Best baby bike seat?

[Eric Schoenfeld]

Hi everyone,

I'm just starting to research baby bike seats for my soon-to-be one year old.  Any recommendations?

I have a Sam with choco-moose bars and a Nitto rear rack.

I read that rear seats are somewhat safer and have higher weight limits, so have some preference for a rear seat.

Thanks,

--eric 

[Shoji Takahashi]

Hi Eric,

Counterpoint: I really enjoyed having my kids on a front seat. I don't know if "safer" is accurate, or how one is measuring that.

I had a Yepp Mini from ~1-yo to ~3-yo. My kids were on the smaller side. Unlike front bags, front seats don't effect steering in the same [flop] way as the weight is behind the axis. Moose bars might limit your ability to use certain front seats, though, usually depending on how high you can get the bars. 

Advantage of front seat is having the child up where you can see them and talk to them. Having a child behind does not promote the same interaction.

Also, I found the rear seat to negatively effect the handling of the bike (Hunqapillar, with longish chainstays ~460, IIRC). One has to be mindful in mounting/dismounting as knocking into/kicking a rear-mounted seat is easy to do with muscle memory.

I recall others on this list to have good experiences with front-mounted kid seats, and you can probably pull up those threads.

Good luck!

shoji

[Justin, Oakland]

After some research I decided on a front seat for the potential to tuck and roll with the kid. I guess I can talk to her also. 🤓 were going with a Thule Yepp Mini. I have had some really gracious offers from the list to sell me theirs but the wife wants a new product for this and I never buy new stuff for the bikes so might as well indulge.

I haven’t bought it yet though. We got the go ahead at 6 months from our pediatrician but have held off a bit for general anxiety reasons. She’s 8.5 months now and it’s just a matter of me getting the seat and helmet at this point.

-J

[Lynne]

Hi Justin,

Have you considered a bike trailer, such as a Burley? They are safer in that, if you take a tumble on the bike, the trailer stays upright. No need for a tuck and roll maneuver! Many people mount a tall flag on the trailer as well to increase visibility for cars. Also, the child is safely buckled into his/her own little "room" with space for toys, books, snacks, blankets, etc, making it more fun for a child bored by the scenery. I used a Burley trailer with my son for several years - for much longer than we could use a small bike seat. Additional bonus: you can use the trailer for grocery transport when not using for a child. Around Davis, we see kids getting hauled in bike trailers every day, which means you can find them on the used market quite easily. Unless your wife vetoes, of course. FYI, the typical progression is bike trailer to trailer bike to training wheels (or balance bike) to independent cycling.

Good luck and enjoy the ride with your little one,

Lynne

Davis CA

[Justin, Oakland]

East Oakland has me wanting her as close as possible. The trailer will come in time but now it’s a hold her close situation!

-J

[Coal Bee Rye Anne]

I’ve really enjoyed the Thule Yepp Nexxt Mini the past few months on a Clem and our 14mo. old loves being front and center... and I love having him right there in front of me where I could easily engage with and talk to him during the ride. The seat also unlocks and disengages easily for an occasional solo ride and you could get additional bases to just leave installed on multiple bikes (I have not done this but it’s a nice option to be able to quickly move the same seat from bike to bike if you have several and want to mix it up.)

No issues whatsoever with handling of the Clem with a 23~24lb child up front. A long top tube and swept back bars seem ideal for this kind of seat. I have a set of Chocomoose that I considered using on this bike but opted instead for Jones loop bars. The V of the moose portion of the Chocomoose has quite a bit of rise and isn’t too wide so you probably won’t experience much, if any, interference with your child’s legs whereas the Boscomoose has a 90deg and wide V moose that I could see potentially causing clearance issues depending on the bike/stem height.

You do need a couple inches of quill height to clamp the base for the seat above the headset locknut but I otherwise have a slammed Velo Orange quill to threadless adapter leaving just enough room for the base if the seat to fit.

Before we bought the Yepp Front a friend passed down a Thule ride along rear they weren’t using which is now installed on my wife’s bike (it did not fit my 65cm Clem H) She’s only taken him out once and did note the added weight out back adversely affected handling but she has narrow VO Belleville bars and likely just needs wider bars for some extra leverage.

[dstein]

Throwing my hat in the ring for a Yepp Mini front seat. Holds up to 33 lbs. I used for both of my kids. I can't remember when I started, but I want to say 18-24 months. You need to get a bike with enough top tube so have room. I'm short (5'7") so it's an issue for me, and I had some trial and error on what bike to fit it on. Currently it's on my wife's step-through Public bike which works well. Bur front all the way so they're right there and not staring at your plumber's crack in the rear. My older one graduated from the Yepp mini to a scooter and then her own bike so I haven't needed anything else, but I am thinking of a rear Yepp maxi for the 2 year old when he ultimately hits that 33 lb weight limit. 

[The Snag]

Yup, get da Yepp. Got one for my nephew around 1yo and it was his favorite thing, he would pat his head to let us know he wanted to put his helmet on and ride! Not only are you cradling them up front but they get to see the world as you roll, rather than just your back. Yepp to strider bike to two wheels. No problem. 

