I have still not read this, but Vancouver is flea on a mastiff compared to the city and I much prefered the seat on the bike.

I feel that unless you are on traffic calm/ed street with bike priority trailers are overlooked.

It allows much better interaction with your child. But it also means you should use front panniers which when combined with other factors handling can be tough is you are new at the game.

On a side note I think that my kids seat (without the kid) saved my life. I think it deflected me out of the path of some dump truck tires that I came to lay near.

I don't know... my reservations about child trailers in NYC has little to do with safety. I mean...NYC drivers are aggressive and rude but they aren't murderous for the most part. Or even unskilled. I've heard this argument before and it really makes no sense when you think about it. Isn't your safety at least as important as your child's? If cycling in traffic is too dangerous for a child, then it's also too dangerous for the parents. So (IMO) the safety issue is moot. Being down near ground level with buses, trucks, SUV's and other large bulky vehicles at close quarters in a two track trailer? I just don't think it would be pleasant. Up a little higher on a bike child seat or, if they are old enough, on a kid back or longbike kid pad, I think would be an improvement. I would of course stay off the big arterial roads and probably avoid peak traffic times as well when riding with children.

I towed my kids in a trailer, both at the same time, but we lived in the suburbs at the time. They're adults now. My wife and I live in Manhattan now, and I've hauled cargo in the trailer a few times, and I don't enjoy it, and I don't recommend it to you unless your Brooklyn streets are quiet and roomy.

There is the kid seat that goes on the back. That is the most popular here in NYC. If you have luggage, I guess you'll need a handlebar bag or front rack with panniers or a basket on front.

You could also consider a long bike such as a Yuba Mundo or Xtracycle, but those are well out of your budget.

Yuba Mundo:



Even nicer is a bakfiets which has a big box between the wheels. You can fit two or three or four kids in there, and boy, do they have fun.

Bakfiets:



I see bakfietsen (the plural of bakfiets) and long bikes in my neighborhood carrying kids.

Another configuration, which your kid is not yet old enough for, is attaching a banana seat over the rear wheel. I see parents taking kids appearing to be as old as ten years on this. It works well.

Some of these cargo bikes have motor options. I test rode a neighbor's pedal-assisted bakfiets. There is no throttle to control. The bike detects when you are putting in an effort, and the motor just comes on and helps. It is surprisingly comfortable. My neighbor happily rode his kids up the hills in Maplewood, NJ.

I appreciate the fact you have a budget, and it's quite reasonable, but I'm mentioning this expensive stuff in case you decide later it's worth it. Hey, you may end up with more than one kid.

Consider that you may want fenders. For many of us, they help keep us dry and clean in marginally wet weather, though they don't help much in downpours. Your kid needs a helmet, and it would be good role modeling if you wore one, too, though this being New York, I see a lot of unhelmeted parents, and I won't be calling Child Protection Services on them.

And please get yourself some excellent lights. There is a lighting and gadgets section of bikeforums.

Welcome to bikeforums and the world of bike commuting. I hope you find both fun.

The Kona and Giant models you mention are excellent. Also look at the Trek FX series and the Specialized Cirrus. If your bike shop has a lesser known brand, they are also worth consideration.

i agree with that for the most part. drivers in NYC are not murderous, and most are looking out for pedestrians in crosswalks, cyclists, and all else. safety discussed here as it relates to trailers is your perception, and not proven by data. choosing your route based on your comfort level and avoiding high incident areas (crash sites) is probably all you need to feel safe.

see [MENTION=152773]noglider[/MENTION] 's response on the bikes you named. to stay under $800 is going to be tough unless you're looking at at seat or a trailer.

xtracycle also makes an attachment for the bike if you already have it, but that's upwards of $600. it used to be called the freeradical but now it is called the leap. i don't have any experience with it.

best of luck OP!

really good review of all of the common-used options that are available:


i also should say that I'm quite anti-trailer unless one lives in the countryside. for urban areas they're dogs.

as a counterpoint, the Nihola bikes are excellent ... used they run about €1000 or about €500 if you OK with doing a quick rebuild (hubs/brakes/etc...), they run about €2000 new.

Just don't do this:

That poor poor girl.

My younger kids are now having a turn in our beat-up Burley, the oldest is about to turn 8, and rises her own bike.

The trailer, while low, us a fairly bulky structure, and difficult to miss. Plus, if I take a spill, the trailer will stay upright. A kid on a seat can have a long way to fall, with little ability to catch themselves.

She's got a convenient place to store crayons...

And here's the 2nd image that comes up on a google image search for "kid bike seat dad's butt"

https://www.thule.com/en-us/us/produ...x-1-_-10101221
I would not consider the Chariot CX1 to be a dog. It pulls plenty fast over good distances. Much more lively ride than the Nihola or other bakfiet type bikes when speed, distance, hills, and other traffic w/o separate facilities are factors. We took our kids on many group and social rides in the trailers and I was definitely able to keep up with the pack. As I said in earlier post, I regularly pulled our Chariot at 22-27mph on our run into downtown. And rode the same hills back up on the return home. Not as easy to do on a bakfiet or with a child in a seat, front or rear.
The trailer also allows you room for toys, clothes, kid stuff, etc… Take it to the grocery store to bring home lots of edible cargo. Pull your kiddo to preschool/school and then leave it locked up. Ride on to work unloaded. You or your partner can pick up the child and trailer in the afternoon. Use the trailer as a jogging stroller, swivel wheel stroller, or ski travois. Convert it to grocery, cargo, or dog trailer when your kids outgrow it. Lots of uses, even if the child trailers aren't for everyone.
That is why I posted links to the Surly Big Dummy and Yuba Mondo. Also versatile and with some limitations.
Bakfiets are very nice. Indeed, agreed. They just were not the best option for where I live in my city. If it were flat, great bicycle facilities, and all of my destinations were within five miles, then probably so. Won't be taking a bakfiet on social/group rides or overnight camping trips, though.
Big Dummy, Yuba, quality child trailer pulled behind a decent bike, are all better options for longer, faster, extended types of riding.
Trains and busses are tough with any of the child capable options. Dummy and Yuba don't fit on our bus bike racks. I have detached the trailer and loaded it as a stroller on both our busses and train here. They will let you roll the Dummy and Yuba on to our trains. Bakfiets no way. Bike with trailer on the train, sometimes yes and sometimes no, depending on the operator and current occupancy on the train.

