Customize your bike to fit your needs as a parent and mule-
This is my wife’s trusty steed that we both use to haul the kids around the neighbourhood. It’s a MEC Midtown townie equipped with an ibert front toddler seat and DIY balance bike carrier. We use it almost daily, be it a trip to the kids’ bike park, the play park, the store, the rec centre or Grandma’s house. Having used and mounted rear toddler seats in the past, we prefer the front mounted seat for stability and the ability to have our DIY balance Bike rack/storage container mounted on the rear. I also prefer the female sloping top tube on Midtown over a traditional flat male top tube because of the standover clearance. This makes it much easier as a parent to get on and off the bike when fully loaded.
I will go into detail how to construct this milk crate rack in another post, but be sure it has served us well not only hauling balance bikes but even a 14″ pedal bike. Where this set-up really shines is when a 2 or 3 year old’s little legs fail and they refuse to keep moving. No problem, throw them in the ibert front mounted seat and the strider on the rear rack. Break out a food pouch and water, which you store in the milk crate, and Bob’s your uncle, you are on your way without tears or a broken back. It literally took one experience of me being stranded 2 km from home and having to haul kid, balance bike, and my bike on foot before I started experimenting with a rear racking system for storage and balance bike.
As time went on the rack and ibert mounted townie grew into a shuttle machine for some downhill balance biking. My three year old fell in love with his likeabike and became addicted to the local kid’s bike park downhill trails (see video below). Going uphill on the other hand, not such a fan. With our set-up it was not problem to throw him in the ibert, the bike on the back and pedal up for another lap. The bike has plenty of gearing options to get you up and is sturdy enough to follow the kiddos down the trail.
We would love to hear about other parent’s bike set-ups and see some pics. We will throw them up on our facebook page and instagam account. Reach us at info@thebikedads.com.
Sam Run Bike South Surrey Bike Park from Colin Hemmes on Vimeo.
