JulieL

I'm looking to buy a bike to but a rear child seat on. We live in the mountains, so all riding will be on hills. Unfortunately, a trailer is not really an option on these roads.

First question: Does this sound realistic, stability wise, to be riding on hills with a 35lb child on a bike seat behind me? I was a competitive cyclist before I became a mom, so I've only ever ridden road bikes for speed, I've never ridden a bike with any load on it, so I'm not familiar with the bike handling...

Second: Any good bike recs that work well for female riders with a child seat? (I'm thinking I should go for a "touring bike" but I can't find any women specific touring bikes and I have very long legs and need a short reach). I want something super sturdy as I'll be in the hills...

Thanks so much for any advice on the subject... I'm dying to get back in the saddle, but want to make sure I do it as safely as possible for my little one

bluegoatwoods

I'm not the one to recommend a bicycle or other equipment.

But as for riding your 35lb child, the answer is a definite "Yes". Of course you'll want to be more 'deliberate' in your movements and your average speed. But it's well worth while. Don't shy away from riding your child.

And when the time comes, cobble a seat over your front wheel for child number two. I've done it. And some busy-bodies clucked their tongues and muttered about the 'danger' I was putting my children in. They were being morons. My kids benefited immeasurably from their years on bicycles.

You won't regret it.

FBinNY 

If you're an experienced ex-competitive (though maybe a bit rusty) rider, the weight won't mean anything to you in terms of handling. Yes, it's different, but you'll adapt faster than you can imagine. OTOH you can kiss whatever you remember of your hill climbing power good bye. 35# isn't much on the flats, but is very significant when you climb, but again, not a reason not to do it.

OTOH there will be a big difference, and that's when you stop. Your 35# child will be directly over the rear axle or even behind it. So when you stop, and hold the bars as you normally do, the bike can twist out from under you because you're holding it too far from it's new center of gravity. I suspect that a very large segment of child carrier injuries are when stopped, if not the majority.

When my nieces and nephews added baby seats I made them all buy sacks of potatoes exceeding the weight of the child, and ride them around a while until they were used to it, and sure of not dropping the bike before switching to human cargo. All of them appreciated the method because of near or actual bike drops.

BTW- if the area is as hilly as you imply, look for a bike with mtn bike type gearing, ie a 24-26t granny because you'll need it.

JulieL

Thanks so much for the info and advice!

fietsbob

FWIW German Tout Terrain has a Long travel suspension single wheel trailer that is single track capable ..


Singletrailer Peter White cycle is the US distributor for TT stuff.

mel2012

Since you'll be doing a lot of hill climbing, I would suggest looking for a bike with a longer wheelbase and 26" rather than 700 cc wheels to try and keep the weight more well-distributed and lower. A steel/cromoly touring bike would be a good option. My husband had short wheelbase mountain bike with a rear seat and had real problem keeping the front wheel down with hill climbing. While it's not women specific, lots of women tour on the Surly Long Haul Trucker. For less expensive options, you might look at some of the offerings from Novara.

Randy!

If you're trying out new bikes to buy and can overcome the racer's pride, consider a step-through frame. Having 20-35 potentially-wiggly pounds strapped in high over the rear wheel is a very different engineering problem from minimizing rolling resistance and aerodynamic drag. The child seat also blocks most of space behind the saddle for swinging your leg over.

My wife's been carting a Yepp Maxi seat on her old Trek MTB for a while. It's do-able and fun, but mounting/dismounting does take some concentration.

We live in the city, which means a lot stops and starts. Her next bike will be a mixte with panniers on the front wheel (mostly for cargo space, but the inadvertent wheelie problem mel2012 mentions is also a consideration).

Current set-up:


Next bike (vendor's photo, rear rack won't be there, but front is similar):

dwmckee

I did this for years with 2 different kids. I recommend a bike a bit stiffer than a racing bike such as a touring or maybe an endurance style bike. The extra weight is handled nicely by this style bike without odd flex or handling characteristics. You also will appreciate the higher volume tires that you can ride a bit softer and still have a nice fast ride. This will give your child a softer ride, and helps compensate for the fact that you cannot shift most of your weight to unweight the rear when you go over a bump. Touring bikes also have good lower gearing which you will like as well for this.

You are not far from being able to use a trail a bike also. That is a huge jump in riding comfort as their weight becomes much lower and they also can help provide some power too. We used to have an Adams, but teh quality was poor and we happily upgraded to a Burley Piccolo after a year and a half. On the TAB, I completed 2 MS 150 rides with my 6 then 7 year old son. Have also ridden with him across NY state and from DC to Pittsburgh on a multi day tour. You can get some great serious riding with your kids on a TAB. Just be sure the bike has very good brakes and they are well tuned as you will appreciate the extra stopping power on hills. Disk brakes really shine here!


