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Perhaps you have seen a bike with two child seats zip past you and were wondering what it was or maybe you have stumbled upon this page in your search to bike more but you have two children to carry by bike now. Either way, there are several answers to your question about “What is a bike with 2 child seats called?”.
The longtail style of cargo bike is very similar to what a regular bicycle might look like, except that its rear end is stretched out, giving you room to carry two children (sometimes even three!).
The different brands and models of these bikes all have various lengths of rear decks (the back bit where you can mount kid seats); some of the longer-than-a-normal-bike but shorter-than-a-‘true’-longtail decks are referred to as midtails and not all midtails can accommodate 2 children (but many can, just double check before you buy).
Some really popular models currently are the Tern GSD, the Xtracycle Swoop, or the Yuba Mundo. Here are my two kids on the back of our Xtracycle Edgerunner longtail cargo bike when they were a lot younger!
Box bikes or, in Dutch, bakfietsen, are bicycles with a stretched out front portion such that you can mount a box that can hold children. This box usually has bench seating, some clips to strap them in, and can have a canopy added to it to help protect the kids from the elements. One really nice benefit of the bakfiets is that the kids are in a box and the box is low to the ground: having a low centre-of-gravity is awesome for balance.
Learn more about box bikes here. As well as this primer on what a Dutch cargo bike is. What to dive in to the deep end and learn all about bakfietsen? This is the link for you.
I love our bakfiets and also wrote this piece comparing bakfietsen to longtails and trailers, check it out if you’re curious about the pros and cons of these popular ways to carry kids on a bike!
Like bakfietsen, trikes also have a box for carrying at least 1-2 children. However, they have a third wheel! Trikes ride differently than two-wheeled cargo bikes, but some people really prefer the extra stability when stopped and now that many trikes are available in articulating models that allows them to lean like a regular bike
Learn more about trikes here. And check out Sara’s review of her e-Trike, pictured below.
This Japanese-style cargo bike is extremely compact and useful for transporting two young children around, to school and the like. In general, these bikes:
They are available in e-assisted versions. They usually have a great, stable kickstand to assist with loading/unloading your kids.
Here is a photo of my friend’s mamachari, a bike she purchased on Amazon in Japan (when she lived there) and shipped back to Canada when they relocated back home. (Her husband’s city bike with a rear-mounted child seat is in front of her mamachari.) These bikes are definitely harder to find in North America but Kaeru bikes in NYC carries them.
This is also possible! On a longtail, on some bakfietsen, on some regular bikes, or on sturdier Dutch-style bikes like the Fr8 or this model, as seen on the canals of Utrecht:
The front seat in this picture is suitable for toddlers and preschoolers, not older infants. However, there are front seats available for older infants. Talk with your local bike shop to see if your current bike will work with such a set-up, it might be possible! It tends to work best with more upright bikes and swept back handlebars, to help accommodate the space required for a front-mounted child seat to fit between the rider (you) and the handlebars. Some people just love front seats; others find that they dig in to their chest or force them to ride with their knees at an awkward angle; these are influenced by the variables of body type, bike design, and personal preference: you won’t know until you try!
That said, the front- and rear-mounted seat set-up tends to work the very best on bikes designed for handling that extra weight, as pictured here or something similar to that.
All of the bikes described in this article are available in e-assist models.
I highly recommend getting an e-assisted cargo bike if you opt for one, unless you live in a really flat place (and even then). Here is a list of some of the most popular e-cargo bikes aimed at families (i.e. they have seating for kids and other such features and aren’t designed just for hauling cargo). You will find no assist is fine for when the kids are babies, but once they get older, or if you have hills to climb or sometimes ride in traffic, the e-assist will be a huge benefit and get you riding the bike even more than you anticipated. E-assisted cargo bikes make heavy and loaded cargo bikes ride at a speed more akin to you pedalling a regular, unloaded bike under your own steam.
These are just a handful of the ways that you can carry two kids on a bike; there are more ways if you only have one child, but there are also options for if you have three or more kids! Cargo bikes, trailers, and trailing bikes are fabulous ways to accomplish short trips by bike where you live.
Read on to learn more about all of the ways that you can carry kids by bike.
There are pros and cons to both. The first question to ask yourself is where can you store the bike? If you have to lift it up a few flights of stairs or take it in an elevator, then a box bike is out of the question and a compact mid/longtail like the Bike Friday Haul-a-Day or the Tern GSD is more appropriate.
Read here to learn more about the differences between a longtail cargo bike and box bike. Includes a table comparing the two and which one wins out for each feature.