Australian Cycling Forums - Bicycles Network Australia

Hi! I haven't been on here on ages! I doubt I'll even be remembered. Haha. I haven't ridden my bike in soooooo long. I now have a 10 month old daughter though and I'm thinking she might finally be big enough for a helmet! So I am weighing up options to transport her around with me on my bike. I have narrowed it down to front mounted bike seats as I don't think she would so much like a trailer at this stage as she doesn't terribly love the car seat either. Anyway, I've done a bit of reading on the weeride, ibert and yepp seat but I still don't know what to do. Anyone for any advice or experience? Is it just a matter of what you're used to?

+1 for the yepp mini, easy to install, kid loved it.

Some things to consider

- weight of child, yepp has a max of 15kgs i think
- 1" or 1 1/8" steerer, make sure you have the right adaptor
- type of bike your putting it on may or may not foul your knees when pedaling, so might need to adjust your possie on the bike

mine was installed on an old school road bike running swept back risers , knees did indeed hit the chair so had to adjust position.

Thanks jaseyjase and thanks for the pics too. Looks very cool.

I prefer the look of the weeride

http://www.this link is broken/Weeride-Cro ... pAod3kAAcQ" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Wee-Ride-/29 ... 43bf241076" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I've had pretty good experiences with a WeeRide. I've also used a BoBike Mini(I think that's the name?) which is another stem-mounted kind of thing. That's pretty good too. The good thing about these seats is that you can see what's going on and interact with your child. My experience of riding with a <1yo kid is they can struggle a bit with head control and holding themselves up generally. This varies pretty widely from kid to kid, of course. Being able to see whether this is a problem or not is a very good thing for mine. Plus you get to interact with them, which is cool, and get an idea of when they fall asleep (our youngest, when she was real little, was a dead cert to nod off in 2k or less, which was pretty funny).

The only drawback I've noticed is that they all get in the way of your pedalling to some extent. I got used to it pretty easily, though. Oh, one other thing: I tried a WeeRide and drops - found out that the drops tended to bump into the seat (not the child, so not bad bad) which could be unsettling when trying to make a tight low-speed turn. Once moving above walking pace it was a non-issue. Also, WeeRides work better with long top tubes, I reckon, because they sit further back from the bars.

Thanks jasonc - too bad they won't ship it (local pick up only and I'm in Perth).

high_tea wrote:I've had pretty good experiences with a WeeRide. I've also used a BoBike Mini(I think that's the name?) which is another stem-mounted kind of thing. That's pretty good too. The good thing about these seats is that you can see what's going on and interact with your child. My experience of riding with a <1yo kid is they can struggle a bit with head control and holding themselves up generally. This varies pretty widely from kid to kid, of course. Being able to see whether this is a problem or not is a very good thing for mine. Plus you get to interact with them, which is cool, and get an idea of when they fall asleep (our youngest, when she was real little, was a dead cert to nod off in 2k or less, which was pretty funny).

The only drawback I've noticed is that they all get in the way of your pedalling to some extent. I got used to it pretty easily, though. Oh, one other thing: I tried a WeeRide and drops - found out that the drops tended to bump into the seat (not the child, so not bad bad) which could be unsettling when trying to make a tight low-speed turn. Once moving above walking pace it was a non-issue. Also, WeeRides work better with long top tubes, I reckon, because they sit further back from the bars.

I think the bobike mini is now the yepp mini as far as I can see. Good to hear you had good experiences with both that you tried. I think you might be right we the length of the top tube. I went and looked at the weeride at my lbs today and got them to take it out and put it on a bike that would have been similar size to mine and I think it would be too big. Not just a case of riding with knees out a bit either I don't think.

It seems like you just have to buy one and hope for the best. I do really like the idea of being close to bubs and sure she would prefer it too. The yepp mini and ibert would sit closer to the handle bar as they're secured to the stem so thinking might have to go with one to those. I just need to work out if I have enough height or whatever of my stem and I'm not sure how to do that exactly :/ bike mechanics is not my forte...even simple stuff like this

Bought a weeride / deluxe edition from TBE osborne park. Set it up on mrs mountain bike and been taking my daughter on it since she was 10months old. Shes 16.5kg and just over 3 now so shes recently graduated to her own bike.

Your right in saying your knees do stick out to the side with the wee ride. The Yepp mini looks cheap & nasty to me. I don't like how the stem takes all the weight. Apart from extra flex, with all that extra weight up front it'll make the steering/ handling horrible and downright dangerous. The additional weight from a child is centralized with the wee-ride (attaches to stem & seat post) and I can personally say the bike handles well, we even do some light mountain biking. Hit some sand with a yepp mini and I can see a disaster happening.

Mike

I have the BoBike Mini and it has served me well. My youngest has just outgrown it, as he is now over the 15kg weight limit.
The BoBike Mini is designed to attach to the steerer, so the seat turns with the bars. On a standard bike this is not possible because a typical A-Headset does not have enough height for the mounting block to attach to. There is a special mounting block for these bikes, but the big downside is that this mount does not allow the seat to turn with the bars.

I have mine fitted to an Electra Townie, which is an ideal bike for cruising with the kids. It has a rack as well, so I can carry all the kiddy stuff, snacks etc

_mike_ wrote:Bought a weeride / deluxe edition from TBE osborne park. Set it up on mrs mountain bike and been taking my daughter on it since she was 10months old. Shes 16.5kg and just over 3 now so shes recently graduated to her own bike.

Your right in saying your knees do stick out to the side with the wee ride. The Yepp mini looks cheap & nasty to me. I don't like how the stem takes all the weight. Apart from extra flex, with all that extra weight up front it'll make the steering/ handling horrible and downright dangerous. The additional weight from a child is centralized with the wee-ride (attaches to stem & seat post) and I can personally say the bike handles well, we even do some light mountain biking. Hit some sand with a yepp mini and I can see a disaster happening.

Mike

Hi Mike,
Thanks for that. It was tbe Osborne Park where I went to looker the weeride.

Can I ask how long your wife's top tube is? I assume she didn't find it uncomfortable if she had it there for 2 years?

Thanks queequeg. Whatever I get will be going on my orbea carpe which is my old shopping bike now to be kids bike

So I'm thinking on the orbea the bobike mini / yepp mini would not be ideal then??

Also, can I ask what helmets or where everyone got helmets from. The smallest helmet at the lbs went down to 48cm...my girls head is around 46cm so need to find something smaller.