All we know about biking with small kids

To start with, you obviously need a bike, a child and a way to fit your little one on top of it.

So let's have a look at what are your options: THE FRONT SEAT Personally my favourite! It gives you much better centre of gravity than rear seat. It allows your child to have the same view as you have while biking.

You can share experience truly together, since interaction is so much easier

when your toddler is located between your arms, where he can hear you better.

Some of the seats come with sort of a plate attached in front of it. I was always wondering would it be useful for a nap if such a situation occurs?

Our did not have such a plate, and Yana was sometimes sleeping on top of my day pack, that I would attach for her on top of my handle bar. During her nap I had

to bike slower and super careful as I was scared her head would easily slip on side.

Most of front seats would be able to carry up to 15kg - 17kg

Baby needs to be able to sit by herself.

Not suitable for some kinds of bikes, you would need to double check if your particular

bike would fit a particular front seat prior buying.

THE REAR SEAT

I am not a big fan of it.

Personally I am not even able to catch a balance on my bike if I put a child in such a rear carrier. It is quite popular though, especially fore rental , and is able to carry heavier kids,

up to 20kg - 22kg...so we ended up using them as well....

Some models are even reclining, enabling your kids to have more comfortable sleepy on the way. Sort of...A child should be approximately 9kg and able to sit unsupported, to be considered big enough for his first ride. Yet, our 20 month old ( heavy ) Bruno, was not big enough to sleep on the way. Even if we would recline his seat, his head would just flop from side to side. Only slightly taller and heavier, 3 year old Yana, seamed to be big enough to let us continue biking if she would fall asleep in it.

THE TRAILER

We only tried it once. We never considered owning one, for three reasons:

1) It is big. We prefer smaller options, which would allow us easily to travel around

with bikes and seats if we wish to.

2) It is relatively expensive, definitely not cheaper then bike seats.

3) If we would buy one,for practical reasons it would be a two-seater, but we should stay realistic and imagine how absurd it is to expect from our kids to sit next to each other, for many hours, in such a limited space.

So that one day when we gave it a go with a trailer we noticed:

• at least balance wasn't anymore our concern

• two kids put together are heavy for one parent to pull them, and we ended up going everywhere much slower

• as predicted, they did got annoyed at each other, when one got sleepy but the other was still playful

• while asleep, they seamed to be more comfortable than on a bike seat

THE CENTRE MOUNTED SEAT

It's actually just additional bike saddle with foot rests, mounted on a bike frame.

We love it, we think it's really cool! It's like a front seat, but for bigger kids.

Child is situated behind handle bar, between parent's arms which has

always the same advantages:

- good centre of gravity

- the same view for both you and your kid

- better interaction during ride

It is very easy to attach/ detach it, and packs up to quite small sac.

This bike seat suppose to be designed for a child from 18 months to 7 years old.

Which...I guess varies from child to child. Your 1,5 year old should

be able to fallow instructions and hold tight on to your handle bar during ride.

Whereas the 7 year old shouldn't be heavier than 28 kg.

I am only 166 cm tall, and I have a feeling I wont be able to carry Yana for so long,

mostly because the taller she grows, the lesser I can see in front of me... ( not to mention how big is

her helmet ) So we will be using it not necessarily for so long :) Going for a bike ride on that seat means, your child will be sitting without back

support, in a similar position to a real cyclist. There is no possibility

for a kid to catch a nap, and sitting for two long in that particular position

can be tiring also. We consider it to be a great seat but only for day trips.

We also put on top of it a gel seat, to make sure it's nice and soft for kids to sit on.

THE BABY STRAPPED TO PARENT'S BACK

We didn't invent it! You have to imagine that we are living in New Zealand, the country without

such shops like Ikea, H&M or Decathlon. The market when it comes to all sorts of goods is smaller here, than in Europe, Asia or even Australia. Back in 2014, when we were planning our monthly bike trip across Samoa, Bruno was only 6 months old, unable to sit unsupported. We simply couldn't find in New Zealand anything suitable for him. Even trailers had the requirement of certain weight & age& stage that we couldn't fulfill....

So we made our own little research. We were mostly checking how people bike in Holland, the country where everybody uses their bikes on daily basis. We found people who would make a DIY project to attach somehow baby car seats into the bike trailers, which seamed inspiring but....BIG. And we equally found people who would just bike with kids attached to their backs. Which didn't surprise us at all, because we knew that is how people would do it all over Africa and Asia, but felt re assuring to see that this is also done in EU : )

Biking like that in Samoa with Bruno turned up to be really ok. As he was resting on Vathsan's back during the whole time he had premium quality sleepy on the way, definitely to most comfortable solution out of all I just listed above. Not sure if Vathsan was as comfortable as Bruno, but hey, these are the sacrifices we make for our kids, right?

