The Baby AC/Weerider project bike...

Area54 · Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2007 10:25 am

One of the funny things about having kids is how they change you. They turn the world as you know it upside down, but they also open up new opportunities for enjoying your current activities and taking on new ones. One of the first things that went through my mind was - how am I going to incorporate the pet monkey into riding world? stupid

Luckily I had 12 months to plan and build something - it was recommended the pet monkey was at least 12 months old before she was strong enough to ride in a bikeseat - so I had the time to build, test, adjust etc before it was ready to go into service.

We've been riding together for about 5 months now and it's a pretty sorted out package - just extending her ride times to increase her endurance - luckily (for us I s'pose) there are so many things to look and point at, she's always occupied (I'm fearful she will grow accustomed to speed - 48km/hr fastest so far on the dirt Embarassed

).

This is a dedicated bike for me to ride with her - I pick her up from daycare 3 times a week (which often blows out to one hour detours through Daisy Hill on the way home mtbdirt

), we go to the shops together, and regular weekend rides. The build plan was for something big and solid, the plushness to ride for a number of hours and take enough pet monkey chow and associated gear for extended bike travel with a little'un.

The chassis for this build is the sturdy and venerable '05 GIANT AC, in a large frame size to give me the room to spread out with the Weerider seat and give a bit of leg room. The Weerider seat was in the plan even before I had the frame - I wanted a forward mounted seat instead of the regular rear mount - so I could run a plush dually and still have room for gear rack etc. A BIG plus with the front mounted seat, is that the monkey gets the same view and riding experience I get, and the bike feels very well balanced and centred (albeit with a higher COG) without that feeling of 'the tail wagging the dog' 2thumbsup

This bike has truly opened our world with baby on board, she is such a little sprout, I guess we'll get about 3-4 years (rated up to 18kg for weight of child) out of it - then she goes on a third wheel bike or maybe single seat on a BOB Ibex trailer. I get a solid workout too...but more on that later.

Many people from this site may recognise their old parts, following is a list of contributors and basic build spec of the bike:

GIANT AC frame, large: geva
Stance flow forks, 20mm and 150mm travel: Snowy
20mm Velocity hub: Tho-r
Truvativ Hussefelt 31.8 bar and stem:
2.5 hookworms (for road use): Brisneyland
2.7 holy roller and 2.5 mobster (offroad use): Brisneyland
ALEX DM22 wheelset: Toodles
Raceface Evolve XC seatpost: MadMike
Hayes So1e brakes: Haydo
6" rotors (since replaced): No Cigar
SRAM X5 rear derailleur: themtbman
SRAM PG970 cassette: No Cigar
Raceface Evolve DH cranks: Tobes
Truvativ BB: Haydo
Shimano SPDs: Davos
GIANT OEM AC seat:
Rear shock: OEM rubbish, but holding up well
Alligator Rotors: 8" front, 6" rear
DaBomb lock ons
Tektro ERGO barends

Enough rambling, here are some pics:

Weeride on a Mountain Bike

Adz once asked me if I need that much travel in the front - I told him he'll have to ask the pet monkey - she told me what spec she wanted Dummy

Plenty of plush travel gives both of us a smooth ride...

Plenty of stopping power and beefy front end strength for the big drops BigLaugh

:

Topeak bag, with QR MTX track system, and collapsible side pannier pockets, has heaps of room for all of the monkey (and our) needs for extended riding. The top also extends with a concertina section under one of the zips - no excuse now to pick up some bread and milk on the way home... Rolling Eyes

Topeak barbag, enough space and close at hand for little snacks and camera, looking at getting the larger one for more storage as winter approaches:

Weeride on a Mountain Bike

...which brings me to lighting for the winter rides home - cheap halogen light on special nightride

also the simple and reliable So1es:

Weeride on a Mountain Bike

Conventional SRAM 9sp with X7 triggers and X5 derailleur:

Now, for the weerider seat itself. Being a large AC frame, with the weerider seat mounted I had a moderate amount of legroom, but with a few tweaks I gained considerable kneeroom. First was to get my seat reasonably far back, without causing discomfort or losing too much pedalling efficiency. My seat is high too, this reduces the amount of bend in the knee and therefore reduces the height my knee comes up (more position and clearance pics to come).

