Conference noted::bicycle

    One thing you might want to consider is whether or not your child
    will enjoy riding with you.  If you can borrow some equipment for
    a while, you can see if the baby will tolerate being bounced around
    on the back of a bike for more than five minutes.
    
    My son is 2 years old and he hates it.  I've tried a number of times
    and on every attempt he wants to go home 2 minutes into the ride.
    I've given up for now, maybe my new son (3 mos.) will like it better.
    My point is that you may be wasting some money if your child cries 
    throughout every bike ride.
    
    Phil

    re.1 Ask the kid first
    
    An excellent Point. In the case of my two daughters, one cried when
    put in the child seat, the other when taken out. The one that liked
    it is an avid cyclist at six, the other at four would prefer to
    jog to keep up with her sister on a bike. (She is becoming quite
    the runner! :-)
    
    I would not eliminate the lightweight Bell as a possibility. The
    adult helmets can be too heavy for tiny neck muscles, especially
    *when* they fall asleep in the child seat.
    
    This is an *excellent* time to drill in bike saftey and rules. Of
    course you should ride especially safely and "by the book", but
    also talk to the kid and point out what you are doing. They can
    have fun spotting stop signs and "helping" by mirroring hand signals
    for example.
    
    Thom

    I guess I'm a little more fortunate then some of the other riders.
    My two kids, a boy 3 1/2 years old and a girl 18 months old, both
    will ride for at least an hour with no fuss.  They really seem to
    like it.
    
    As for child carriers, we have a Troxel and a Schwinn child carrier.
    The Troxel is nice because it can be released quickly; it retails
    for about $20 at Child World.  The Schwinn is also nice because
    it seems to handle a heavy payload quite well, screws rather then
    clamps to the frame, and is inexpensive at about $14; we bought
    ours at Gamache's Cyclery in Fitchburg.
    
    As for helmets, my 18 month old daughter wears the Little Bell Shell.
    She seems to like it.  It is light, reasonably priced, and snell
    approved.  For my son, we got a Pro-Tec child's helmet, available
    at most bike stores.  This helmet is excellent, as it has a hard
    plastic shell and ample padding inside.  
  
    Now I'm wondering what to do when they get too old for the carriers
    but too young to ride with us on their own bikes!
    
    Regards,
    Denis

I've been thinking about these issues too, as my daughter is now 
18 months old. However, I don't feel the seats over the back wheel are
a sensible option. There's too much chance of the kid being damaged if
you fall over for any reason at all. The Cannondale Bugger, etc., which
hold the child more securely seem a better tool. Could anyone with
experience in this area let us know? One reason I'm hesitant to buy
one is they cost �300 here in the U.K., as opposed to $300 in the U.S.
That's a substantial difference with the present exchange rate!  

    I have a Cannondale Bugger which I feel really secure about.  
    Unfortunately, my daughter (2 years) hates it.  It also gets
    very heavy going up hills - but it's real smooth on the flats.
    I didn't want to get a child seat because they seem so unsafe,
    but since it seemed like an option between a child seat or not
    riding, I decided to try it.
    
    I got the Schwinn at George Gamache's recommendation.  The Schwinn
    attaches to the dropouts, whereas the Troxel attaches halfway down
    the tube (I forget the name of that specific tube).  George felt
    that there was more chance of the Troxel slipping on a bumpy road
    with a fairly heavy child.
    
    I had a horrible time installing the Schwinn.  I'm not real 
    mechanical to begin with, but some screws didn't fit, some parts
    seemed to have changed since the instructions were written, etc.
    Also, my old rack had been on for about 10 years and was a mess
    to take off.  (I would love to see a child seat that could fit over
    a rack, but I guess that's asking too much.)  
    
    My daughter is really enjoying the seat.  I think she likes the
    fact that she is closer to me and can see me, instead of being down
    at ground level in the Bugger.  I like the fact that I can turn
    around just a little to see that she's okay.  In the Bugger, it
    was tough to see that far back, especially where she faced backwards.
    
    I'm going to hang onto the Bugger, though, just in case we have
    another baby.  She might like it better if she has company, and
    that'll be the only way I'll get to do much riding with 2 kids!
    
    Kathy

    I've been riding with kids on back for two years now; bought the
    carrier at Gamache's and (judging from the pictures in Nashbar's
    catalog) it's a Troxel. I immediately encountered the rack vs
    child-seat problem and modified the child seat slightly to make
    it fit - modification consisting of cutting the plastic at the 
    inside top of the footwells, so the gap is wide enough to fit 
    around the rack width. The footwells have to be spread slightly
    when dropping it over the rack. The Troxel support brackets are
    worked over the rack support bars and then clamp onto the bike
    frame members. It all fits and can be installed and removed in
    under 5 minutes with no tools.
       Also I glued (with silicone rubber) little pieces of rubber on
    the inside of the Troxel clamps so they wouldn't gouge up the frame
    paint too much. This may also have the benefit of making them very
    resistant to slipping; I have never noticed any tendancy for them
    to slip.
       Re. motivation on the part of kids to ride - Emily (now 3)
    started saying this year she didn't want to ride any more but as
    soon as she saw her sister (18 months) riding in her place she
    changed her mind! In addition, having a destination with ice cream
    is a big benefit. Last year I took her with the remnants of the
    DEC bike club for a ride. We went over one large bump that caused
    her to bite her tongue (one of the hazards to watch for - bikes
    aren't much for shock-absorbing) but fortunately ice cream was
    near at hand and the remedy worked quickly.
       I'd be happy to show anyone the mods to Troxel carrier to fit
    over a rack. It's aggravating that they didn't take this into account
    when they designed the Troxel.
       I try to be sensitive to the increased hazard to the child of
    being up on the back of the bike; I think I adopt a more conservative
    riding style under those circumstances. One also has to be much
    more careful wheeling the bike around on foot; it's very top heavy
    with a 25 to 30-lb child in the seat.