How do you take a 3 year old on a bike?

If you want to take your children cycling alongside you there are plenty of options whatever their age, but it can be confusing to know what to do. Our infographic produced for Bike Week 2020 sets out the most common options, please download a copy or share with friends.

Below there is further information and a few more options. If you have a set up you use with your children you'd like to recommend, please do so in the comment box at the end of the article. 

Cycling can help you during pregnancy to get around, it can help you get a breath of fresh air and a change of scenery when you have young babies and toddlers. Children often like the feeling of motion and nap in trailers and childseats. Cycling is also a practical way to get children to and from nursery and school, and is an opportunity for some exercise to improve everyone physical and mental health. 

The infographic

Pregnant            

The cheapest option is to use your normal bike – as long as it can accommodate your bump and it’s not uncomfortable.       

You could borrow a more upright Dutch-style bike, that will have more bump room, and will relieve pressure on your wrists. Drop handlebars can be more uncomfortable depending on your bump.

A step-through frame or folding bike might be easier to use in your second and third trimester. Some mums-to-be prefer an e-bike as it makes pedalling easier, and prevents you getting out of breath and overdoing it.

Victoria Hazael blogged about her experince of cycling when pregnant and more recently Laura Moss wrote about cycling long distances when you are expecting. Our advice is: cycle if you are comfortable to do so, and talk to your midwife or GP if you have concerns.               

Cargobikes

A cargobike is an investment that gives you options from birth to much older children. On bigger models you can carry 4 children and have room for bags. For more information about the types of cargobikes please read our guide to cargobikes by Alix Stredwick.

Another long-term investment solution that grows with your children is a tandem such as Circe Helios or Morpheus. It will take a changing combination of seats and pedalling passengers.

One baby under 9 months

A baby is too small to sit in a seat on the front or the back of your bike.

However, you can carry a baby on bike using a trailer with baby support inserts. You will need to use the inserts until your baby is over 9kgs. If you have twins or might have more children in the next two or three years, use a double trailer. Otherwise, a single or slimline trailer will give you room for your baby, and some trailers have a compartment for a nappy bag. 

There are lots of trailers to choose from, our guide to child trailers explains the differences. 

Using a sling with baby in is not technically ‘legal’ as it is not a modification on a bike specially to carry a passenger.

For any baby too young to sit in a bike seat, a trailer or a boxbike-style Cargobike is really the only good option. It’s possible to get attachments that allow a support frame for a Maxicosi carseat to be attached to the backrack of your bike, such as the Steco Baby Mee; but it’s not something we normally recommend for light bikes.

Child seats                                                     

Baby 9 months – 4 years              

If your baby can sit up unaided without cushions and weighs 9kgs, they are ready to go in a child seat. 9 months is a rough guide and it really depends on your child's weight and how good they are at sitting up. 

For a child seat on the front of bike usual weight limit is 15kg.

Which type you go for will depends on the geometry of your bike, the handlebars, and how long your legs are. WeeRide front seats with their own horizontal bar often work on drop-handlebar bikes where ‘standard’ style fronts seats attached to the headtube might not fit.              

For a child seat on back of bike the usual weight limit is 22kg

You have the options of mounting to a back-rack (which may come with its own back rack) or to a seat tube, depending on the geometry of your bike and what type of rack you have/can fit on to it.

You can get seats designed for older children up to about age 7 that go to 32kg; these must be attached to a rear rack with the required weight limit.

Remember, when buying a child seat it will need to be comfy for your child for a few years. If you like long rides, opt for a rear seat that reclines for naps and buy a support for your child's neck to stop it lolling around if they sleep.

There are lots of child seats to choose from. You can read our guide to child seats to find out more.  We are currently testing child seats for Cycle magazine (the magazine Cycling UK members get six times a year) the results will be published in the autumn.

A baby and toddler or two toddlers       

There are a few options for this, a front seat and back seat attached to normal bike is the cheapest. Although if you are not a strong rider, the extra weight can make it a bit tricky to balance and manoeuvre.

You can use a double trailer.

You can also use a longtail-style cargobike with two rear child seats. You may prefer a boxbike style cargobike for two children. You just need to use a baby/toddler support insert for when the youngest is small. The benefit of this is both your children are in front of you and you can see if they are sleeping, crying, laughing, or fighting, which you can’t if they are both in a double trailer.          

Tandems such as the Circe Helios or Morpheus can take a baby (via a Steco Baby Mee and Maxi Cosi attachment) and a toddler in a child seat.

For two toddlers you could also try a Mamachari-style bike with 2 built-in child seats.

Baby over 9 months and child aged 4+ who can pedal

Front seat and back seat attached to normal bike, up until the largest can fit in a 25kg max back seat. Then a back seat up to 32kg can be used. This has less side protection as it’s aimed for older children who won’t fall asleep.  

Tag-alongs for the 4-year-old, plus a front seat on your bike for a younger child is also an option. A rear child seat cannot usually be used with a tag-along as the seat will get in the way of the seatpost-mounted backseat. Be aware on a tag-alongs your child cannot fall asleep and is not strapped in. One of mine once tried to get off at the traffic lights.

To find out more about tag-alongs, trailerbikes and towbars read our guide. 

Instead of a tag-along you could attach your child’s own pedal bike using a Followme tandem. 

Baby over 9 months, 4-year-old and 6-year-old

Front seat, rear seat, and Followme Tandem is an option, or two seats and a trailer.

Try a longtail Cargobike with two back seats and a tag-along if the older child insists on pedalling too.