[Drw]

I guess I’m in the minority, but I’ve ridden one bike with a kid up front and it was extremely uncomfortable (weird handling, uncomfortable positioning for any sort of distance, wonky/bendy all plastic construction etc.). It wasn’t a Rivendell and I don’t know the seat model but it was enough to make me think rear seats on a rack must be better or at least more stable. My guy is 3 months old and I haven’t committed to any specific seat yet. I wish there was a place you could bring your bike and they put a cinder block in a seat so you can try them out.

[Peter H]

Hi Eric,

I had a great experience with my son on the rear mount "Co-Pilot" on my Clem. 

It worked great for the first 1-2 years of riding with him, but as he got older and heavier around 2.5-3 yrs (he's 4..5 now) the disproportion of weight became a bit of a bother on hills heading back home, so I eventually went with a hodgepodge of used parts for a kit Xtracycle MB-2 build that I'm quite happy with for city riding. My son loves being on the back of it, and scoots up towards me and we chat along the way home from school through the park, and being a cargo bike it allows us to strap his push bike to it and we will ride together for certain stretches on the way. 

My other son now a little over 1 year old has been using the Co-Pilot on my wife's bike, and I think we may end up eventually going for a Yepp mount on the Xtracycle so the boys can be together. 

I agree with Lynne, bike trailers are a great option too. We use a trailer on weekends when exploring and not in the city which is great, reason being (for me) I found after a short trip to the grocery store not feeling all that comfortable having them being be so far behind the bike with the busy traffic, and distracted driving, especially at intersections as the bike lanes here in Boston are as inconsistent as the good drivers are.

I do however love the idea of a front mount seat, seems like in that set up they are more part of the experience and less of an observer! If we didn't already have the rear mount Co-Pilot seat, we probably would have gone that route for our youngest.

However you go about it, riding with kids is a real hoot!!!

-Peter in Boston

On Tuesday, September 18, 2018 at 1:01:17 PM UTC-4, Eric Schoenfeld wrote:

[Coal Bee Rye Anne]

I had flip-flopped multiple times on the front vs rear debate before ultimately buying the front Yepp.  We knew we wanted a bike mounted seat and a trailer was ruled out almost immediately for us mostly due to storage space constraints, as well the fact that most of our riding would be on local multiuse paths that get really dry and dusty (although turned out to not much of an issue during this rather wet NJ summer) so I also wanted to keep our son up off the ground as much as possible.

After considering all the different options I eventually concluded the Yepp Mini was for us... only to then be generously offered a free rear seat from our friends that they could not use on their particular bikes.  Part of what helped push the front seat selection was that I also already had a rear luggage rack to install on the Clem and use for carrying stuff with our son up front.  Then the rear seat was given and we were all set to stick with it for practical reasons, but I began to rethink front rack options as the Thule Ride Along rear does not install to a rear rack but instead clamps around the seat tube and suspends itself over the rear tire from there.  The irony is that I already traded away my Surly front rack before all of this occurred so I was back to evaluating front racks again with the rear baby seat now in possession.  As it turns out, the Thule Ride Along did not fit around the widely spaced seatstays of the 65cm Clem H but fits well on one of my Wife's bikes (and will fit a couple other frames of mine for future use as he outgrows the front seat.)

So we went back to Plan A and bought a Yepp Mini for my Clem to complement the Ride Along rear that we plan to transition into.  The greatest, if not only, downside is the high cost for a 2nd seat that will only get used maybe 2yrs max (front rated up to 33lbs/3yrs and you lose most of the 1st year anyway) but I'm finding it's been well worth it so far.  Of course, that is considering I have not experienced any other fit issues.  The long top tube and high backswept bars seem to be key!  I do not hit my knees/chest/chin on the seat whatsoever but the front seat does not work with my 5'1" wife and her small framed bicycles.

Either route you choose, have fun and enjoy!

Best,

Brian Cole

Lawrenceville, NJ

[Coal Bee Rye Anne]

I also have my Chocomoose bars installed on another partially built bike in storage and might test the Yepp Mini with it later this autumn and will post an update and pics if I get around to it.

[Coal Bee Rye Anne]

I never got around to trying this last autumn and stuck with our initial set-up through the remainder of '18, but ended up building up a winter bike with the Chocomoose bars which remains my only ride ready bike to date after a move in July and most bike stuff remaining packed for now... so I finally got the Yepp front seat installed this summer and thought I'd just post a quick update and note that Chocomoose + Yepp Mini = two big grins! 

Our 2 year old loves being front and center and helping steer and with the bars raised just so (and level with my saddle) he could reach both grips so we often share the bars.  No, I don't leave him unattended like this.  Even with the double kickstand and parking brake (yes, my right lever is currently front brake) I'm still concerned about stability, especially with the stack of the tall frame. He was just chill enough to take a quick pic during a brief stop and finally document one of our usual evening loops.

Enjoy!