Need Some Way Of Carrying 2 Small Kids Safely.

Joined
Jun 13, 2010
Messages
1,541
Location
Carlow, Ireland
I'm seeking a way to carry a 3 and 4.5 year old boys on my bike but I do not have cycle lanes and my roads where I live are very narrow country lanes where you have to pull in and stop if you meet another car and I really don't see any safe way of carrying them.

I've been off the bike for around 4 years since my 2nd Son was born so time just wasn't there but now they're older I want to be able to take them on rides and I need to get fit again, shift work is killing me slowly lol.

I would love to buy one of the cargo kid carrier bikes where they sit in the middle but the cost is prohibitive.

I'm open to ideas.

Look at google maps street view and this is close to my house to give an idea of what I have to ride on, cars drive way too fast on these roads over here.

https://www.google.com/maps/@52.870...130.90776&pitch=0&thumbfov=100!7i13312!8i6656
 
If the roads themselves are dangerous, then there isn't anything I could recommend that would make carrying small kids safe.

Having ridden on country roads like those when I lived in Texas as a kid, I sympathize. (crashed a lot from avoiding cars and stuff)

The closest I could say would be a big 2-kid trailer, and make it bright dayglo colors, along with your bike and all of your clothing for daytime use. Add big dayglo flags that stick up high, as well; make them long so they flap a lot and grab attention.

Make sure you have good mirrors and always watch them. Teach the kids to always watch, and yell for you if they see a vehicle.

For nighttime use, lots of bright color-changing light strips and light poles like you'd use on ATVs and stuff. (or see DDK's solar trike thread for the lights he uses).

I'd prefer a trailer vs antyhing mounted on the bike simply because at least if you have to ditch, or skid out, then if they fall off the bike (or with it if they're belted on), they could get some serious hurts. The trailer is more likely to stay level in that instance, with their weight in it and being wider and low to the ground to start with, with the side-by-side wheel configuration, as long as it's using a free-to-rotate hitch (like the spring/elastomer ones that are common on these trailers).

I can't think of much of anything specific besides those to help.
 
Thanks amberwolf, you sure clocked up a lot of posts since I was last here ! :shock:

I've thought about the bike trailer but the problem is that people drive way too fast and don't think what could be around the next bend and really they would be on top of you before they could see you.

I love when I go to Germany, the cycle lanes and forest trails are a dream, could take the Kids out for many many miles could even take a trip over a couple of days. A lot of tourists go there to cycle.
 
Maybe a bakfiets of some sort, either trike or two wheeler where you can keep an eye on the kiddos. I woudn't expect to go too quickly on them though. This is something I've been soul searching about lately too, trying to find a reasonable, higher-speed ebike for kid carrying.

Also a longtail, like an Xtracycle could work too, the weight is higher, but forks provide a little more positive feedback than those big lever-actuated fork gizmos on bakfiets
 
tern-gsd-family-cyclery-seattle.jpg
 
o00scorpion00o said:
I've been off the bike for around 4 years since my 2nd Son was born so time just wasn't there but now they're older I want to be able to take them on rides and I need to get fit again, shift work is killing me slowly lol.
Best trailers I have found for two kids -

Weehoo Two tandem trailer (recumbent w/pedals) https://www.rei.com/product/887902/weehoo-two-bike-trailer

Trail-a-bike folding tandem trailer https://www.monsterscooterparts.com/trail-a-bike-tandem-bike-trailer.html
 
o00scorpion00o said:
roads where I live are very narrow country lanes where you have to pull in and stop if you meet another car and I really don't see any safe way of carrying them.

A lot of times parents have to go with their instincts. If something goes wrong, it may be difficult to deal with the fact that your initial instincts told you that it wasn’t safe.


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billvon said:
o00scorpion00o said:
I've been off the bike for around 4 years since my 2nd Son was born so time just wasn't there but now they're older I want to be able to take them on rides and I need to get fit again, shift work is killing me slowly lol.
Best trailers I have found for two kids -

Weehoo Two tandem trailer (recumbent w/pedals) https://www.rei.com/product/887902/weehoo-two-bike-trailer

Trail-a-bike folding tandem trailer https://www.monsterscooterparts.com/trail-a-bike-tandem-bike-trailer.html

Thanks, I like the Weehoo TWO Bike Trailer, that's pretty cool but it still would not be safe on my local roads and passing traffic would be quite close, too close for comfort.

Sure on wider roads with shoulder it would be ok but I have to get to them first and don't fancy riding on main roads with lots of traffic all the time.
 
E-HP said:
o00scorpion00o said:
roads where I live are very narrow country lanes where you have to pull in and stop if you meet another car and I really don't see any safe way of carrying them.

A lot of times parents have to go with their instincts. If something goes wrong, it may be difficult to deal with the fact that your initial instincts told you that it wasn’t safe.


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Indeed you're correct, I think the real issue is the speed people drive on these roads, believe it or not that road I have linked to above has a speed limit of 50 mph and I only drive at 30 and less but a lot of people drive around 40+ The speed limits are messed up and the cops and speed vans only monitor the motorways and main roads where you can easily do 10-20 over the limit. They don't monitor speed in built up areas or at schools only where they can collect the most revenue.
 
o00scorpion00o said:
Thanks, I like the Weehoo TWO Bike Trailer, that's pretty cool but it still would not be safe on my local roads and passing traffic would be quite close, too close for comfort.
Then no bike will be safe. If you get hit, there's no bike design in the world that will protect your kids.
 
There are probably economically feasible solutions for your application, but riding with children under those conditions is untenable for me. I wouldn't begin to consider it unless you could ride off road where there was no danger.
 
