom modified car seat strapped into a trailer it could be done after about 3 months old. You would need to make a body specific insert out of open cell foam to secure the childs head and neck and body from jarring and movement. And then glue high impact closed cell foam around the perimeter of the car seat to for crash protection. However this still will not help the child if the rig turns over as the child's neck and spinal cord may be injured since the neck cannot support the weight of the head at that age.

Perhaps it would be possible to build a helmet into a back, neck and head suppport system so that the helmet would keep the head from flopping in the event of a trailer turnover.

Take a look at this: http://myzigo.com/index.html Look in the accessories section; there is a 'newborn insert'.

Posting cold.

Is there not a way to secure a standard infant seat inside a trailer?

Huh. Well thanks for all the replies. To the PP that seemed to find flaw with my question, I'm very much a female and very much one that is safety conscious. Hence, I come to those who bike more than I do for advice. But thanks for calling my intellect into question; I'm glad that there are superior mothers around. P.S. if you need to say "no offense" for something, that probably means its offensive.

Looks like Europe is more open to cycling with infants.

I'm only just pregnant now (was looking for feed back in February since I thought I was) and am due in November, almost December. I highly doubt I'd be cycling with Newb before April, if I can find something in the US to purchase (don't want to deal with exchange rates on the cc).

So thanks for all the helpful replies.

Baby = FRAGILE

I didn't read through the whole thread so sorry if it has already been mentioned. when the child can hold his/her head up reasonably start putting on a helmet for brief periods. overtime leave it on longer until the child can wear it without affecting their movements. i don't remember when we started with the helmet but by the time she was standing ~9 months she was wearing her helmet full time and going for rides on the bike. now she is 22 months and she puts the helmet on herself and asks to clip it. GD

The Dutch do it all the time. If they can, why can't we?

I plan of using a carseat in a trailer as soon as possible with a baby. Frankly the trailer is actually a "Stroller" and with them being secured in a carseat, that has the head insert, I really see little danger.

Good luck fitting a carseat in the trailer. Didn't work for us with a Maxi Cosi or Graco Snugride in a single Chariot (and I don't think a double Chariot would have worked, either, because the problem was partly length). The seat did not even begin to fit in the trailer.

That said, we started taking her for short rides using the infant sling and then the infant insert in the Chariot at about six months. Our kid is tiny -- 16 pounds at a year -- but has always been very strong. The first rides were a disaster and she hated it. I started running with her in the Chariot around then, and she really liked that, but bike rides just led to crying. I rode behind her and my husband once or twice, and she bounced around like crazy every time they hit a bump. We determined that she was just too light (around 12-13 pounds then, maybe?) to get any use out of the shocks.

We backed off until she was rock-solid on her sitting. She could sit up okay at 6 months, but she was a little wobbly. By 8 months the trailer was starting to really get some use, although she would still cry if we went over about 15 mph. Now at a year, my husband just took her for a 30-mile fast-ish ride and she loved it.

So much that now we're making her clean the chain on mom's new bike:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3056/2746785173_6cbae92fc2.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/xeney/2746785173/in/set-72157606539906875/)

We'll join the 'terrible parents' side of the fence. We ride a tandem pulling an older Burley D'lite trailer. With the full approval of our pediatrician, we put the car seat in the trailer with the first kid at 2 months. By 4 months he was sleeping through 30 mile rides.

http://www.glausers.org/miles30.jpg

5 years later, the second kid is here. This is her first ride at 2.5 months. (Took Mom longer to recover this time.)

http://www.glausers.org/pics/baby/helenride.jpg

And yes, the pediatrician has even had us tow her kid around.

We found the car seat fit most securely facing backwards in the trailer, also keeps her more shielded from wind (not that we go that fast). The D'lite has a seatbelt that crosses both harnesses. I use that the same was I would use a lap belt in a car. When my first child was born, I was a CPS tech and did car seat install inspections. My kids, my comfort level.

Car seat in Burley Solo worked for me. It just fit.

I took her out every night after work for a two to three hour ride. Started when she was around 4 months. No issues at all. She's now six, smart as a whip and healthy as a horse.

