Can A Baby Seat Be Installed On Any Bike

Video Blog

March 22, 2019

Hey, guys. Dustin here, CEO of sixthreezero. Want to answer the question today, "Can I put a baby seat on my bike." Or what baby seat will fit my bike? I know there's a lot of different bikes out there, and lots of different baby seats, so I may not be able to specifically answer can your bike have a baby seat, but I'm going to answer some general questions that I think will clarify a lot of things.

So in the video in the shot here, we have one of our sixthreezero women's cruisers, and I'm going to kind of explain this bike and what would go into installing a baby seat on this bike. Also, other bikes that exist similar to this. So number one thing is if you have a bike and you're looking to put a baby seat on the rear rack, you're going to need two connection points back here to attach the rack. So all baby seats that attach on the rear are going to mount onto a rear rack.

And then the seat will go on top of the rear rack. And that rear rack needs to mount. So typically speaking, the rear rack's going to have some arms like these on the fender, and you can see that there are screw eyelet holes down here. So number one, you're going to want to make sure your bike has the eyelets down here to attach this strut of the rack to the frame.

Secondly, you're going to have the rack, and you're going to have struts coming out that will need to attach to the bike somewhere. Typically, there's usually an attachment point here. Sometimes it could be here, or it could also be on the seat clamp. I know companies like Electra have them on their seat clamp. But you can see on our bike, we actually don't have an attachment point on that piece of the frame. So the next question you'd have to ask is, well, what do you do?

And so what I have here is something called a monostay adapter. And this is a pretty nifty little piece. So this has to be used actually on quite a few of our bikes because for design and simplicity, we haven't included a mounting point on our bikes for rear racks or for baby seats. Now, on other ones like the Every Journey and the Around the Block, we do have rear racks, but you still will need a monostay adapter for certain baby seats because of how far the struts stretch on the rear rack, and you may need to have something that comes out a little farther, which would be what this monostay adapter does.

So this is pretty simple. You can put this in two different places. Number one, you could either put it on the seat post, and it really just goes like that, and obviously this will be bolted on, but for example ... And then you would attach the struts of the rear rack to here, and you tighten this down, or you could also put it right here. It kind of just depends on your needs and what works best for you and how far the struts will stretch. Neither location is necessarily better or worse than the other. Obviously, I think having it down here is a better option because then your seat, it's not going to affect the height of your seat if you should want to adjust it or something over time.

But if your seat, you're never going to move it, you're fine with where it's at, you could put it here. We've used this and installed it hundreds if not thousands of times. It is definitely safe. You just have to make sure, without a doubt, that you tighten these screws on as tight as they will go without forcing it or stripping it, but these will work great. I guarantee whatever the baby seat is rated for in terms of weight, the monostay adapter will be strong enough to hold that seat up, so don't be too concerned about that. Again, we've done it many, many times.

So the other option is if the monostay adapter doesn't work, and let's just say because of the way of your frame, you can't get the struts ... Obviously, a rear-mounted baby seat may not be the best option. There also are front-mounted baby seats, and the front-mounted baby seats will work pretty much on every bike. They get mounted, they sit on the top of the frame here, they get mounted around the stem. We've installed those on every one of our bikes. They're fairly simple. We carry one called iBert. There are also some other models that exist out there.

And then the last option is a trailer, a baby trailer where the kids sit in there, and it actually attaches to the rear axle, and you tow them behind you. That's another option, as well. So again, that's a little bit different than actually putting them in a seat. I tend to prefer the front mount if your child is a little bit younger because it's sometimes nice to be able to see them and have them right there with you. You know, if they're sitting behind you, you can't really see what they're doing if they're comfortable, what's going on. For some parents, that might be a little nerve-wracking. If your child's a little older, putting them in the back might be fine.

So, again, called the monostay adapter. If you don't have connection points here, you will need that. So getting into specifics, unfortunately, I can't necessarily tell you if your bike will work with a specific baby seat. There are lots of different baby seats out there, but I can tell you, 85% of all baby seats will work on 85% of bikes as long as you have connection points down here and up here or a monostay adapter. If you're missing any one of those, a baby seat rack in the rear will not work on your bike. My suggestion: contact the manufacturer. If you're thinking about buying a particular baby seat, contact the brand of bike you own. You can reach out to us at sixthreezero if you're going to buy a sixthreezero, have a sixthreezero, we can tell you more specifics around which bike you have and will it work.

Also, go ahead and comment. If you have a baby seat on your bike, please comment, what bike do you have, what baby seat do you have. It'd be great to share that information so other people can see if the bike they have will work. Also, if you have a sixthreezero, comment below, what bike do you have and what baby seat are you using. How do you like it? How does it work? Also, if you want to reach out to us directly, please contact us 310-982-2877, or shoot us an email, theteam@sixthreezero.com. We're always available to answer questions. And please, navigate to the top of our website. You can browse our accessories. We have rear baby seats. We have front baby seats. You can check out what we offer. You can also customize it and add those products to the bike, actually, in the customizer, so if you want to see what it looks like before you purchase, that's a pretty cool tool we have available.

And don't forget, enter your height and your weight into our Body Fit calculator. It will tell you if the bike on our site is a fit for you, thumbs up, thumbs down. If you get a thumbs down, don't be discouraged. Please contact us direct, and we can figure out a way to customize a bike for you. Because our goal at sixthreezero is to find a bike that'll fit your body perfectly.