It's not often that a child seat can claim a ‘world first’, but the BabySitter does with its sprung suspension. It works too and there were no complaints from the passenger, who happily sang its praises softly before falling asleep even on rough surfaces.
Isolating the seat from road shock can only be good news for developing baby necks. It only took about 15 minutes to fix the rack onto a cyclo-cross bike with the normal set of eyelets, and all the right bits were in the pack, which also includes a set of ‘P clips’ – like Meccano strips – for an extra brace halfway up the seatstays.
The rack comes with a bow-legged version that will fit bikes with disc brakes – useful if you have a mountain bike you might want to fit the rack to at some point.
The four-way safety harness works a treat and is easy to fasten because it does so top-to-bottom rather than side-to-side, and the tightening tabs are high up out of reach of interfering little hands. The top-to-bottom split means you don’t have to fuss with getting baby arms through shoulder straps so you’re much more likely to start your ride unstressed.
Safety is paramount, especially since your small passenger is out of sight behind you, and to this end the BabySitter seems to have it all. The seat wraps around the sides and the high back protects the head, plus there’s an additional strap between the seat and your seatpost for extra peace of mind.
To keep swinging legs tidy and safely clear of the wheel, the seat has height adjustable footstraps so it can grow with your child. There’s also a chunky quick-release padded hand bar.
One of the best features of the seat is how well it fixes to the rack, with a clever sliding bolt securely locking the two together which can be removed one-handed.