Two children on one bike?

Zoot Katz wrote:
On Mon, 18 Jun 2007 11:43:21 -0700, Dane Buson

For children that small the trailer works fine. Once mine got older
there was too much contention and crowding. Now I use a front mounted
seat on an Xtracycle. The big one sits behind me and the little one
sits in front.

This weekend I got to ride a loaded bakfiets. That's got to be the
sweetest way for carrying kids.

Their weight is kept low in front so you can keep your eye, and a
hand, on them. There's also room for a few bags of groceries and
medium size dog in the sturdy plywood box. The rear carrier rack
would easily take a third child or loaded panniers.

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

It's not too bad for carrying adult sized loads either. Though I only
trundled one of my friends about for a little bit. If I didn't already
have the Xtra, I might be tempted by the Bakfiets.

With the load it was grunt-and-grind up hills but the bike handled
predictably. None of the Xtracycle whip when you stand up to mash..
It has its own funny steering oscillations if you're going slow and
watching the front wheel. Once over that short learning curve it was
a nice ride. I wonder how it would behave with a front hub motor.

Well, I know of at least one that's been stokemonkeyed. Though I don't
believe that's one of the officially supported versions.

--
Dane Buson -
When I was a boy I was told that anybody could become President. Now
I'm beginning to believe it.
-- Clarence Darrow

On Jun 17, 1:20 pm, Stevie wrote:
Hi
I was wondering if anyone can advise me. I want to take my two kids (3
and 1 year old) across the park to their nursery school in the morning
on a bike. What are the best (safest) options; trailer, front+back
mounted seats or otherwise.

Here is what I would use: http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/1080.

--
Tom Sherman - Holstein-Friesland Bovinia
The weather is here, wish you were beautiful

Luigi de Guzman wrote:
"safest" would be a trailer, especially considering the kids are so young.

For bigger little kids, I have seen little bicycle seats that clamp onto
your bike's top tube. Picture a small saddle clamped ahead of
you, and that's what you've got. Naturally, the positioning is
tricky--they'd need to be able to hang on to the handlebar, and they'd
also need to be short enough so you can see over them. This is very
fiddly, but I've seen it done. Unknown if these things are sold anywhere
outside the UK, though--I used to see them in England, but haven't seen
them anywhere else.

-Luigi


I remember seeing those in Germany as a kid ('60s, early '70s). IIRC,
German traffic law said the passenger couldn't be older than 7, and the
cyclist had to be 14. The seat was usually a metal bucket seat, so the
kid was less likely to fall out.

Personally, I would put a kid who's too big for a trailer onto a
tag-along bike that clamps onto the seatpost. Every so often I'll see a
bicycle, tag-along bike and trailer linked together on the bike paths
around here. Looks great, but I'm not sure how far these "road trains"
really get.

On Jun 23, 7:07 am, mark wrote:
Luigi de Guzman wrote:
"safest" would be a trailer, especially considering the kids are so young.

For bigger little kids, I have seen little bicycle seats that clamp onto
your bike's top tube. Picture a small saddle clamped ahead of
you, and that's what you've got. Naturally, the positioning is
tricky--they'd need to be able to hang on to the handlebar, and they'd
also need to be short enough so you can see over them. This is very
fiddly, but I've seen it done. Unknown if these things are sold anywhere
outside the UK, though--I used to see them in England, but haven't seen
them anywhere else.

-Luigi

I remember seeing those in Germany as a kid ('60s, early '70s). IIRC,
German traffic law said the passenger couldn't be older than 7, and the
cyclist had to be 14. The seat was usually a metal bucket seat, so the
kid was less likely to fall out.

Personally, I would put a kid who's too big for a trailer onto a
tag-along bike that clamps onto the seatpost. Every so often I'll see a
bicycle, tag-along bike and trailer linked together on the bike paths
around here. Looks great, but I'm not sure how far these "road trains"
really get.

Greetings,

I know of a couple of people that use a WeeRide on the front and
either a rear-mounted or tag-a-long on the back - so it's certainly
possible.

Check out this australian site - loads more info than even the US site
- http://www.myweeride.com.au for more details

Cheers
Jamie