50 mph on that road?! What?! Usually I'm all for higher speed limits, like the 65 mph speed limits here in Cali are ridiculous, but that road should be like half of that. Something like this might work for you: https://bunchbike.com/products/family-cargo-bike?variant=7687832764467&_vsrefdom=googleads&gclid=Cj0KCQiA-onjBRDSARIsAEZXcKZNqUgxBWwXhBqxGvJVnqUyZEfMiDfrIilUEHfanVV7HokGjr-Msm0aApN-EALw_wcB I believe they sell a two wheeler too if you don't want a trike. I suggest adding a motorcycle horn though and honking around each blind corner whichever way you go though, that road seems pretty dangerous.
 
2old said:
There are probably economically feasible solutions for your application, but riding with children under those conditions is untenable for me. I wouldn't begin to consider it unless you could ride off road where there was no danger.

Ireland caters for cars mostly, public transport is an embarrassment and cycle lanes consist mainly of bus lanes shared with taxis.

Very very slowly are things changing but at snails pace.

Paved cycle lanes off road ? I don't think such trails exist at least no where near me.
 
speedyebikenoob said:
50 mph on that road?! What?! Usually I'm all for higher speed limits, like the 65 mph speed limits here in Cali are ridiculous, but that road should be like half of that. Something like this might work for you: https://bunchbike.com/products/family-cargo-bike?variant=7687832764467&_vsrefdom=googleads&gclid=Cj0KCQiA-onjBRDSARIsAEZXcKZNqUgxBWwXhBqxGvJVnqUyZEfMiDfrIilUEHfanVV7HokGjr-Msm0aApN-EALw_wcB I believe they sell a two wheeler too if you don't want a trike. I suggest adding a motorcycle horn though and honking around each blind corner whichever way you go though, that road seems pretty dangerous.

Those cargo bikes would be a bit awkward, but getting one here with electric motor would cost a lot more.

yes , see the pic below as proof ! :mrgreen: You think that's bad, a couple of years ago these roads were 100 Km/h !

And traffic does rally these roads, they are not busy but when cars come they fly and you have to jump the hammer the brakes and jump the ditch, personally all I feel safe at is 50-55 Km/h max. Most people don't do 50 but they still drive too fast.

This brings me to my earlier rant about cops only being on the Motorways catching people doing 10 over the limit on a good road, speaking of speed limits, we got a lot of 3 lane roads with a 100 Km/h limit which makes the speed limit in the below pic even more ridiculous.


BLtdG4z.jpg
 
o00scorpion00o said:
speedyebikenoob said:
50 mph on that road?! What?! Usually I'm all for higher speed limits, like the 65 mph speed limits here in Cali are ridiculous, but that road should be like half of that. Something like this might work for you: https://bunchbike.com/products/family-cargo-bike?variant=7687832764467&_vsrefdom=googleads&gclid=Cj0KCQiA-onjBRDSARIsAEZXcKZNqUgxBWwXhBqxGvJVnqUyZEfMiDfrIilUEHfanVV7HokGjr-Msm0aApN-EALw_wcB I believe they sell a two wheeler too if you don't want a trike. I suggest adding a motorcycle horn though and honking around each blind corner whichever way you go though, that road seems pretty dangerous.

Those cargo bikes would be a bit awkward, but getting one here with electric motor would cost a lot more.

yes , see the pic below as proof ! :mrgreen: You think that's bad, a couple of years ago these roads were 100 Km/h !

And traffic does rally these roads, they are not busy but when cars come they fly and you have to jump the hammer the brakes and jump the ditch, personally all I feel safe at is 50-55 Km/h max. Most people don't do 50 but they still drive too fast.

This brings me to my earlier rant about cops only being on the Motorways catching people doing 10 over the limit on a good road, speaking of speed limits, we got a lot of 3 lane roads with a 100 Km/h limit which makes the speed limit in the below pic even more ridiculous.


BLtdG4z.jpg

Maybe you could modify a cargo bike to fit two seats at the back, like one of the long ones that can carry that much weight. Wow, 10 over is a very low tolerance. Here, they wouldn't pull you over unless you drive over 80 in a 65, and on a lot of roads people push even more than that. Not sure how it works over there but here you gotta be careful at the end of the month because the cops want to finish up their quotas. :(
 
speedyebikenoob said:
Maybe you could modify a cargo bike to fit two seats at the back, like one of the long ones that can carry that much weight. Wow, 10 over is a very low tolerance. Here, they wouldn't pull you over unless you drive over 80 in a 65, and on a lot of roads people push even more than that. Not sure how it works over there but here you gotta be careful at the end of the month because the cops want to finish up their quotas. :(

Yep end of the month quotas here too lol.

Depends on the cop whether he / she pulls you at 10 over or not and that's 10 km/h over lol. I suspect most wouldn't bother with the paperwork at 10 over.

I don't have the means to convert any bike unfortunately. I need to get a decent shed built. :D
 
o00scorpion00o said:
speedyebikenoob said:
Maybe you could modify a cargo bike to fit two seats at the back, like one of the long ones that can carry that much weight. Wow, 10 over is a very low tolerance. Here, they wouldn't pull you over unless you drive over 80 in a 65, and on a lot of roads people push even more than that. Not sure how it works over there but here you gotta be careful at the end of the month because the cops want to finish up their quotas. :(

Yep end of the month quotas here too lol.

Depends on the cop whether he / she pulls you at 10 over or not and that's 10 km/h over lol. I suspect most wouldn't bother with the paperwork at 10 over.

I don't have the means to convert any bike unfortunately. I need to get a decent shed built. :D

Shouldn't be too hard though, you would just have to screw in the seats and add a harness maybe, but if you're uncomfortable with that it's probably better to go with something that's prebuilt.
 
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