This baby seat aims to provide a safe and balanced ride for both adult and child, with a centre mounted seat to help distribute the weight evenly and put the child between your arm, where you can easily talk and keep an eye on them, unlike rear mounted seats. The new design has higher sides for increased child-stability, an added strap underneath the bar for further stability, a two-movement thumbscrew, a two-movement buckle release, additional straps on the foot cups, and also features an increased seat size.
The seat is recommended for ages from 1-4 years (weight limit up to 18kg), although it can be used as soon as the child’s neck muscles are strong enough, which could be as soon as 6-9 months. The child will certainly get a better view of the world other than just your back! It took us about 25 minutes to attach it to the bike and can be quickly removed in a few seconds for solo riding. It comes with a soft-textured, padded headrest for baby to sleep or cling onto whilst you are on the move, and those fidgety feet can be kept out of the way with the moveable footrests. It will fit most bikes if they have between 49 and 60cm from seat post to headset, including men’s and women’s, plus bikes with full suspension of 16” and oversized head tubes. However, it isn’t recommended with drop handle bar styles, as the riding position will be compromised.
The Safe Front Deluxe uses a 5-point safety strap and comes with extra bars for multi-bike use, as well as all the tools you will need to install it. Like all front mounted child seats, it does change your position when riding and mounting the bike. Therefore, you will need to swing your leg over the rear of the bike rather than step over the cross bar - you can put your child in the seat by either mounting the bike first or leaning it against the wall. It takes a little practice, but it gets easier with time. Despite it claiming that the seat is suitable up to the age of four it is quite small, so I doubt you would get much past 2-2.5 years old.
The change in riding position will also be enough to put people off, and it’s made even worse if you have a wiggly child as they can easily bat you in the face (there was a reason the seats were originally positioned at the back). However, if forward mounting is the way you want to go, this is a sturdy and comfortable choice for the little one. RRP £119.99
4 out of 5
Pros
Strong and secure
5point harness
Foot cups
Washable seat and headrest pad
Fits most bikes
Cons
Takes a lot of time to install
Small seat
Riding position with the seat takes some getting used to
- Log in to post comments