Getting back onto a bicycle for both Mums & Dads after the arrival of a new infant is a terrific low-impact way to get fit, enjoy the fresh air, travel further than you could on foot alone and of course to spend some quality time with your new infant whilst granting your partner a little "me time"

When it comes to pedaling with baby there are really only a couple of choices - either a infant bike carrier or a trailer. After using a trailer a couple of times we found it's size and clumsiness restricted our biking to the widest of cycle paths, the distance of our toddler from us made us uneasy and also restricted interaction. We were unhappy with our toddler sitting at "exhaust height" - we soon settled on a toddler bike carrier - or a bicycle mounted child carrier - to give it it's serious name.

There are actually three types of carrier you can buy; The very common rear-mounted seat, a front-mounted seat, usual in Europe, and, the newest, a center-mounted seat.

* Rear-Attached - Numerous similar options - Topeak, Humax, etc etc. very common, mass produced in China. These carriers really belong in the 20th century and it surprises me that mums & dads still buy them, other than they tend to be cheaper.

Interaction with your toddler doesn't exist, balance is off, carrying additional items in a rucksack etc is hard. Fitting a rear-mounted seat to a bike with disc-brakes can be impossible at worst and time-consuming and expensive at best and fitting a rear-mounted carrier to a bike with dual-suspension is often impossible.

The single plus, other than cost, that a rear-mounted carrier may have is that it can carry a heavier child, up to 22Kilos or more. You have to ask why they're not pedaling their own bike by this time, as this is the average weight of a six year old!

* Front-Mounted - Such manufacturers as iBert, BoBike and others, these tend to attach by a single point to front of the bike. Front-mounted bike carriers puts your toddler in front of you, encouraging interaction, engaing your toddler in the ride, reducing distractions to the rider, however having all the weight attached at the front-wheel also makes steering harder and generally restricts max. weight carryable to 15 kilos (~3 years old).

* Center-Mounted - Only one options known to exist - WeeRide. This attaches in 2 points - at the handlebars and also at the seat post, bettering the pure front-mounted solution by spreading the weight more evenly, whilst still having all the advantages of a front mounted carrier. This type of carrier will also attach to a dual-suspension or disc-brake bike.

So after trying a trailer and discarding it and we bought a traditional rear-mounted toddler bicycle carrier for our 1 yr old toddler a couple of years ago. After riding with it once on our bicycles, my partner told me she'd never ride with our daughter again in a rear mounted seat. Our daughters nose was running, she'd unzipped her jacket and kicked off her shoes - and all this behind us out-of-sight.

There are the obvious practicalities of ease of use and balance in addition to these "care" issues. With a toddler behind you, your balance is off, out-of-sight you're unable to react to any sudden movement. Your toddler will be more restless unable to see where they are going, throwing their weight about to see around you. It's probably more dangerous - since you're concentrating on whats going on behind you - rather than watching where you're going.....

Finally - ever considered getting off a bicycle with a rear-mounted carrier - as you try to lift your leg over chances are you'll kick your toddler in the head . And worst of all - in an accident - you can't protect them, can't put your arms around them!

So we trashed it and bought a center mounted WeeRide toddler bike carrier - all of these issues are fixed. Our infant can see where we're going, we can keep an eye on her, our balance is better, we can get off simply and best of all - there's the added advantages... we're interacting - we'll sing songs, count doggies, guess colours, play I-Spy, all things we couldn't do in a rear-mounted carrier.

So please before you buy a rear-mounted carrier - think long and hard about whether all you want to do is carry your child from A-B with all the issues above - or do you want to enjoy riding with your child and interact, participate.