Kids bike seat help

giftgrub

Thought i'd visit these parts for some advice..

I'm going to get my bike (raleigh mountain bike) fixed up and want to get a child seat for my two year old.

I want to know what i should be looking at, should i have him behind me? or in front on the cross bar?

what are they like for comfort and safety, what are the good brands?

wannabe7a

I got no experience yet myself, but eying up some baby bike seats myself. 10 months old and I guess that is a bit too young for the child seat.
good bit of back seats are up to 22kg so should be okay for 2 year old: read this on some reviews on amazon. Look at how easy it is to strap in.

urtooky

I have had both rear and cross bar seats. I must say while the rear ones are probably the safest my small fella loved sitting on the crossbar. He was able to see much more and we used have a ball. ONLY drawback was because he loved it so much he has been slow to get on his own bike. Unlike his big brother who was off his training wheels at four.
All said though I would be recommending the cross bar seat.
I'll try and dig up a link to one on ebay later.

One point was some shops refused to sell them as they said it was dangerous. I am of the opinion that cycling can be dangerous, if you do silly things but we never had a bother.

Holyboy

Hi there,

The rear seats really are the safest and they all take up to 22kg, the top tube(crossbar) fitting ones I'm not a great fan of but I have fitted them in the past for customers, they are really only designed for steel round tubed bikes, if your Raleigh is one of these then great, if not be very wary of fitting one, I have seen many crushed top and down tubes from being badly fitted and carrying too much weight, when I've pointed it out to people and tell them their frame is a right off they think I'm just trying to sell them a new bike, but over the years I've seem frames fail with horrible results!
Hope that's some help,

Dara.

wannabe7a

hi URTOOKY,

can you send me that recommended seller of the front seat for a child. Think mine would love that even though it is not meant to be the safest. Just have to cycle very carefully.

wannabe7a

Holyboy wrote: »

Hi there,

The rear seats really are the safest and they all take up to 22kg, the top tube(crossbar) fitting ones I'm not a great fan of but I have fitted them in the past for customers, they are really only designed for steel round tubed bikes, if your Raleigh is one of these then great, if not be very wary of fitting one,

Dara.

I didn't know that. I thought adding a seat to a mountain bike should be okay. Think the frame is solid enough. I thought that the weight of the child seat is not pressurizing the frame that much.

Holyboy

I know you didn't ask me but the seats are made by oxford now, formally sprint, any shop in the country should be able to get them and expect to pay about €30 for it, just please be careful fitting it!

wannabe7a

Thanks holyboy!
Just saw the rolls-roys of the front child seats
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Weeride-Luxe-Center-Mounted-Child/dp/B001F6FN2S/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1303070852&sr=8-4

Looks very comfy but a bit on the steep side for my pockets

Holyboy

I did mean to mention the weeride, have come across them before but I don't think anyone stocks them over here, I do forget about interweb shopping though, but something in the back of my mind tells me they have a low max load,I may be wrong though!

MadHatter

wannabe7a wrote: »

Thanks holyboy!
Just saw the rolls-roys of the front child seats
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Weeride-Luxe-Center-Mounted-Child/dp/B001F6FN2S/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1303070852&sr=8-4

Looks very comfy but a bit on the steep side for my pockets

FYI - I advertised an older model of the weeride a few months back. Still available if your interested.
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=68657852

I used it with my daughter from about 8 months. For the first few months I didn't cycle with her, just put her in the seat and wheeled the bike to creche. From about a year she could support the weight of a helmet so we started cycling and she loved it.

I've read all the pros and cons for centre mounted versus rear mounted seats. From a safety aspect rear mounted may be a little better, but from a cycling experience a proper centre mount seat (not one of those mini saddles on top tube you often see) is far superior. Being able to talk to the child and the child being able to see everything is much better than he/she being stuck behind you with a view of your backside.

thewintermute

http://www.argos.ie/static/Product/partNumber/3334601/Trail/searchtext%3EBICYCLE+SEAT.htm


Got one of these, the chisler loves it. better than similar ones at much higher prices in bicycle shops with very poor customer service. Omni centre Santry.