How To Carry A Baby On A Bike?

Kids usually can’t ride a bike until they’re 5 or 6 at least. Even then, they won’t be able to ride it well enough to keep up with their parents. If you’re not patient enough to wait that long for having a fun bicycle ride with your kid, the only way for you would be to take your kid for a ride.

However, this is easier said than done. Carrying a baby on a bike isn’t the safest thing on earth. Still, there are multiple steps that you can take for making this process much safer for your kid.

There are tons of ways of doing this. In this article, I’ll be going through the best ways of carrying a baby on a bicycle. So, let’s get started!

In this guide, you’ll find different methods to how to cycle with a baby. Please note that all of these methods are age-sensitive, and you’ll need to pick the right one for your child.

How to Carry a Newborn on a bicycle?

The best way of carrying a newborn baby is on a bicycle trailer. Newborn babies can’t sit well on bicycles. Even if they’re strapped down, they’ll tend to fall and hurt themselves against the straps.

Plus, you won’t be able to put a helmet on them as their spines aren’t developed enough to withstand the pressure of even the lightest bicycle helmets.

Kids Bike Trailer

Burley Bee Lightweight Kid Bike-Only TrailerCHECK CURRENT PRICE

This is why the most sensible way of carrying your kid on a bike would be on a trailer. You can haul these trailers behind your bicycle as you hitch them to the rear rack. This is a sustainable as well as a safe method.

Plus, these offer a ton of features that make them very convenient. For starters, trailers are very easy to control and they mostly remain stable. So, the occasional bump on the road won’t bother your child that much. These can carry more than one child at a time as well, which will prove beneficial if you have multiple children.

Although these cost higher than an extra seat, these last longer as well, making them a reasonable choice. You can also install mesh screens or rain flies on them to keep your child safe from dust and rain. You won’t get this feature with any other medium.

If you’re looking for quality bike trailers, then you may go for this one from Burley Bee. This trailer is lightweight and it’s designed for carrying two toddlers at max. We highly recommend this as the best bicycle trailer for carrying children. If you’re wondering how to carry a 6-month-old on a bicycle, this is the solution.

Kids Front Seat

Peg Perego Orion Front Mount Child SeatCHECK CURRENT PRICE

Front mount seats are also very suitable for carrying your child safely on a bike. These seats can be found at reasonable prices, and they offer all the safety and comfort features that can make each bike ride enjoyable for your newborn.

For newborns, we highly recommend the Peg Perego Orion. This seat is available in four beautiful, bright colors that your kid will surely love. It offers a wide handlebar where your seat can rest easily. The handlebar serves as an obstruction too, so your kid won’t fall off even if you don’t strap him down.

It definitely provides durable and flexible straps, and there are two slots for placing the legs of your kid where each has a shoe-like strap at the bottom.

Overall, it’s the safest front seat for carrying your newborn.

How To Carry A Toddler On A Bike?

There are multiple ways of carrying a toddler on a bicycle. In this section, we’ll take a look at all the viable options.

Kids Bike Trailer

You can carry a toddler in a bicycle trailer if he manages to fit it in. You can find larger trailers on the market, but we don’t recommend those as they can be risky. You can get the Burley Bee trailer that we mentioned earlier, as it offers features suitable for carrying toddlers too.

Kids Trailer Bike

Burley Trailer BikeCHECK CURRENT PRICE

Trailer bikes can be fun. We highly recommend the Burley Trailer Bike in this case. This is more like an extension to your bicycle, but it blends with your bike much better than regular trailers. Plus, these can offer your child a better riding experience.

These bikes can be attached to the rear rack of your bicycle, and they’ll offer your child a seat and even his own paddles. What’s more, the paddles are not for show, but they are actually connected to the rear wheel! There’s also a handlebar at the front for your child to grab on to. Although it won’t let him steer the bike, it’ll serve a good job as support.

Another thing we loved about this extension is the 7-speed gearing switch at the handlebar. If you want to teach your child more about gearing, nothing can serve better than this. There’s also a splashguard placed right below the handlebars.