I guess the biggest issue was the sweat. Tropics are already hot and humid, and if you put a biking man in sun to it, with a baby attached to his back, that is just unavoidable!

So once we know all about different bike seats solutions, now it's time to discuss

the THREE CASES SCENARIOS as you will be probably either cycling with your child on a short distance, maybe to kindergarten, to park, playground?

Either will take him on a day trip?

Or will end up doing multiple days and destinations cycle adventure?

SHORT DISTANCES

are easy! We are aiming to cycle when kids are awake and full of energy.

We want them to experience the joy of biking.

At this stage, we can make them sit in any of the above seats / solutions I listed.

It all depends on the type of bike you have, the age and size of your child and the amount of money you want to invest in the gear. At this stage, everything should be ok!

DAY TRIPS

Slightly more tricky. We will spend probably most of the day on the bike. Here is how we would usually organize it. We will pack one backpack full of water, snacks and warm spare clothes. That will be the only extra weight we wish to carry, as we still need to have energy to bike for our-selfs and our kiddies! We will start to bike around 10 am, when kids are full of energy and happy to see the world and enjoy the ride. We will stop for lunch to give them food and nice break. We will continue the ride. Usually this is when Bruno will catch his nap. Ideally we will schedule a nice break / activity ( ice creams, walking in the park, whatever ) later in the afternoon. Usually this is when kids are getting bored with the whole biking idea and they just need to run around to spend a bit of their own energy. Finally we will start heading back home. If the previous play time was to intense, eventually Yana will catch her late nap on our way back home. Luckily, usually with the amount of overwhelming fresh air and the adventure on itself, she shouldn't be too fussy about going for a night time sleepy.

We will usually also miscalculate the hours/ kilometers and our personal capacities, and get back home hungry and slightly too late, so putting kids to sleep 9ish, is almost guaranteed.

Ideally we should be putting our kids in such bike seats, to make sure they can comfortably nap on the way. Since we noticed Bruno, once asleep was flopping from side to side on his rear seat, we were biking till he falls asleep. Than we would stop somewhere under the tree where we could rest the bike against it. One of us would still stand against the bike to support it from the other side, and we will try to combine our lunch break

during that time.

MULTIPLE DAYS AND DESTINATIONS We only did it once, cycled across Samoa for a month.

Back than Bruno was 8 months old and Yana was 2,5 years old. The way you plan such a trip varies based on age of kids you are cycling with and the region or country.

But just in case if you are still curious, this is how we did it :

I was biking on a good looking ( but not particularly good ) bike. I had attached front seat for Yana and I was carrying lighter panniers at the back with all that we called as emergency, or rather all that we needed on the way, for one day of biking ( food, water, spare clothes, diapers, baby milk, cameras, bike repair kit , medicines etc ). I would also have a day pack on my back, that sometimes I was able to attach on top of my panniers.

Vathsan had a much better bike, custom made in Columbia, ordered by a french bike traveler, who gave it to us here in NZ. He was cycling with heavier panniers than me, which would contain majority of our luggage. Bruno was strapped to his back in a very comfortable ergonomic baby carrier.

We were usually leaving around 10 am. We always wanted to leave slightly earlier, than that, when it was less hot, but we couldn't. To do so, we should have packed evening prior our departure. Since kids were sleeping we wouldn't dare to disturb them, so we had to always pack in the morning, which was a bit hectic with Yana who wanted to play, and Bruno

who wanted to crawl.

Bruno was catching his first nap right after our 10 am departure. Yana would stay awake. This is when we were cycling as much as we could, till noon. Than we were having a lunch break somewhere in shade, maybe even in someone's house. After a decent break were biking again, this is when Bruno was catching his second nap. After lunch we had to stay focused and try to make as many kilometers as possible. Around 3 pm Bruno was usually waking up and we had to check on the map where we are and plan accordingly.

We were also open to hitch a ride. If we saw that it was too steep, or it was raining, or we had technical problem with one of the bikes, we were lifting thumbs up and hoping for a big pick up car to give us few kilometers lift.

Bruno didn't mind cycling, but from our perspective it was so much easier to schedule our cycling days around his nap times. Because of the distances between villages in Samoa which were quite big, we had to divide our Samoa trip in to two type of days : bike days and beach days

When we had to cycle, we would do it fully, as much as it takes to reach our next destination.

Once we've reached a new village we would usually stay there for 4- 5 nights, and all other days

spent having pure holiday, beach and snorkeling time.

#tips