After a long period of unavailablity, Bobike Mini child seats are back.  Don’t forget a windscreen, which helps keep your little one a little warmer during cold winter months. Even at a moderate cycling speed of 15mph wind chill can drop the temperature by 8-10 degrees. Unlike you, your child doesn’t have the extra warmth provided by the work of pedaling. Properly bundling up often-less-than-thrilled-to-be-bundled small children can be frustrating, the windscreen makes getting on the bike a little less hassle and a little more comfortable.

Speaking of Bobike Mini’s, we just received a new shipment.

Can I confess to loathing the look of just about everything designed for children? You know what I mean, the pastel-y background adorned with cutesy pictures that someone on high has decided must be the fabric of all children items. They even try to do it to bike helmets. The Bobike Mini never participated in this aesthetic too much, but the navy with white puppies left a little to be desired. We asked the US importer to tone it down, and they did. The new shipment is what Bobike calls “urban black.” Looks like what I’d call “black” but maybe there’s a key to a hip urban loft hidden in the padding, dunno. Silly marketing adjectives aside, the new seats are an aesthetic improvement. Less saccharine than than the puppies and black matches just about everything.

Bobike child seats have been selling briskly since we opened the webstore. The last few years have seen a marked interest in family cycling in the US. A short time ago commuting and transportation cycling was generally the province of the solitary male, but our cycling culture has grown up a little bit, and one of the signs of its maturity is that people are increasingly looking for ways to use bicycles as everyday transport. This includes, of course, transporting children and cargo. When we had our first child I tried trailers and a lot of child seats, and we found Bobike seats to be the easiest to use and most enjoyable for parent and child. If you have a young child I can’t more highly recommend the Bobike Mini. My son and I go for a ride every morning before I go to work. Sometimes the ride is short, but those rides are some of the best rides of my life. Being able to talk to and touch your child while you ride can’t be beat, and seeing the tot riding shotgun brings a smile to the people you pass.

The Bobikes are more thought out than the other seats I’ve tried, mostly likely because they’re a product of a cycling culture where bikes are–in the best way–taken for granted and products must function practically without fuss and concern by the user. Need a windscreen to keep the little one from suffering numbing wind chill during  winter? Of course you do, because you ride all year. Need to swap the seat from bike to bike in ten seconds? Who wouldn’t?

Here I am undertaking the arduous task of switching the Mini+ from my wife’s bike to mine.