There are a lot of great bikes but my favorites are a Comotion Cascadia and a Soma Saga. I own a Cascadia. These are versatile and fast bikes that are comfortable and can handle the extra weight with aplomb.

We now have upgraded to a Comotion Tandem for riding with my sons. This is the best solution of all. We just did a 2 week tour in teh Black Hills and Grand Tetons and had a fantastic time. A high quality tandem is really teh ultimate. (our Burley TAB is for sale by the way if you are interested.)

chaadster

Those concerned with wagging frames due to high mounted child seats have it right, and it's even worse when climbing, making out of the saddle efforts almost impossible. Someone also mentioned long wheelbase, but stopped short of the obvious: cargo bikes.


My suggestion would be to look at something like the Yuba Mundo or Surly Big Dummy, which will provide a nice solid platform for pedaling, and give some room to carry the stuff you need when traveling with young kids. Xtracycle even has an electric assist model EdgeRunner if there's more at stake than just exercise.

The ultimate for climbing, though, is the Larry vs. Harry Bullit, with its low, forward cargo section. Very sporty, and climb better than anything else in the category, and even trailers.

Cargo bikes offer so many advantages over any other kid-on-board setup, it would be a shame not to consider them. They're built to haul loads, so they're stiff, carry weight lower, geared appropriately, easy to load, capacious and stable.

GravelMN

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dwmckee

Thad looks like neither parent or child are going to like it much...

prathmann

When our daughter was little I attached a rear child seat to my regular road bike and had no issues with it other than the already mentioned concern about keeping the front wheel down on some short but particularly steep uphills. The handling is different but pretty easy to get used to. To alleviate concerns I'd suggest taking a few trial runs with a big sack of potatoes or similar less precious cargo so you can try out the handling on some sharp turns and starts/stops. I also found the handling to be improved by adding a front low-rider rack and pannier to carry the usual child-accessories. The weight up front kept the front wheel down on steep uphills and also made the handling more predictable.

kickstart

This thread reminded me of an image in the Steco catalog.

A serious kid hauler,

Cyclosaurus

As an owner of multiple cargo bikes (a Bullitt and a Christiania) I concur with chaadster. If you are really looking for the safest option, it's really hard to beat a bakfiet in general, and the Bullitt is an amazing machine in it's ability to handle terrain.

I've never ridden one but I think the Butchers and Bicycles MK1 trike with the tilting-suspension steering might be the ultimate in safety and performance.

JulieL

Thanks so much for all the info! (It's been a hectic few months, but I'm back to bike shopping)... From all this info I've decided to purchase a cargo bike. Just trying to figure out which one. Most likely Xtracycle Edgerunner or Bike Friday Haul a Day (but now, revisiting this thread, I'm going to check out the Bullitt too). Thanks again for all the info! Cheers!

tgot 

Think about a tandem! A child 35lbs 6 months ago might be nearly ready for a kidback stoker setup, and if not a child seat on a tandem rear rack has plenty of heel-clearance!

I used a kidback stoker setup with the Adam's trailabike seatback and strap, for little ones. By 5, they can pedal consistently for quite a while with practice. They aren't adding much power, of course.

I also used this: Robot Check on a tandem-trail-a-bike. See my post on riding with Two kids in this forum.

But if I had it to do all over, and especially with long term riding plan for one child, I'd progress:

Tandem with childseat as above (probably need seatpost shims) or child-seat on regular rack (potentially lower CG)
Tandem with kidback stoker and Adams backrest
Tandem with kidback stoker
Tandem with kid

Tandems also tend to have lower gearing, which is nice for hills and kids. Try the tandem forum for lots of advice.

Eric

dwmckee

If you have been a competitive racer, you will not enjoy riding a cargo bike which will be 40 plus pounds and rather sluggish. I suggest looking at some of the touring bikes and even some of the gravel bikes. The gravel bikes have frames a little more stout, but still not excessively heavy, but have longer wheel base and larger volume but still fast tires. Remember that on the seat. kids cannot unweight and anticipate bumps like the pedaller so they take a much more jarring ride back there. They are also almost directly over an axle which is the place that feels the bump the hardest as well.

Look at the Burley Piccolo TAB which I used with both kids when they were about 3-4 years old. As we got older I moved kits to a tandem and a tandem with TAB behind it.

dwmckee

If you have been a competitive racer, you will not enjoy riding a cargo bike which will be 40 plus pounds and rather sluggish. I suggest looking at some of the touring bikes and even some of the gravel bikes. The gravel bikes have frames a little more stout, but still not excessively heavy, but have longer wheel base and larger volume but still fast tires. Remember that on the seat. kids cannot unweight and anticipate bumps like the pedaler so they take a much more jarring ride back there. They are also almost directly over an axle which is the place that feels the bump the hardest as well.

Look at the Burley Piccolo TAB which I used with both kids when they were about 3-4 years old. As we got older I moved kits to a tandem and a tandem with TAB behind it.