Bike for the kiddie & me.....

SachaJ

We're due our second child in June and we have a two year old girl already. So I'm thinking of dropping the two year old into creche on a bicycle (some days she'll be going in to give the wife a break) and I'll go to work from there (around 3km). I'm just trying to figure out what bike.

My brother has my old Raleigh mountain bike which I reckon was bought in around 1993 - 1995 and has had a dogs life. He was using it up until a couple of months back so it's in working order. He said I'd need a new chain and get the cables all changed. Not sure what else at this stage it needs.

So I'll take a look at that and maybe drop it into Cyclesuperstore to have a look at. I figure if the bill to fix it up proper is more than €150, I'd probably be better off buying a new or second hand bike (I see some Giant hardtail bikes on their site for just over the €300).

So if I'm looking for a replacement, what kind of bike should I be looking at? It would need to be tough enough for both of us? Tough enough to take bumps and drops. I definately do not want a road bike as I already have a Cube Peleton sitting in the shed that I've barely used. One option is to sell that and spend a fair wedge on this new bike but in the back of my mind I'm thinking I'll still use it.

cdaly_

She's not going to add that much extra weight so you don't need anything super strong. At 2 years old you'll probably still need a rear-mounted seat but, later on when she's bigger you might move towards a crossbar-mounted seat. At that point you'll want some kind of high-riser handlebars to allow you to sit fairly upright and give her room.

A colleague of mine uses the crossbar mounted seat for his 3 year old son.

SachaJ

I've bought one of these so she'll be on the crossbar (ages 2+)

http://www.co-rider.com/co-rider.com/index.html

I'll probably want some sort of carrier/bag/box to carry gear in as well.

So any old mountain bike would do the job?