We'll join the 'terrible parents' side of the fence. We ride a tandem pulling an older Burley D'lite trailer. With the full approval of our pediatrician, we put the car seat in the trailer with the first kid at 2 months. By 4 months he was sleeping through 30 mile rides.

http://www.glausers.org/miles30.jpg

5 years later, the second kid is here. This is her first ride at 2.5 months. (Took Mom longer to recover this time.)

http://www.glausers.org/pics/baby/helenride.jpg

And yes, the pediatrician has even had us tow her kid around.

We found the car seat fit most securely facing backwards in the trailer, also keeps her more shielded from wind (not that we go that fast). The D'lite has a seatbelt that crosses both harnesses. I use that the same was I would use a lap belt in a car. When my first child was born, I was a CPS tech and did car seat install inspections. My kids, my comfort level.

Awesome photos, that's exactly what I plan to do when #1 arrives in November (that is, if I don't get a Bak first....c'mon bonus!). I'm happy to see that the car seat will fit in a standard trailer though.

You know I live in a state that doesn't require helmets...not even for motorcycles, so the idea of trying to put a helmet on a little baby sounds so ludicrious to me. (My state believes in personal responsibility, it is up to individual to decide what risks they want to take and the government doesn't need it interfere) We do put helmets on our toddler that rides a trail a bike, but other than that we just don't use them. I think that if you aren't dealling with a helmet, and are putting an infant in an approved car seat, with a head support and are being careful with traffic and turning radius. I don't see a problem. Honestly, if the car seat is safe for airline and car transport, I don't see a problem with using it for the relatively slow speed and low altitude of a bike trailer. That thing is lower to the ground than even me carrying my own child.

I posted on the first page a while ago. I am still pulling him around on all sorts of roads, dirt, and paved. Now that another one is on the way, Shhhh now one knows yet, I will not be able to pull the both of them. I will not be able to fit one car seat and one without. Maybe I will have to do the train thing with a tag-along bike and the trailer.

A neighbor of my in-laws had one of those big bulky modern car seats and it didn't fit very well in their trailer. They picked up a much older, more reasonably sized one at a rummage sale for $1 and that is what they used until their kids were old enough to sit in the trailer themselves.

Check out the 'Baby Biker':
http://www.littleben.de/profil/index.html

Although i'm not sure it's in production yet.

Check out the 'Baby Biker':
http://www.littleben.de/profil/index.html

Although i'm not sure it's in production yet.

I think the website says that it is development and will be available in Spring 2009 (my weak German translation).

we've carried our baby daughter in a car seat in our Christiania trike since our she was 3wks old. she's now almost 11 wks and we are borrowing a Chariot trailer with the infant insert. She seems to like that fine too, and it works better for longer rides, as the Christiania is a bit much beyond four or five miles.

We don't own a car though we have used a borrowed or rented one more often than usual since becoming parents. I am so grateful we figured out the baby-on-bike thing a while back, otherwise we'd both be going out of our minds. We take the little one on the bus a lot, too, and she enjoys that as well.

Seems Burley has a solution for kids 3 - 12 months called the Burley Baby Snuggler (http://www.rei.com/product/766985). Don't know how well it works though.

We started pushing our little one around in a Chariot with the Baby Sling around 3 months old. Took her for walks a runs on our local hard pack gravel trail. Shortly after that I started to pull her behind the bike in the Chariot, started off with 30 min rides and worked up to 1:30 junts. This last summer when she was a bit over a 1 year old I'd take her out for close to 2 hr long rides doing a local loop around a lake. There is a big shoulder/bike line the entire way and lot and lots of bikers, so I felt it was safe (less likely to get hit by a car). Kinda fun pulling her, makes hills a real work out and I',m using my Cross bike so 36x26 is my lowest gear and makes me dig deep on steeper and longer hills.

She's out of the baby sling now and we have passed it on to friends with a new born and they have started taking thier little out for walks in a Chariot on a trail near them. I know of people that take their kids mountain biking in Chariots (couple years and older).

Never thought about putting a car seat in there. Once you have them in the sling, their heads are not moving and they don't tip forward. We'd just time hour+ long rides with nap time, head to a local lake or something and then picnic once there. I looked at a lot of options and everything pointed to the Chariot (Cougar 1) so we got that.

I also use the trailer now and then to haul clothes to work (I bike commutte 30+ miles each way) and it's great for utility work like that too. Holds many bags of shopping too!