Weeride on a Mountain Bike

The stem (80mm WTB XC) is quite compact at the back where the steerer clamp bolts are, so I was able to locate the weerider seat all the way forward, without impacting too much on the legroom for my li'l monkey passenger with steering on full lock.

Weeride on a Mountain Bike

Her cockpit, with her own set of bars - she wanted carbon flats (calling Ryobi-wan if he still has his broken ones...) but she'll have to make do with some 20mm conduit, They are held on with some beefy 10mm zip ties. It didn't take her long to work out what they were for mtb

Now, onto the mounts. Pretty solid metal base frame, with protective caps over the clamps - the front cap on the metal base is a bit thin though and has since failed (at the back of the headtube) but the plastic cap on the front part of the clamp is excellent, so this is something to consider when choosing a frame for potential surface damage to the headtube.

Weeride on a Mountain Bike

Seat clamp is very protective to the seatpost, with thick plastic buffers to protect the surface.

Bogor · Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2007 10:55 am

That's awesome.
Something I will be looking at doing when I finally have kids.

Great job. thumbsup4

Bogor

finch · Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2007 12:58 pm

never thought I'd come to the day when I find a baby seat bike cool, but here I am now. I may have just found my next project, and even one the wife may be OK with hmm

Brow · Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2007 1:04 pm

Very well done with good planning to get the best out of it.

I like the idea of the little one up front so they can't surprise you too much and get that 'tail wagging the dog' syndrome.

Now, our 4yr old is on a 16" with training wheels but we hope to get him off road after the trainers are off but I have a problem - 16 mth old twins!!!

Can you come up with something for 1 bike????

Otherwise we will have to do a 2 bike deal which means only on weekends. I have a twin trailer (got to get it back from a mate) which will get us all out on the bike paths.

What sort of cost is this all up and how many parts are new/second hand?

Again well done
Brow

marty1 · Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2007 1:08 pm

The baby seat is not allowed on my bike , My wife does not trust me hmm

I do know what they do to our life though , it's great.

Skinny · Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2007 1:13 pm

Nice work there mate, i will be doing just that to the Reign come this time next year.

2thumbsup

G

Area54 · Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2007 1:41 pm

Brow - the Weerider seat cost $169 from the shop new (Indooroopilly Cycles had them on the shelf when we purchased - might be other shops but I didn't continue the search - can order online here: http://www.myweeride.com.au )

I built the bike up with 99% second hand parts. Cost, hmm, it would be comparable to buying a complete second hand bike. I wasn't after junkyard parts, so some parts were cheap, some expensive.

Compared to the pics on the weeride site, I have HEAPS of legroom. I would have my knees about 50-80mm wider than I normally have, and I still ride with SPDs. The seat side will rub on my inner leg about 60mm back from the front of the kneecap (with leg bent at 90 degree and pedal/crank at top dead centre) by the time the crank is parallel to the downtube, your knee is clear of any obstruction and you can power down - you just have to correct your stroke to ensure you're not powering down with knees out. This has taken quite a bit of time to tune - lots of little adjustments and repositioning of clamps and components - from standard the weeride seat was rubbing on the inner knee quite a bit, knees were out wide, but once tuned it is very comfortable. Having my seat a fair way back, I have to rely on the power from the glutes as opposed to the thighs (a weekend of longer rides gave me some DOM soreness feedback to confirm this)

I will be posting up detailed pics on stroke and knee position to allay any fears of major knee/seat interference - but of course frame selection and your own body geometry will dictate the clearance you achieve.

Some handling feedback - all pedalling you do is on the seat, you cannot stand up to pedal, so be prepared to do all your climbing seated, but you can stand up to coast and air out the nethers. I can still trackstand too - even with bub on board claphands

, just takes an adjustment to your stance. When you throw the leg over the bike, you have to go straight to the seat - only a small amount of space between the tip of your seat and the back of the weeride, but I've got just enough space to stand up on the ground over the top tube. This is invaluable to hold the bike stable when putting the bub in or out of the weerider, or else you gotta have someone hold the bike or wedge it somehow - you just can't trust leaning it against wall.

mikey · Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2007 1:48 pm

Awesome.

Parts forum here I come...

