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Hi. Can anyone recommend a cycle seat for a small child please ?  He's 1 now but suspect it'll be another 6 months, into the spring, before I use.

Thanks.

Hamex make good childseats,Halfords own brand are made by them. They dont need an addtional pannier rack like some and I think they are on offer at moment at Halfords..

The Rhode Gear Limo is the No1 favourite of our local CTC family cycling group, and has been for years. Yes, expensive and you need a special rack but when you hit the deck with your kid on the back there's no sturdier cycle seat and you'll thank God you had it. It has side protection so the child can't put their arms out as it goes down, several safety features such as a secondary coupling to the rack, lie back option for snoozing and a really good safety harness. We had two at one point when the boys were small.

Oh, and they need a helmet too, remember. Their heads are vunerable in a spill, even if they only wallop it against the side of the seat. Get one with side protection too, like this one.

Oh, and before someone says "too expensive"...think about it. Bikes tip over all the time and the less experienced a cyclist you are, the more likely you are just to topple over at a bump or slippy patch. If you've got a good bike seat your kid stands a much better chance of being unhurt. And at speed as well. I've been in one serious accident when my elder son was on the back of our tandem with Hubby and I and we went about twenty feet along the road on our sides. Hubby broke a couple of ribs, I was bruised black and blue and son (aged 21 months) had not so much as a scratch on him. What happened? We got charged by a stray cow, belive it or not. Accidents can and do happen.

Quote: Originally posted by TriBill on 05/9/2009

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 Alternatively you could go for a child trailer, some will take a couple of kiddies. All have two wheels practically eliminating tip-overs. See the A to B magazine website for more information. Good trailers come complete with seat belts, safety flags etc.

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I had one of these when we had two small kids. Yes, they're great, but they do have their own problems. They are NOT good in urban traffic...they slow you down, they can't go through narrow gaps, they're not nimble things and neither are you. Plus, frankly, I'm not convinced most motorists actually register them as road vehicles.

In rural roads they are good though. Just don't try to take them down cycle paths with bollards or narrow access gates and forget towpaths of the narrow rut variety.

And you have to have somewhere to store them. If you do buy one, take my advice and get one of the models that can fit through a standard gate or doorway.

we started out with one those plastic bolt on the back of your bike hamax thing me bobs, you have to be very very careful with them more then once i have seen junior strapped in the seat & the bike goes over, its a cheap & cheerful solution the hamax but if not wide awake hmmm.

we later used a clip on light weight trailer as we had junior baby sister its light enough to lift over any cycle path restrictions, we use it now to carry all our surfing gear works like a dream no more being mugged by dick turpin on beach car park duty ;p