Child Trailers?

[tdr1nka]

I have taken my daughter, age 5, by bike to both nursery and big school.
That's some 3 1/2 years now.
First she was in a chair seat behind me and when she outgrew that we were bequeathed a tag-a-long tandem which she now loves!
We live and ride in the smelly looney driver paradise that is South London and she is my second pair of eyes and ears, we are helmeted and covered in so much hi-vi that we probably constitute a dangerous distraction.

My advice is to take your place on the road and ride like a Nun. Have an average time for journies, school runs etc and try when possible not to rush.

The tandem has given my daughter road sense above that of many her age, she understands what it feels like to ride without stablisers and loves it when people stop and wave or just stare when we go past(you don't see many kids on tandems in New Cross!).

Best Wishes

Tdr1nka x

 

[Arch]

I have taken my daughter, age 5, by bike to both nursery and big school.
That's some 3 1/2 years now.
First she was in a chair seat behind me and when she outgrew that we were bequeathed a tag-a-long tandem which she now loves!
We live and ride in the smelly looney driver paradise that is South London and she is my second pair of eyes and ears, we are helmeted and covered in so much hi-vi that we probably constitute a dangerous distraction.

My advice is to take your place on the road and ride like a Nun. Have an average time for journies, school runs etc and try when possible not to rush.

The tandem has given my daughter road sense above that of many her age, she understands what it feels like to ride without stablisers and loves it when people stop and wave or just stare when we go past(you don't see many kids on tandems in New Cross!).

Best Wishes

Tdr1nka x

That's great! I love the idea of 'ride like a nun'!

 

[tdr1nka]

with my wimple in the wind!

 

[tdr1nka]

Rather than going down the trailer route, I gave one of these a test-drive yesterday....

http://www.bakfiets.nl/eng/models_cargo_bike_long.php

Room for three kids and you can also fit a baby seat. Takes a bit of getting used to the steering, but pretty straight-forward all in all.

Mrs Delftse and I are, however, a bit hesitant at the price - probably about 2000EUR all told.

This bike is fantastic, it looks like it could be amphibious!

T x

 

[Arch]

This bike is fantastic, it looks like it could be amphibious!

T x

Look in the second post here to see something like it being a bit amphibious... (scoll down a bit...)

http://www.cyclechat.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=5873

 

[domtyler]

My experience of taking my daughter to Nursery so far in the child seat is that I do not get any extra room or patience shown by car drivers. The only thing that helps is to completely take the lane. Fortunately it is only a few minutes ride but we do have to go a short distance on two fairly busy roads.

 

[PrettyboyTim]

I changed from using a trailer to using a child seat to take my son to nursery; mainly because the trailer took longer to set up and take down, and my Wife didn't like lugging it around when she picked him up in the afternoon.

However, I do miss the courtesy that I used to get from drivers with it. People were always stopping to let me cross the road, that kind of thing. People still seem to give me more room with the child seat than without, but it was fun riding with the trailer

 

[tdr1nka]

I generally take the lane and signal well in advance as a rule. My greatest worries come from when drivers overtake us by using the oncoming lane of a blind corner or junction.

Tdr1nka x

 

[User169]

This bike is fantastic, it looks like it could be amphibious!

T x

Not quite amphibious, although the manufacturers do make a big thing of it being able to withstand being left outside all of the time.

On the other hand, it may well need to be amphibious given climate change and all that!