-Adz- · Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2007 4:26 pm

Thats excellant. claphands

mudeye · Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2007 2:14 pm

showed my missus and she luuuurved it... Made her laugh out loud and wondering how I can incorporate dropping off the kids at daycare with my commute. (at Present I have to bus it with them on the two days of day care and I hate buses!!!) It looks the goods and the kids would love being up the front... My problem is I have two monkeys... any thoughts??? Area 54 you seem quite the renaissance man! Champion!!! 2thumbsup

Oxford · Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2007 2:45 pm

mudeye wrote:

showed my missus and she luuuurved it... Made her laugh out loud and wondering how I can incorporate dropping off the kids at daycare with my commute. (at Present I have to bus it with them on the two days of day care and I hate buses!!!) It looks the goods and the kids would love being up the front... My problem is I have two monkeys... any thoughts??? Area 54 you seem quite the renaissance man! Champion!!! 2thumbsup

Two kids, get a trailer, Cash Convertors Strathpine (you're Nor West so shouldn;t be too far away) has one with all the gear for $250 at the moment. I had one and they are excellent, even weather proof. I now use a trailer bike.

Ryobi-Wans bars are sitting in a trophy given to me after KOM last year, happy to sacrifice the trophy if it means the monkey gets a carbon fix. I'll measure later and see if you want them, they are risers though not flats.

Cooch · Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2007 3:05 pm

Oh my god...

Area54 · Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2007 3:22 pm

Mudeye - are they too young to go on a third wheel bike? Or one on the weerider and one on a rear mounted seat, then get a pannier rack for the fork to carry their gear.

Noooooooo - don't ruin your trophy Ox, it's not that important mate. I might be able to fool her with some carbon stick-on. HiHi

The Topeak bag on the rear rack is the one she uses as her daycare bag, oh so easy to pick up and drop off. On the days I do drop off, I have an arrangement to leave the seat in a storeroom at the centre - only one bolt to remove, then power on to work unhindered.

The whole AC/weerider package as viewed in the pics weighs in at 26kgs (rear bag is half full with gear from monkey daycare - clothes, lunchboxes and first aid kit etc) add to that the monkey weight of 10kg, her 1L camelbak and my 2 or 3L camelbak, plus associated gear - and you got some serious resistance training! Not as much as a trailer, but with this system it's a lot more singletrack friendly and enjoyable from the bubs persepective - not to mention safer within your arms as barriers against tree branches and the like.

Another review by Peka from this site:

http://www.mtbdirt.com.au/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=18472

Let it be known I have absolutely no affiliation with shops or weeride distributors, I just see this as a fantastic solution to getting out there with the little'uns, and hopefully partners as well sharing the experience.

I'll endeavour to get some shots with everything loaded and detail the pedal arc with associated knee positions. 2thumbsup

Area54 · Posted: Wed May 09, 2007 5:33 am

Time for some loaded pics. Had a family 4 day weekend down at Broken Head (south of Byron) and having the bikes there was just fantastic. We rode into Byron along the bikepath, then up to the lighthouse - via the pass, around the headland and down to Wategoes along the walking path - the steps were great and the long travel just sucked them up. Some of the climbs out of Wategoes are around 8-10% grade, good resistance training when fully loaded. 2thumbsup

The travel bags are a necessity - food, clothes and drinks are all at hands reach while on the go.

The pet monkey was an absolute trooper, her endurance shined and all the rides I've been building her up on had paid off. Not one whimper or complaint, and we were gone for about 3 hours, and also included riding home in the dark (we had lights) after watching the sunset at the lighthouse. She amused herself by singing songs, I'd pull flowers off plants as we rode, and she would play with them (try to eat them searchme

) and sway left to right wanting daddy to ride zig-zag HiHi

All up, she is getting ready for some long winter rides in the bush, we've got girraween coming up in june (we'll convert her to a brass monkey BigLaugh

) so she'll be ready for a half day picnic ride, and some rail trail rides later in the year before it gets too hot.

Her new 1L camelbak:

This shot shows the knee position right at the top of the normal power stroke. You just have to train yourself to power down a bit later in the stroke when your knees are in closer.

In this top shot it doesn't show how wide your knees are - for my setup it's not much wider than normal. The seat is only 210mm wide at the contact point for me.

Weeride on a Mountain Bike

-Adz- · Posted: Wed May 09, 2007 6:12 am

One proud father. claphands

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