eproj@burl.UUCP (eproj) (10/07/85)
I've been reading this newsgroup for only two weeks now so if some of my questions are old reruns ( which they probably are) please be patient. I guess my biggest concern is safety with my baby girl riding along. My wife and I want to get back into riding our bikes (Raleigh's) and would like to be able to take are baby daughter along. I feel very uneasy about this and any suggestions on the right/wrong/not at all ways of doing this would be appreciated. Our little girl is only 3 mos. old so it will be a while before I even attempt to include her on our rides. Dealing with traffic is everybody's major concern while riding (I presume) so if you have some good pointers about that I would again appreciate it very much. The roads in our immediate area do not have any type of paved shoulder to speak of plus they are two lane. Kind of a tight squeeze. I would like to add that I really enjoy reading this news group and would like to see all the articles pertaining to bicycling stay in one group. so long Dave
clarke@utcsri.UUCP (Jim Clarke) (10/08/85)
In article <894@burl.UUCP> eproj@burl.UUCP (eproj) writes: >I've been reading this newsgroup for only two weeks now so if ... me too, but I'm getting used to embarrassing myself. Here goes again. >I guess my biggest concern is safety with my baby girl riding along. >My wife and I want to get back into riding our bikes (Raleigh's) and >would like to be able to take are baby daughter along. I feel very uneasy >about this and any suggestions on the right/wrong/not at all ways of >doing this would be appreciated. Our little girl is only 3 mos. old >so it will be a while before I even attempt to include her on our >rides. ... It had better be a while! Babies can't even sit up properly until they're at least 5 months, and their spines are pretty tender for a while after that. I wouldn't take a child on a bicycle seat until it (<-- non-sexist but traditional) was at least a year old. Then there's also the problem of trying to jump out. I prefer to ride with children who are old enough to be told not even to try to get out, and old enough also to begin to understand about falling on one's head. A year should do that. Another thing to worry about before you even start: the straps. Those single plastic straps you get with the seats look inadequate to me. My wife and I adapted a Mothercare carriage harness for our child seat. It has over-the-shoulder straps and a good, reasonably child-proof buckle. We got it in England, but Mothercare has stores in the US too, I think. (But other riders may think the seat manufacturers' straps are OK. We didn't actually try using them.) And another thing: get a helmet for the child. If you fall over, she can't save herself at all -- she's strapped in. She'll hit her head. I know. I've tried it -- one of the worst moments of my life. Get a helmet for your child even if you don't get one for yourself. Now you're ready to ride. First thing you notice is this huge weight over the rear wheel. If you don't watch it, the back end declares its independence and falls over while you helplessly fiddle with the handlebars. Don't worry -- you get used to it, and it isn't really all that bad. You do have to ride more carefully, and the cars aren't going to be any more thoughtful. They may occasionally lean out and tell you not to carry the child, but they won't offer any other help. You don't really need any help, though, because you'll naturally adjust and be more cautious. When to stop riding? Around four years old or so, when the child is really too heavy to carry, and besides has begun to whip her body around to watch the scenery. Having 35 or 40 pounds suddenly turn from one side to the other over your back wheel is a little unnerving. Hidden bonus to carrying a child: You wouldn't believe the acceleration you get when you're *not* carrying the child. I've posted this instead of mailing it, because others might want to disagree with points I've mentioned. Sorry about the length. -- Jim Clarke -- Dept. of Computer Science, Univ. of Toronto, Canada M5S 1A4 (416) 978-4058 {allegra,cornell,decvax,ihnp4,linus,utzoo}!utcsri!clarke
fish@ihlpg.UUCP (Bob Fishell) (10/09/85)
> I guess my biggest concern is safety with my baby girl riding along. > My wife and I want to get back into riding our bikes (Raleigh's) and > would like to be able to take are baby daughter along. I feel very uneasy > about this and any suggestions on the right/wrong/not at all ways of > doing this would be appreciated. Most veteran bikers prefer to use trailers such as the "Bugger" to the more commonly seen bicycle child carriers, which are a much greater risk to the child. The trailers can hold two toddlers, who ride facing backwards, securely belted in. The child is much safer with this arrangement rather than a child carrier because of the tendency for a bike to pitch forward and flip in a front-end collision. I've taken a dive over the handlebars once, and although I came out of it fine (I just tucked and somersaulted), the bike had fork and wheel damage. Had I had a child strapped in behind me, I'd hate to think of the consequences. Most likely, the kid would come down head-first with the bike on top of him. By the way, I was only going about 10 MPH when I crashed; it doesn't take much to flip a bike. In a similar situation with a Bugger, the worst that would be likely to happen is for the trailer to turn on its side. Since the child is surrounded by an energy-absorbing shell along the most likely impact vectors, the risk of injury is much less. The trailers are expensive compared to the seats, but what is your kid's safety worth to you? Besides, the kiddie seats are semi-permanent arrangements, while you can decouple a Bugger from the seat post in a matter of minutes. Furthermore, you don't have to balance the bike and the kid both when mounting or stopping. Whatever you wind up with, get a helmet for the child, and it's a good idea to have one for yourself as well. __ / \ \__/ Bob Fishell ihnp4!ihlpg!fish
jan@hou2g.UUCP (J.NAGEL) (10/09/85)
>> Most veteran bikers prefer to use trailers such as the "Bugger" to the >> more commonly seen bicycle child carriers, which are a much greater risk >> to the child. The trailers can hold two toddlers, who ride facing >> backwards, securely belted in. The child is much safer with this arrangement >> rather than a child carrier because of the tendency for a bike to pitch >> forward and flip in a front-end collision. I've taken a dive over the I have carried my children in traditional kid carriers and in a trailer. When carrying a child, I ride very carefully and have never fallen. A large child mounted up on a kid carrier changes the handling characteristics of a bicycle considerably. However, I am not sure that there is "much greater risk" when riding with a child in traffic using a carrier as opposed to using a trailer. When pulling a trailer, I worried about how much the left trailer wheel stuck out into traffic and about avoiding grates and glass with the right trailer wheel. The things are too wide for riding comfortably in traffic. Also, my kids complained bitterly about bumps because it is much harder to find three paths around bumps than one. My advice to the Concerned Beginner is to take your daughter along in a good quality kid carrier, but first get enough practice so that you are confident of your ability to handle your bike in traffic with all that extra weight high up over your wheel. Also, get her a helmet. Jon Nagel hou2g!jan
tron@fluke.UUCP (Peter Barbee) (10/11/85)
Just thought I'd reinforce Bob's recomendation for trailers. They're great! I have a Burleigh Light Tourer. Katie sits facing forward, has a complete aluminum "roll cage" around her, windows on the side, there is a front cover for rainy days (with a large window), and even space behind and under her seat for additional weight. Yes, on rainy days I get wet and she stays dry! It is safer from two aspects, 1) cars see us!, the trailer is a bit of an oddity and car drivers rarely fail to see it and give us plenty of room. 2) we have crashed (Dad got too adventorous going through some S turns) and Katie wasn't hurt at all, the trailer flipped on its side but didn't pull my bike down with it. I just dragged the trailer on its side until I got stopped, the only damage was a bit of torn nylon and scraped aluminum, I turned the trailer upright and we went on our way. Katie does remind me to slow down now though. It is also very convenient for grocery shopping, and many other errands around town. Much larger capacity than anything you could hang off your bike. Peter B