I'd recommend a bakfiets as option one. I'd stick with either Bakfiets.nl or Workcycles though. The others can be kind of squirrelly. Second choice would be a Dutch omafiets or opafiets (Workcycles, Azor, or Batavus) with a child carrier or a Fr8 or Gr8 with a carrier.

A great blog by a friend and fellow commuter with kids riding around Brooklyn: https://brooklynspoke.com

I think you and I may have different definition definitions of an urban area. Austin doesn't meet my definition as the population density is way too low for a proper city. The trailers are slow and wide, the hinge point is horrible for taking turns on a separated bike lane and it's cumbersome as one can't talk with the passengers when they're cycling. The nihola is really the way to go.

Tell that to the other 5+ million people who live within a 100 mile radius of my house. Not quite NYC but I am sure we qualify as an urban area. This definition works well enough and probably applies to many of our BF members.
An urban area is the region surrounding a city. Most inhabitants of urban areas have nonagricultural jobs. Urban areas are very developed, meaning there is a density of human structures such as houses, commercial buildings, roads, bridges, and railways. "Urban area" can refer to towns, cities, and suburbs.

Take a quick look at the photo and link posted of the Chariot. The hinge point allows articulation. Look at busses, flatbed trucks, and rigs with trailers. That hinge point makes them more maneuverable not less so. You can ride lots of single track, MUP's, bike lanes, and the road with the trailers. I know. I did it lots. With 3 out of 4 of our kiddos. Have you ? I gave lots of options and pros and cons on this thread. Have you even used a bike trailer such as the Chariot in Austin, NYC, or Europe ? How many children do you have (thinking you have your first now) ? How old is the child ? Has he/she traveled extensively via bicycle and transitioned through the stages described on this thread ? Many options have been discussed, including post trailers and bakfiets when the kids begin riding recumbent and TrailABike tagalongs. Thanks for your share.

I don't know anything about commuting with a kid in the city but look at this website <click>

this was an advertisement on bike forums on this page. I like the video when you first pull up the site. Looks like fun but if it is raining your kid is getting WET!

Popular Dutch options and links to some good articles: Child Transport Bicycles

Density of Austin city proper (where it's the highest) ... is 1300 people/km2 for 900K people which is pretty low IMO.

The last three cities I've lived in are/were ... 4000 people/km2 for 1M people, 3000 people/km2 for 600K people and currently 5000 people/km2 for 250K people.

A trailer would be a catastrophic failure in all three, even with pretty good bike infrastructure. A nihola bike is manageable, a bakfiets is much better (due to reduced width) and a bike with a rear seat is the best option and it can easily be rolled through the entryway and locked in the inner courtyard of a building (or down the stairs in the basement). None of that it easy with the other options and impossible with a trailer.

Yes. There are numerous reasons you see almost zero trailers in Europe.

Fixed it. (me thinks you've been sniffing too much in the lab, the ride from your new house might clear your head a bit) :-)

Kids up to about 4 or 5 can ride up front. This is much more enjoyable and safer for them and allows parent and child to talk much easier than when they're in the back.

Actually, I'd only put a kid up to 2 years in the front, then on the back. However, I agree that having the child in front is much better than in the rear. I think the trailer idea is some weird American idea that's caught on due to lack of exposure to proper options ... one can't even communicate with the passengers and it's way too wide for anything built pre-auto.

In the end, the nihola is the best option, especially when the wife is pregnant

another way to think about it:

πr^2:

3.14 * 100^2 = 31400 mi^2 (5M+ people)

nealry 2X Netherlands (16000 mi^2): 17M ppl
southeast of England, excluding London (1200 mi^2): 8.5M ppl
England as a entire country (50000 mi^2), which is 1.5X your "Austin" area: 54M ppl (slightly bigger than the "Austin" area with 10X the people)

I can't really consider Austin urbanised in any proper way, which is possibly why a bike trailer works.

A new popular feature on BikeForums is to have [MENTION=200073]acidfast7[/MENTION] assess whether your home city is really a "city," in his opinion. He uses statistics.

Just curious: Does anyone know how many Bakfiets are sold or exist in the U.S.? Doubly curious of the number sold or existing outside of Portland or owned/used by anyone who is not affiliated with the bike store selling them.

Given their selling price, weight, and overall size and associated difficulty in manhandling into a home, apartment or vehicle when not in use, or difficulty in riding up hills when in use, I suspect that few people in the U.S. really find much use or value with bakfiets other than as an expensive novelty for sunny day rides to a nearby park or bike path on a close to home (presumably with ground floor or garage storage space).

What we should do is demonstrate a correlation between population density and passenger carrying by type.

I wouldn't consider 5M ppl in an area the size of England a city really.

Can someone check that as I must have a made a mistake as England can't really be as small/large as a circle with a 125mi radius, can it? and have 55M ppl?