cycling with kids: kit to ride with children from babies to independent teens
8 minute read
Safety
Helmets are the obvious one here. While you can get great helmets for little kids, helmets are not suitable for small babies- they’re too heavy. It’s worth looking into trailers that have good baby inserts and a good roll cage if you want to cycle with a child too young to hold their own head up and airway open when they fall asleep with a helmet on (and recognise that riding with small babies is generally not recommended). Lights and reflective gear are worth thinking about too- especially adding extra lights if you’re road riding on an unusual-shaped cycle- e.g. with a rear seat or trailer, a tandem etc which drivers may not identify as easily as a standard bike shape.
One safety issue we hadn’t really thought about before the kids hit secondary age and strict rules was coats. Many schools only allow black coats for uniform. This is obviously a problem for road riding on winter nights! We’ve been told that students can wear reflective tabards… but unsurprisingly, most teens aren’t keen on this idea- and the black reflective cycle jackets seem to come in summer weight only. So, anyone with a good solution to this (other than “hold your breath” or “tell them to pavement ride”- got those two sorted!), please get back to me!
Trailers
These can cost anywhere from not-much (free second hand, or very cheap trailers maybe £50) to an-awful-lot (£1000+)- and prices can vary wildly depending on exchange rates (the model we got doubled in price in the year after we bought it!), finding one second hand, new models coming out etc. We used our Burley d’lite double trailer as a pushchair too, which made it very economical, though tricky to fit on buses. The flip-down front stroller wheel and handlebar made it a versatile vehicle- and the handlebar made a good rear light mounting position, as well as giving me a slight feeling that at least cars would hit the bar before the kids… A decade and a half on, the trailer is no longer child suitable but still gets outings with cargo.
One recommendation is to ensure any trailer you use has a fly screen/waterproof dual front: The front needs to stay down any time you’re riding so you don’t send grit and broken glass into your children’s faces, but children can rapidly overheat in an enclosed waterproof bubble.
While some people feel nervous about trailer safety so prefer raised child seats, we felt safer using a trailer as the child is protected if you fall off (and child seats make you wobblier…) and many have a good roll cage. Saying that, we did also use raised child seats.
Child seats
These can mount to the seatpost or a special rack behind the main rider, or in front of the rider on the crossbar, depending on the type of bike. We liked the bouncy suspension of the seatpost-mount rear seats but they do generally make using panniers impossible. We didn’t like the way a crossbar-mounted seat pushes out the adult rider’s knees and makes you reach around the child, but lots of people like that you can talk to and see a child on a front seat easily. Trailers and child seats can generally be used together (I used to ride with one child on the back of the bike, two in the trailer and one riding alongside me), but be aware that child seats make a bike top-heavy and wobbly so make sure you’re confident dealing with the weight and lower manoeuvrability if you want to use both high seat and trailer at the same time. Some seats recline, some have better harnesses and foot straps than others- all worth thinking about. Foot straps are particularly important for keeping wiggly toes out of wheels!
Child carrying bikes
Specialised child-carrying or adapted cargo bikes can be really handy but can also be expensive and heavy. Many are Dutch manufacture so geared for fairly flat ground, but there are electric options which solve most hills-and-distance problems! Some allow one or more child to pedal; others make the children passengers. They last forever so second hand models are often available. We had a fantastic rear-steer tandem which was great fun and let the adult constantly see that the child hadn’t randomly decided to get off (yes, I once left a child the wrong side of a crossing when using a tag-a-long…). Now we’ve switched to an electric tandem which allows us to do much longer journeys but does require more child training of the “don’t get off unless I say so!” variety!
Balance bikes
Suitable from age 18 months or so depending on how interested the child is, size of child and size of bike. For a child from 3+ you can make a balance bike by taking the pedals off a normal bike. These are generally fantastic and let you walk (run, once they get the hang of pushing) at a sensible pace. They also avoid any temptation to use stabilisers- just stick them on a pedal bike once they’re big enough and they get the hang of things very fast!
We found two balance bikes would fit down the back of a standard McLaren pushchair- leaving room for a buggy board too! It’s worth getting a decent make- we encountered one balance bike where the stem was so badly made the handlebars didn’t turn the front wheel, but a more frequent issue can be that cheaper models are often too heavy, too high and too wide- any of these issues can put a child off learning to ride the bike at all.
Good balance bikes are often available second hand and do tend to hold their value since they only get ridden for a year or so per child. We used Like-A-Bike Jumpers which are very, very lightweight but have no brake (this isn’t a problem as feet are used to propel the bike anyway so work as brakes too, but expect to buy lots of secondhand child shoes for them to destroy slowing themselves on hills…). Some other makes like the Islabike Rothan have a rear brake but are heavier- and you will end up carrying balance bikes!
Tag-a-longs, hitches and tandems
So many kinds available! Proper rigid tandems (or triples) are the most expensive, most durable and most stable. Tag-a-longs come in single or even tandem models, so you can tow two pedalling kids at a time- but they can be wobbly with a heavy or non-rider child. I’m about 55kg and used a tandem tag-a-long for about 2 years until our older two kids were 7 and 5- but couldn’t use it until the littlest could balance solo as his unbalanced weight used to make me feel too wobbly for road safety.
Hitches like Trailgators are great for towing a younger child and single bike along tricky sections such as roads, so you can then let them off to ride solo once you get somewhere suitable. This can really open up the city- you’re not restricted to just places that little legs and inexperienced riders can access from your home but your kids can have fun messing about by themselves at your destination.
We now have an electric tandem used mostly by me and our daughter who has disabilities that mean she can’t ride solo. I have worsening back issues so also can’t ride without power- the motor has meant we can get about again! Tandems can also be ridden without the rear rider (the “stoker”)- yes you get strange looks and comments, but really it’s just the cycling equivalent of driving a 5-seat car alone- and I’m certain you see many people who do that!
Solo kids’ bikes
As with balance bikes, there are so many options! Second hand good quality bikes cost little less than new (looking at current prices, our 4th-hand Islabikes would probably sell for about double what we paid for them a few years ago) which is a problem if you can’t invest in them, but does at least mean you won’t lose money in the long run. Poor quality bikes are often heavy, badly sized, unreliable, hard work to pedal and can just make your child disheartened about riding- which is not at all the idea. One particularly bad example we came across had both pedal screw threads running the same direction- which meant the one pedal kept undoing itself and falling off as the child tried to ride!
If you want to cycle for day-to-day transport and not just for leisure, it’s worth having decent bikes for your kids- if only so you don’t have to keep mending them. Mudguards, individual mending kits, pannier racks and kick stands are well worth thinking about and good lights of course necessary. We’ve been very impressed with friends’ German and Dutch bikes that have dynamo lights plus mudguards, pannier racks and kick stands just as standard- but you can’t get hold of them here! It’s worth considering that some kids at some ages may be wary of having less fashionable looking bikes – most children’s bikes in the UK don’t have mudguards – right up until the point they cycle in heavy rain and work out that mudguards stop you getting soaked…
So, you’ve got kit you’re happy suits your whole family and are looking forwards to getting about by bike. Next time, I’ll talk about the good and the bad on the roads around us: Our ideas about what makes getting around easier, and what makes it more difficult.
Kate