Pondering on which bike seat to pick to transport your precious cargo in? Find out what our resident Total Women’s Cycling parent thought to an offering from Dutch brand Bobike.

The Bobike Tour Exclusive rear mounted children’s bike seat is a smart, protective, comfortingly large and cocoon-like bike seat with the clever touch of security locks.

When I revealed the Bobike from it’s packaging, I was impressed by it’s smart appearance, but immediately concerned that I’d been sent a cream-coloured version. Panic set in! Admittedly it has survived pretty well over the weeks of use and is still looking really good.

The shape of the seat provides a wonderful shell more so than many on the market, protecting your child from every inevitability. It certainly did its job shielding my son from harms way, as the first time I attached it to the bike, I had fitted the seat too far back, completely unstabilising the back end and causing the bike and my son to topple over. Don’t worry, the Bobike saw to it that he was untouched by the ground, and totally unfazed by the whole experience as he just lay their trying to claw his way out of his helmet that had been bugging him.

I was sent the bike seat with the universal adaptor that is fixed onto the column of your bike. It has been great with bike seats in the past but something is definitely not quite right with this one. I’ve spent hours waiting for the “click” to let me that the bars have neatly slotted into the right place and that I can put my child into the seat. A few times I willed it to be true but then a bit of pulling at the bike seat made me realise that yet again it hadn’t worked. I would never recommend this method of fixing this heavy bike seat to a bike, as it is exhausting and very time consuming.

Fitting the seat onto the universal bike prongs was a relatively easy job but it took me a while to work out that the tool that you need to fix the Bobike to anything (pannier/ universal adaptor) is in the front pocket of the seat.

It has taken me a while to get used to the bike straps – the tops buckle into the fabric of the seat itself. When I first put them on I was concerned about them coming out and once one did. This is not the fault of the actual straps just my ineptitude at using them. It was certainly a good lesson that you have to triple check they have “clicked” into place, which can be fiddly with a young child wriggling to get out. Of course the straps do mean that a child cannot unhook itself from the seat and that will be useful, as our son gets older.

Feet are also buckled into place, a reassuring feature. The height of the back and the length of the ankle/ leg guards all change and so will develop while your child grows. It dries quickly after getting wet and has survived some pretty bad downpours recently, without any obvious impact.

Another neat feature of the bike seat is that it comes with a padlock that is internal and locks round underneath the saddle of the bike it’s attached to. It is just a clever way to feel a bit more secure about your bike.  

Verdict

Overall I genuinely liked the Bobike rear mounted maxi tour children’s bike seat because fundamentally it protected my child incredibly well.

I’m unsure as to whether I would choose this against others on the market, partly due to the experience of the weight that seems to make me feel like my bike is less balanced than it has been with other child seats and the experience of trying to get it on and off the bike is beyond irritating, it now lives on it!

For those who are keen to have an incredibly protective seat, and not bothered about it being a permanent feature on your bike, then this will take care of your little one, no problem.

Pros

– Cocoon shell shape and straps that hold your child’s feet in make you feel sure that your child is safe
– Changeable height for the foot rests and back is incredibly useful as your child grows

Cons

– The universal adapter that’s meant to allow for a quick release method of putting the bike seat on and off your bike is tricky.

Price: RRP £129.99 (now just £116.99)
Colours: Green, black, cream, grey, blue and pink
More information: Bobike

What Bobike say about their tour Exclusive rear mounted children’s bike seat.