Louis is in daycare and Holly starts back at work two days a week on Monday, so our attention has gone to a seat on our bikes for the boy to help with the daily commute. It's a bit problematic.
To start with, Australians get royally ripped off. The Weeride, pictured below, costs US$60 in the US. In Australia? $170. On current exchange rates the price should be around $61.
WeeRide is a front seat, so the kid sits in front of you but behind the handlebars. That means you can chat with them, and the bike is a bit more stable than a rear seat. When I tried a friend's WeeRide, my knees hit the seat. Not ideal, though I'm told if it's properly installed that's less a problem.
So we've been looking at rear seats. Problem with those is that you can't generally use panniers with them, so how do you carry all your kid and work stuff?
One seat range that might solve this problem seems to be the seats from Hamax. They have rack-mounted rear seats and a matching pannier that will fit underneath. Alternatively they have the "Kiss" seat, which hands from its own frame-mounted carrier and looks like it might have space for a pannier!
Anyone got any experience with these seats? Ideas? Opinions?