Safe-T-Seat Forward Facing Child Seat Review - BikeRadar

Kids don't make good airbags. Nor would you want them to be the first thing to be squashed in a frontal crash.

Totally agree with the above comment, also seats on the back are FIXED, here it is attached to handlebars, "great" so when you get off if you fail to take in to account the childs added weight the bars rotate and the child ends up face first in the ground or hitting the frame.

Surely this is an April the first gag.

For the people above who criticised this seat mode - I actually found it comforting that I could wrap myself around my child when he was in this. Your kid wouldn't be the first thing to be squashed in a frontal crash - your tyre would. On the same principle, if a kid was in the back seat, it would be first in a crash from behind. And you couldn't use yourself to protect the child.

Also, my version was not attached to the bars, rather the fork steerer and there were no problems a) steering; or b) mounting or dismounting.

As I said above, it was great for being able to speak/touch my kid - he could see where he was going, you could point things out and engage as well. My son loved going out for rides.

My main issues with it were - I was worried about comfort and there was a little cramping of cycling style - but when you have your kid on your bike, you ain't trying to break any speed records.

I much prefer the ride of these to a back mounted system. As for safety concerns, I preferred having my daughter cocooned by my arms, body and legs, rather than stuck out at the back, which in most cases, I think, is incredibly vulnerable.

Also the ride is much better with a kid at the front, much, much more stable, which in itself is much safer.

Hit something solid head-on (the most likely sort of impact on a bicycle) and all of your weight is going to be transferred forward, through your childs body and onto the headset cap.

Seriously, how many bikes are hit in the rear? and if they are, the most likely effect is that the bike will shoot forward. The rear mounted seats are usually tall enough to prevent whiplash type injuries which would be the most probable outcome otherwise.

I found this seat affects stability and handling /much/ less than rear-mounted seats I've tried, and as the others said, it's way easier to engage with your child as you're going along. It isn't always possible to set it up so that you don't bump your knees with a normal cycling action though, so you can end up a bit splay-legged. My daughter's just grown out of hers, age 3.

Owned one of these for 3 years now when I bought it for my son. He has outgrew it and now has a tag-along. I took my daughter of just under 1 year for a little spin the other day which was fun and she loved it although it was hard work as my lad was on the tag too. Aside from the obvious is this safe argument which I personally think it is as I don't go hell for leather when out with the kids or on busy roads there are a few advantages over the rear seats. I can wear a hydration pack for starters carrying food and spares, the passenger gets a suspension smoothed ride on the front. Read mounted carrier can easily wreck and expensive alloy frame and as my frame is composite fitting a rear carrier is out of the question. You also have a lot of interaction with your child and can keep a close eye on how they are during the ride. It's easy and quick to fit I rode a few miles up the cycle paths to Birches Valley and met my wife who took the kids and bike home then I cycled on Cannock Chase till the sun dropped before heading home. This is about family riding not ripping up the black runs.

We had one of these for a while and my daughter loved it. The position of the seat doesn't impact steering as much as you would think and sits nicely in the "cavity" between your chest and arms. The major bonus of this particular seat is that it can go on ANY bike as long as it has the steerer space. Resale value is pretty good too.

I've had one for about 6mnths and my daughter loves loves loves it!

The biggest plus point of this design is being able to talk to your little one as she points at the world as it rolls on by.

The safety arguments above don't wash. As the counter arguments state above, it is no more dangerous that a rear mounted seat. If anything it's probably safer as having her between my arms would mean that I would be able to use them to protect her in the event of a fall. I personally would never use it in traffic as there are too many idiots out there. I haven't crashed the bike with her in it, and doubt that I ever would, but in the event it would be my arms that would be severely munted before she even got a scratch on her.

It looks like it should affect steering way more than it actually does. The seat is only noticeable at super slow speeds. Once at speed it is almost completely unnoticeable. I have ridden XC tracks at a reasonable pace with her aboard. Suspension forks are a must off trail though. She moaned a lot when I took her out on the rigid singlespeed.

Another thing that needs to be pointed out is that you do need 19mm of free space on the steerer tube under the stem. You may also have problems if the top tube on your bike is really short. On my large frames this isn't a problem, but my wife cannot use this comfortably as there is no standing space between the rear of the ibert seat and her bike seat. She chooses to put her saddle really low to overcome this but it doesn't look comfortable for her.

Being really fussy, perhaps the only other niggle is that you need to completely remove the ibert seat and steerer tube attachment (what ibert call the 'stinger'). It would be nice if the 'stinger' was smaller/safer around the knees. As it stands it takes 5minutes or so to install/remove. This could potentially be 30 seconds or so if the stinger was designed in such a way as to allow you to leave it attached when the seat was not in use. It's no biggie though.

Other than those issues it's great. I see they've improved the straps, which would have been my other gripe. The straps installed on my one are a bit cumbersome to strap up and remove. The ones in the photo look much improved.

Anyway, I looked at pretty much every seat out there before purchasing this one and am pleased with my purchase. I'd give it 4/5.

@ Raddog: Re the improved straps I too have the older model and I think the new version has improved straps and also has some padding on the seat (possibly just the back rest)

Had one of these and am AMAZED by the Bike Radar reviewer saying the seat puts the weight centrally, when ALL THE WEIGHT is on the handlebars.

Where else can it go when the seat connects to the handlebar?

Front seats yes, for all the reasons highlighted above by other reviewers.

But not the Ibert as it gives BALANCE, COMFORT and SAFETY ISSUES.

I found front seats that didnt have the connection issues such as the Weeride and Rabbit.

Adrian

Pretty sure most of the people comments regarding fixing the seat to the "handlebars" have not actually used this product, as it fixes just below the handlebar stem around the headset, SO THE WEIGHT IS NOT ON THE HANDLEBARS.

I did try the Hamex rear seat for a while, but found myself constantly turning around to see what she was looking at, which is not safe, thats when I decided to purchase the safe-t-seat, my 8 month old loves it, she is constanlty chattering away, and the good thing is, I can see and interact with her.

Comfort is also very good, not a lot of padding, but the seat is well moulded to the shape of my daughter. Balance does take a bit of getting used, but so did te rear seat. To me its a very good seat and deserves the above reivew.