Rear Child Seat

Schwinn Deluxe Bicycle Mounted Child CarrierCHECK CURRENT PRICE

There are tons of child bike seats on the marketplaces, and there are some amazing products to choose from. These require to be mounted on the rear rack of your bicycle, although some of them can be mounted on the front frame.

Even though letting the child ride on a trailer is a bit safer, having him on the chair will let him enjoy much more than riding a trailer. At the end of the day, he won’t get the same experience of riding a bike in a trailer. Then again, this way, you’ll be able to keep the child closer to you, which will provide much more chances for having a conversation to make sure the child doesn’t get bored.

However, make sure to purchase a double-sided kickstand if you plan on using these. If the bike isn’t stable when you’re putting your child on the seat, then he may fall to one side.

One of the best chairs for a bike that you can get for yourself right now is the Schwinn Deluxe. It offers some amazing features and can make the overall process much more convenient for you and your kid.

This bicycle seat is made of polypropylene. This not only makes the chair durable but makes it lightweight as well, allowing the rider to carry it effortlessly. The design includes a three-point harness, leg restraints, and a padded crossbar. All of these combined can make the ride much safer for your child.

Other than that, there’s also a removable headrest and adjustable footwells that can make things much more comfortable for your kid. If you’re looking forward to carrying your toddler on a bike, we highly recommend this method.

Front Child Seat

SHOTGUN Kids MTB Child Seat and Handlebar Accessory ComboCHECK CURRENT PRICE

We’ve already taken a look at the rear seat. However, there are front seats as well, and these may be of interest to you if you prefer keeping your child in your line of sight while riding. As for the good front child seat, we highly recommend the Shotgun kids MTB seat.

These seats come with a regular bicycle seat design, but they’re equipped with extra padding for offering better comfort. The saddle can be adjusted and is very comfortable to sit on. You can adjust the width of the saddle to fit any MTB, which makes it a universal solution. In fact, you’ll also be able to adjust the angle of elevation so that the seat can be mounted properly.

There’s a quick-release function for detaching the seat easily. At the contact, there is molded rubber to protect your bike’s frame. There are also grippy footpegs on each side so that your child can rest his small feet, and there’s a mudguard at the bottom. The handlebar at the front of the seat will let your child rest more easily.

Overall, this is the excellent front child seat that you can find for carrying toddlers.

How to Carry Kids Older than 5 years on A Bike?

If your kid is over five years and you want him to have a comfortable bike ride with you, then you can get a cargo bike. Although cargo bikes are mainly designed for increasing the overall storage capacity of your bicycle, they can be a fun way of carrying your kids. However, cargo bikes aren’t the only choice you got. Let’s explore what options you have.

Cargo Bikes

There are two types of cargo bikes on the market, longtail ones, and front-loading ones. The longtail bikes offer an extended rear rack that can be utilized for carrying cargo. You can carry your child on the extended seat easily.

The front-loading ones offer much more space and convenience than the longtail ones. Think of these as bicycles with a built-in trailer, but the trailers on the front. These are extremely convenient for carrying children older than 5 years.

Adult Tandem Bike

Schwinn Twinn Classic Tandem Adult Beach Cruiser BikeCHECK CURRENT PRICE

Adult tandem bikes are made with more or less the same concept of tandem bikes for kids, but these are scaled higher to suit kids older than 5 years. For kids over 5 years, we highly recommend the tandem bike from Schwinn.

This tandem bicycle offers an aluminum construction that not only makes it durable but also makes it very light as well. Tandem bikes are usually almost twice as heavy as regular ones, so getting a relatively lighter one will surely help you.

It also comes with a 7-speed twist shifter that’ll let your child shift the gears smoothly. The alloy caliper brakes can provide great braking power too. The saddles are very stylish, and as this is a complete bicycle without any attachments, it’s much smoother than the tandem bike attachments.

Conclusion

These are the top methods by which you can carry your child on a bike. As you can see, these are age-sensitive, and although some methods can be used universally, sticking to the method appropriate for a certain age can make things much safer and enjoyable.

This is why we highly recommend giving some thought to this and choosing the method that’ll suit you best.