What a great discussion! Thanks everyone for the suggestions and the stories.
Leah & Eric - I hear you about the safety. My son can hold his neck upright pretty well right now but I failed to take into account the added weight of the helmet. Head bobbing is also another good point I didn't think about before. So it seems like most people started between the ages of 9 months to 18 months. Those who started earlier used trailers or car seats for extra protection and head stability. I was excited to start him earlier than 12 months, but given everyone's responses here, we are now thinking of waiting till one year to be on the safer side (months 9 to 12 for us are anyways going to be overlapping with the winter). In terms of seats vs. trailers, looks like a lot of folks end up going the trailer or rear-mounted seat route. We'll probably have to try multiple options and see what works, but my wife and I are more attracted to the front mounted seat option. Our thinking (similar to Bones above) is that having the baby in the front where we can see or interact with him seems like a more fun experience for both the baby and parents. These days, we love walking around with the baby in the carrier and front mounted child seat feels like a bike version of it. Granted that he will age out of this option by year 2, we still feel that the experience will be worth the extra cost and mounting effort. Our plan is to start with Thule Yepp Mini on my Appalossa with Albatross bars (we'll have to watch out for the clearance issue Michael mentioned above). We are not much of utility riders and most, if not all, our rides with the baby will be on car-free paved or dirt paths. This makes me feel a little better about opting out of the safety that trailers provide. But only the time will tell what this baby is going to like. On Sunday, September 3, 2023 at 4:40:45 PM UTC-7 ttoshi wrote: > I thought I was extremely stable with my Burley solo. Kids started at > about 11 months with helmet. I had books and music with them and they > loved it. (Slept a lot too!) I had them on a tandem with child stoker kid > at 2 1/2 and later tandem + burley followed by triplet with both my kids. > I had a rear seat on my mountain bike. It was much more unstable because > when they moved around, the balance changed dramatically. No problems > moving around in the trailer. > > Bicycling often was a way to give my wife a break, so I biked a lot with > my kids! I just dropped off my son at college, so time flies! > > Enjoy, > Toshi > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/83e9ea01-f3b5-4661-a147-7a2d5cf978e4n%40googlegroups.com.