Tandem such as Circe Helios or Morpheus that can take both a 4-year-old and a 6-year-old who can pedal, then attach a single trailer with inserts for baby.  

Toddler and 4-year-old

If your toddler is small, they could fit in a front seat and the 4-year-old could go on a back seat on the back rack up to 32kg. Alternatively use a rear seat plus single trailer

Longtail Cargobike with two back seats, or a smaller boxbike-type cargobike where both children can sit on the bench seat.

Toddler triplets               

Try a combination of child seats and trailer or a longtail cargobike with two back seats plus a single trailer or a small boxbike cargobike with an extra child seat on the back or the front.  

A larger boxbike cargobike would fit three toddlers inside the box. You might like to use booster seats and/or toddler support seats depending on their age and size.

4 school-aged children                                               

Longtail cargobike or larger boxbike cargobike would fit four children inside the box, examples of this would be the Babboe Big or Bakfiets.nl Trike.

 

 

A 3-year-old affects the bike's balance and handling, so you want something quite forgiving. Suspension will make you work really hard with the extra weight bouncing around over the back wheel (even just front suspension) and you should be wary about riding the sort of thing that really needs it on a back-heavy, top-heavy bike.

Road frames are often carbon fibre -- don't even go there with trying to mount heavy loads. Plus they aren't built for forgiving riding. There's also no point -- a child in a seat (or an empty seat) is an effective airbrake. Skinny tyres aren't great either. If you really want drop bars, go for a tourer, they're more designed for attaching and riding with loads.

So you're left with hybrids, cruisers and other upright (city-style) bikes. These tend to be alloy or steel, and often have rack-mount points, which you might need. I normally ride a hybrid, and take my 3 year old on the back. Having carried her on an e-bike with cruiser bars and a very upright sitting position I would said the hybrid is easier, but that may be about bike fit. Among these, it should fit you (you'll be riding slower with a heavier load, fit matters) and should handle well including riding one-handed to signal.

The ability to carry some form of front luggage is very useful. This could be a front rack or handlebar bag. I can squeeze a pannier onto the rack under my rear seat, but it's behind the back axle and makes the handling even worse. Conversely a front bag actually helps with the weight distribution, as does a well-balanced pair of front panniers.

Reading your "on a child carrier" as meaning a seat mounted to the bike, you have a few options:

Front seats. I've only mentioned these in case you don't know about them and to get them out of the way.

• Top-tube seat (between your knees). Example, (almost) minimal example, common in mainland Europe. This needs horizontal (or nearly) top tube.
• Front seat (stem mounted) . I've never seen one in real life.
  • Pros: you can see and talk to your child; weight distribution; may be used as well as a rear seat to carry two children
  • Cons: get in the way of your knees even when unoccupied; child is very exposed to wind/rain/debris flicked up by passing vehicles; small weight/size range for a given model.

Again only to get it out of the way:

• A trailer. While there are a variety of attachments, most clamp on in some way -- metal frame usually necessary, and often a pain with disc brakes. These will last longer as they have a higher weight limit. Most if not all are compatible with at least some full-suspension mountain bikes. Some attach to the axle, which increases the range of bikes they'll work on.
  • Pros: protection from the elements; available for two children; may be useful off the bike if you can fit a front wheel etc.; a good chance of staying upright even if you don't. Good for heavy children or children plus lots of stuff.
  • Cons: heavy; extra rolling resistance; lots of drag; too wide for some bike infrastructure and drivers; hard to store/lock up. The drag/rolling resistance really is a big deal compared to a rear seat, having tested both over the same ride in recent weeks. I've also found trailers to be worse than rear seats on rough gravel tracks, especially uphill. Many designs have a surprisingly low height limit (my daughter is well within the weight range but doesn't really fit with a helmet on).

Now for the rear seats:

• Seat-post-mounted seat. This is what I had. With some models you can get a (narrow) luggage rack underneath, but you can only use the rack with the seat fitted if your bike has an unusually long wheelbase and then not well. These require a metal seat post of the right (within a fairly wide range) diameter. For the price of an extra bracket you can easily swap between bikes. This is probably your best choice if you really want to fit to a bike with disc brakes, and potentially your only option to put a seat on a bike with rear suspension (though you'll need to check compatibility very carefully).
• Rack-mounted seat. While some of these are universal, most have a dedicated rack. I've seen a few of these. They often have a lower weight limit than the seat-post mounted ones. You can't usually get panniers on the rack at the same time as the seat. Again, buy another rack and you can swap between bikes. They need proper rack mounting points (not P-clips), which normally means an alloy or steel frame, and may not be compatible with disc brakes. There's no way for these to work with rear suspension - they're too heavy when occupied for the only racks that would work there.
• Rear seat replacing the rack. Now my daughter is older she has a new seat (with just a lap belt). This clamps to the seat post and seat stays, so is for steel or tough alloy bikes. There's some luggage-carrying capacity but the thing that looks like a pannier rack isn't really, However the seat is far enough back that I can wear a backpack. These older/bigger seats are rare in the UK; mine is one of only two I've seen of this model, but I've seen a few cheaper ones I didn't trust.
  • Pros (of rear seats in general): you shield the child from the worst of the weather and debris; the seat can be large and supportive; seats are usually (but by no means always) easy to remove/swap between bikes; the same seat can do 9 months to 6 years; you can ride like normal
  • Cons: you don't know what the child is up to (falling asleep, unclipping and dropping toys); you can't hear what they're saying if there's traffic around; fitting panniers not simple.

Examples are for illustration only. Sorry they're only links but image licensing is a pain.