This is a follow-up to last year’s post on the Chariot Corsaire XL bike trailer we have. Now that we have a baby girl as well as our older boy, we have upgraded the trailer with a baby seat. Works very well, even though it was quite a bit of work to install it.
Actually, the Chariot company calls the device we have an “infant sling“, and in function, it is very close to how a baby seat for a car works. The baby is secured by a harness, and sits in a suspended seat that absorbs bumps in the road and keeps her above the somewhat cold seat (we have had one of the best long winters in a long time here, it is still around zero Celcius at the time of writing, and we have about a decimeter of snow out in the garden).
Installing it required some physical force, as apparently the carrier had warped some since we bought it. There were also a fair number of threadings of various cords in very particular patterns. It took a couple of hours in the end (somewhat due to the help I got from the big brother of the baby in question). The result looks like this:
We have used it a few times now, and the baby seems to be accepting it just as much as the regular stroller or car seat. Since it is forward-facing, it is best if big brother is there to keep her company. The general rule that we have learnt is that up to about a year of age, children should be facing their parent when taken for a ride. But an elder sibling seems to be a perfectly acceptable replacement.
On the Chariot site there is a note about not using this seat for biking — but what is the point of it then? We will use it for short trips, so I think there is no harm here.
Anyway, it is a highly recommended item.