This is a dedicated bike for me to ride with her - I pick her up from daycare 3 times a week (which often blows out to one hour detours through Daisy Hill on the way home, we go to the shops together, and regular weekend rides. The build plan was for something big and solid, the plushness to ride for a number of hours and take enough pet monkey chow and associated gear for extended bike travel with a little'un.
The chassis for this build is the sturdy and venerable '05 GIANT AC, in a large frame size to give me the room to spread out with the Weerider seat and give a bit of leg room. The Weerider seat was in the plan even before I had the frame - I wanted a forward mounted seat instead of the regular rear mount - so I could run a plush dually and still have room for gear rack etc. A BIG plus with the front mounted seat, is that the monkey gets the same view and riding experience I get, and the bike feels very well balanced and centred (albeit with a higher COG) without that feeling of 'the tail wagging the dog'
This bike has truly opened our world with baby on board, she is such a little sprout, I guess we'll get about 3-4 years (rated up to 18kg for weight of child) out of it - then she goes on a third wheel bike or maybe single seat on a BOB Ibex trailer. I get a solid workout too...but more on that later.
Many people from this site may recognise their old parts, following is a list of contributors and basic build spec of the bike:
GIANT AC frame, large: geva
Stance flow forks, 20mm and 150mm travel: Snowy
20mm Velocity hub: Tho-r
Truvativ Hussefelt 31.8 bar and stem:
2.5 hookworms (for road use): Brisneyland
2.7 holy roller and 2.5 mobster (offroad use): Brisneyland
ALEX DM22 wheelset: Toodles
Raceface Evolve XC seatpost: MadMike
Hayes So1e brakes: Haydo
6" rotors (since replaced): No Cigar
SRAM X5 rear derailleur: themtbman
SRAM PG970 cassette: No Cigar
Raceface Evolve DH cranks: Tobes
Truvativ BB: Haydo
Shimano SPDs: Davos
GIANT OEM AC seat:
Rear shock: OEM rubbish, but holding up well
Alligator Rotors: 8" front, 6" rear
DaBomb lock ons
Tektro ERGO barends
Enough rambling, here are some pics:
Adz once asked me if I need that much travel in the front - I told him he'll have to ask the pet monkey - she told me what spec she wanted Plenty of plush travel gives both of us a smooth ride...
Plenty of stopping power and beefy front end strength for the big drops :
Topeak bag, with QR MTX track system, and collapsible side pannier pockets, has heaps of room for all of the monkey (and our) needs for extended riding. The top also extends with a concertina section under one of the zips - no excuse now to pick up some bread and milk on the way home...
Topeak barbag, enough space and close at hand for little snacks and camera, looking at getting the larger one for more storage as winter approaches:
...which brings me to lighting for the winter rides home - cheap halogen light on special
also the simple and reliable So1es:
Conventional SRAM 9sp with X7 triggers and X5 derailleur:
Now, for the weerider seat itself. Being a large AC frame, with the weerider seat mounted I had a moderate amount of legroom, but with a few tweaks I gained considerable kneeroom. First was to get my seat reasonably far back, without causing discomfort or losing too much pedalling efficiency. My seat is high too, this reduces the amount of bend in the knee and therefore reduces the height my knee comes up (more position and clearance pics to come).
The stem (80mm WTB XC) is quite compact at the back where the steerer clamp bolts are, so I was able to locate the weerider seat all the way forward, without impacting too much on the legroom for my li'l monkey passenger with steering on full lock.
Her cockpit, with her own set of bars - she wanted carbon flats (calling Ryobi-wan if he still has his broken ones...) but she'll have to make do with some 20mm conduit, They are held on with some beefy 10mm zip ties. It didn't take her long to work out what they were for
Now, onto the mounts. Pretty solid metal base frame, with protective caps over the clamps - the front cap on the metal base is a bit thin though and has since failed (at the back of the headtube) but the plastic cap on the front part of the clamp is excellent, so this is something to consider when choosing a frame for potential surface damage to the headtube.
Seat clamp is very protective to the seatpost, with thick plastic buffers to protect the surface.
Time for some loaded pics. Had a family 4 day weekend down at Broken Head (south of Byron) and having the bikes there was just fantastic. We rode into Byron along the bikepath, then up to the lighthouse - via the pass, around the headland and down to Wategoes along the walking path - the steps were great and the long travel just sucked them up. Some of the climbs out of Wategoes are around 8-10% grade, good resistance training when fully loaded. The travel bags are a necessity - food, clothes and drinks are all at hands reach while on the go.
The pet monkey was an absolute trooper, her endurance shined and all the rides I've been building her up on had paid off. Not one whimper or complaint, and we were gone for about 3 hours, and also included riding home in the dark (we had lights) after watching the sunset at the lighthouse. She amused herself by singing songs, I'd pull flowers off plants as we rode, and she would play with them (try to eat them ) and sway left to right wanting daddy to ride zig-zag
All up, she is getting ready for some long winter rides in the bush, we've got girraween coming up in june (we'll convert her to a brass monkey ) so she'll be ready for a half day picnic ride, and some rail trail rides later in the year before it gets too hot.
Her new 1L camelbak:
This shot shows the knee position right at the top of the normal power stroke. You just have to train yourself to power down a bit later in the stroke when your knees are in closer.
In this top shot it doesn't show how wide your knees are - for my setup it's not much wider than normal. The seat is only 210mm wide at the contact point for me.
