Biking with 3?

[87tweetybirds]

Hello Mustacians!
My little family is expanding. For the past few summers I've been able to do most of my daily errands with a bike and kid trailer (as long as the additional cargo wasn't very large), allowing our family to mainly be a single car household. However, with our family growing by one more, I'm trying to figure out how to haul 3 children via bike. Our oldest is 4, turns 5 next summer, and she's on the small side. Come next summer we'll have a 5 year old, a 2 year old and a 6ish month old. I'm hopeful that the oldest will be able to learn to ride a bike this coming summer, but even then a several mile bike ride might be a bit much to start with.
I found a seat at a thrift store that mounts behind the "driver" seat on the bike, and I'm considering using this in addition to the trailer to be able to have capacity to bike with 3 small children. Are there any other suggestions?

[chouchouu]

If its something you use regularly I suggest a long tail such as a yuba mundo. You can attach child seats. I think they're easier than the bucket bikes which are only good for flat terrain.

[trashtalk]

We bought a Babboe cargo bike from myAmsterdambike.com (we are in the US) and it's one of our favorite things we've ever purchased.

(We have four kids.)

[gooki]

I much prefer the upfront seat for kids. Mounts to the horizontal bar, and they get to hold onto your handle bars.

[Kmp2]

3 is tough, but not impossible. When your 5 year old can ride, it'll will still take about twice as long to do trips as it would if they were on your bike/trail-a-bike/trailer with you. My 6 year old barely road on her own this summer because of the extra time it took to get places - we loaded her up with us.

A bike seat added to your existing bike/trailer setup is probably the cheapest option, our DD aged out of the bike seat at 5 though, and she would've been very cramped in the trailer with either of her brothers.

We opted early on for a longtail cargo bike that DH can bike with all three kids in the back (the youngest in a bike seat), and we also have a bakfiet (long-john front box bike). We can go pretty far on these, but hills are a challenge for me - the eldest 2 often have to get out and walk up the hill. An e-assist would've been wonderful if we were thinking ahead at the time we purchased our longtail. We will definitely keep our longtail long after the kids out grow it, it is a fabulous ride and it is a grocery getter and errand runner; however, the box bike will probably be passed onto another family with young children. It's range isn't as far, and it doesn't navigate some of the tighter spots in our neighbourhood well.

[dabighen]

This is my family of 6 commuter.  We rode everywhere this summer and people got such a kick out of it.  My wife wont ride in the cold but me and the other 5 are still pluggin away.  All told it was around $500 for everything.  Our routine is i get the kids in the trailer but dont connect.  Then my wife stabilizes the buike while i buckle the youngest.  Then i hook up the trailer and i hop on followed by my wife and oldest daughter.  Once the routine is down it is a piece of cake.

[trashtalk]

This is my family of 6 commuter.  We rode everywhere this summer and people got such a kick out of it.  My wife wont ride in the cold but me and the other 5 are still pluggin away.  All told it was around $500 for everything.  Our routine is i get the kids in the trailer but dont connect.  Then my wife stabilizes the buike while i buckle the youngest.  Then i hook up the trailer and i hop on followed by my wife and oldest daughter.  Once the routine is down it is a piece of cake.

This is awesome. Thanks for sharing.

[TrMama]

I'd probably spring for a longtail ebike with the trailer. That should give you the most flexibility for the next few years. Those kids will get heavy, fast.

I'd also look for a tandem to add to the fleet sometime in the next few years. Then your oldest can ride behind you while you pull the trailer. Even when she's physically able to ride long distances, it takes a long time for kids to develop the good judgement they need to ride safely around traffic. They'll be on adult sized bikes by the time that happens. For reference, my kids were 11/12 when I finally trusted them to ride alone, but only on routes we'd previously practiced.

There's a family in our town who has a 3 seater tandem. The father rides in the front and his 2 daughters ride in the back seats. I've also seen him pulling a trailer with it, but most recently it's the guy riding alone (maybe after dropping the kids off?) and there's some kind of pet carrier with an animal in it on top of the pannier rack. It's a hoot!