The minute I got pregnant, I wondered how soon I could bike with baby...
I love riding my bike.
I love getting other people to ride bikes. So much so that I do it for a living as an active transportation planner.
So, when I first got pregnant, my first thought was
How long could I bike? Apparently:
Until my body said no: One day at 6 months pregnant, my body just said no. The 5 minute bike ride home in the bike lanes on a flat street was one of the hardest I’ve ever done.
When the weather made the risk too high: It was November, it was getting colder, and the potential of slipping on black ice wasn’t worth it
My second thought when I got pregnant was
How soon can I bike with my baby?
Absolutely no idea. I couldn’t find anything that addressed my specific situation. I didn’t want to spend $10k on a cargo bike. Even if I did, I had nowhere to safely store the aforementioned cargo bike. And really, I simply didn’t want to ride a cargo bike down narrow bike lanes or get stuck in traffic because the cargo bike couldn’t squeeze around obstacles.
What I wanted was to know what the easy, simple and safe solution was to wanting to ride my bike with my newborn.
By the time baby was born, I had no solutions. BUT I did discover that parenting is a lot of learn as you go.
I learned:
I preferred to wear my baby than keep them in a stroller.
In the entirety of my online search, I found ONE picture of a woman wearing her child while riding a bicycle. Proving I wasn’t the only one that had thought of it (which I needed to know at that point, just for validation).
This picture:
My baby was born in April and by early May I was desperate for a bike ride.
We finally decided to try it when baby was 5 weeks old, and it was… so good. I wondered if I would be comfortable or feel safe, but I did immediately. Biking has always been my happy place, and I felt so free! For bonus points, baby slept through the entire ride.
In the end, biking while wearing baby our first year had its compromises.
It allowed me to bike recreationally but not for transportation.
I always biked with at least one other adult in case I needed a second pair of hands.
I found that my favorite baby carrier for walking, which was easy to put on and kept us cool on hot summer days, was different than my favorite baby carrier for biking. The more structured carrier was nearly impossible for me to put on without help but the flap to support baby’s neck when sleeping was one of the keys to a comfortable ride for all.
It wasn’t perfect but wearing baby allowed us to ride together from the very beginning. It also gave me time to figure out what I was going to do the following spring when baby got too big to wear. I really needed a set up that would allow us to go everywhere on a bike again, like I used to do before baby.
That’s what I’ll be sharing here. I have over a decade of experience building cycling communities and it took me a while to figure out what worked for baby and me. Most of the tips and accessories that made all the difference weren’t identified that way anywhere and I relied a lot on my own educated guesses that something would work. If you’re a parent that just wants to bike with their kid, I’ll be sharing how to make that experience as comfortable and safe as possible. I’d love it if something I share helps get you on a bike with your young child or simply makes the entire experience better.