pjcampbell

Last thread I saw on this was 5 years old so I am starting a new one.

"Baby" is a little over 1 , a little over 25#. I am an experienced rider and we ride on lightly traveled country roads.

I lean towards a seat, and would like to know which ones are best. But I see that most people seem to recommend a trailer.

Any recommendations for either seat (The Toppeak one seems to come up first in google... any good?) https://www.topeak.com/products/Child...r/tpk_babyseat, or trailer?

can you make an argument for a trailer or seat?

My concern is going down a windy country road with no shoulders... a car comes and I want to pull over but would be worried a trailer would tip if I get too close to the edge of the road (we have more ditches than shoulders I'd say... ).

There is a Burley Bee Bike Trailer locally I could check out.

lucienrau

The best seats that I've seen are the european import ones. The BOBbike maxi and Yepp are pretty good ones, they're more expensive but seem to fit better and have a higher weight limit. I've got a big dummy and am very happy with having my monkey on a seat. The current big dummy seats are just rebranded Yepp ones. The great advantages I see to a seat are visibility, cars can see your kid easier, and the ability to just go. We do so many more trips by bike since I can just plop her on the bike and go. The friends I have with trailers are much less inclined to go on bike errands due to the extra hassle of trailer setup.

As far as all the arguments about accidents and such, I think the ones favoring trailers are overblown. Modern seats are very safe, we had one fall on the bike and she was completely protected. If you do go the seat route, get a good double kickstand, it makes loading and unloading much easier.

bikinggrrrl

Search function is handy and the basic information hasn't changed. Bike seats sets the center of gravity much higher than predicted which alters the handling of the bike and exposes your child to a fall from a bicycle. A trailer encloses and secures your child in something they cannot fall out of even if your bicycle goes down. Do your own research and factor in what type of cycling you are planning to do with your child, where it will be performed, and what is your level of expertise in handling the bicycle.
https://www.ibike.org/education/infant.htm
https://hea-www.harvard.edu/~fine/opi...dcarriers.html

shawmutt

I bought a trailer because I have two toddlers and my wife is not comfortable having a child seat. I tow them both now with my Burley Encore. In the next few years our oldest will be graduating to a trail-a-bike and my wife will be towing the youngest.

MNBikeCommuter

We started out with a seat, and when Kidlet #2 came along, we switched to a trailer. I much preferred the stability of towing the trailer over the kid in the seat. As for errands, the trailer freed us up to run more errands, as there was room for a couple of bags of groceries, etc., in it. We also were able to take the kids on a couple of half century (50 mile) rides in the trailer as there was room for toys, books, food, kicking each other. :-) We couldn't have done that with the kid seats.

Safety? I haven't looked for any stats for a long time. But, a kid in a seat has considerably farther to fall than one in a trailer. A lot of times it's the vertical distance that's far more dangerous than horizontal speed, especially for head and neck injuries. My sister managed to flip her kid in a trailer and he hung upside down quite secure, asking if they could do that again...

Denelle

I have an Ibert (in my avatar) and just upgraded to a Yepp. I *love* the Yepp much more than the Ibert. My daughter is 17 months and roughly 20 pounds.

irclean

Adams makes a baby seat to fit on their Trail-a-Bike. That way your kid can have something to grow into.

https://www.trail-a-bike.com/products...ies/baby-seat/