Tuesday, October 29, 2013

An Innovative New Child Bike Seat: The Mac Ride

I recently met Glen Dobson at a blogger meetup hosted at HootSuite HQ. He was there promoting a child bike seat that he's designed: the Mac Ride. It's a front mounted child seat, ideal for kids aged two to six that attaches under the handlebars & on the seat post. Thursday last week, he came by with one of the prototypes so I could try it out. Though it's designed to fit the majority of bikes, my old bike has a less common style of handlebar stem, so I wasn't able to fit it on my bike. (He'll be making an adaptor soon, however) Despite that setback, I did get to try it out with Linnaeus briefly--Glen let me ride his bike.

Describing the bike seat to you is great & everything, but really you should just watch the video to get an idea of what it looks like & how it works.


Glen & his wife are mountain bikers, so he designed this seat with trail riding in mind. The child isn't seatbelted in, so s/he can stand up to go over bumps, just like you would on your bike. They aren't likely to fall off because their feet are strapped into the foot pegs & there is no need for an extra set of handlebars--they can just hang onto yours. Because the seat is just a narrow plastic saddle, the adult rider doesn't need to bow their legs out around it. You can also use your knees to support your child a little when not pedalling & they're positioned between your arms. Though you might worry about them not being belted in, it feels very secure as you're riding. I imagine that because the upright position feels similar to riding a bike, it might help them when they learn to ride their own bikes too.

The Mac Ride isn't in production just yet--Glen is still working on getting funding. I'll let you know as soon as their crowdfunding campaign kicks off so you can be a part of getting this great seat to market too! If you want to hear more about the Mac Ride, keep up with the crowdfunding & news about the project, follow them on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ or sign up for the mailing list here.


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3 comments:

  1. Really similar to the co-rider.

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  2. The general concept is similar--The CoRider & Mac Ride are both in the same place at the front of your bike & just have foot pegs with a saddle for the child. The Mac Ride doesn't have the extra handlebars that the CoRider has. Also, the Mac Ride saddle is attached to a separate adjustable crossbar, not directly to your frame. The whole thing comes off the bike easily without tools, just leaving a spacer ring under your handlebars. I think the CoRider would be a bit more difficult to take off when you don't need to have the child seat with you.

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  3. totally reminds me of the co-rider.

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