Taga with Children

As the photos show, we loved our Taga. We had one for almost a year and it got used a lot by Mr BB for taking the children out into town or to the beach.

As the photos show, the Taga has two modes – tricycle mode and pushchair mode.

In tricycle mode, Mr BB zipped all over on the Taga. The main downside was that the Taga is a heavy bike which has only 3 gears, so he was limited in what he could do, but that suited me absolutely fine as I knew he wasn’t trying to race anything with my children on board! In fact the reason I got the Taga was because I was not at all keen on the children being in a bike trailer behind the bike on main roads. Having the children in front, but in a proper sturdy seat, just seemed to me logically the safest option. Whether it is or not, I do not wish to debate, but as a mother, this is what I felt happiest with!! I also liked that the children were close by for observation and to chat to.

In pushchair mode, steering is limited because of the fixed front wheel. So you need to tilt the rear wheels up to turn corners. There is a small basket underneath. But the Taga worked perfectly fine in pushchair mode to be taken around the supermarket, or down the narrow ramps to the beach.

It was fairly simple to convert the Taga from bike to pushchair and back again. It is possible to remove the main seat with the child in it. The seat has a pull out stand at the rear to hold it upright. But depending on the size of your child, the seat is likely to be heavy with a child in it – and heavier the older the child is! The bike rider’s seat is then lowered down, a clip is undone, and the Taga back wheel is flipped over the top to form the chassis. The seat unit is then put back on again.

Mr BB used to often ride to the shops and then wow everyone as he calmly climbed off, converted the Taga into pushchair mode and walked into the shop to do his shopping, before converting it back again to ride home!! In fact in tourist season he got quizzed non stop and got a reputation for being the man on the amazing bike! He used to get stopped all the time, and you could see heads turn as he whizzed by!

We got the second seat later on so that the baby could ride along too. There were some issues with this. First of all it is necessary to use the single seat to help build the second seat, and the two seats get bolted together. Therefore it is not easy to go from two seats to one seat. In fact, you would have to dismantle everything so an hours job or so. When the second seat is in situ, it is very close to the riders knees. Mr BB had to ride with his knees stuck out at an angle. He thinks this would be an issue for anyone unless they were very petite. It is possible to use the Taga in pushchair mode with both seats on. It is also possible to lift both children off the Taga in their seats, but the seats would need propping against the wall for support ie two seats do not freestand. But to be honest we would not recommend doing this simply because of the weight of the seats and children. Mr BB says he did do it but it was very very heavy. There is also no hood for the second seat. It was suggested to us that we bought another front seat fabric to add on the hood to the second seat, but in reality there is nowhere for the hood to attach. This causes an issue with raincovers as the raincover really needs a hood to attach onto. We had issues sourcing a raincover, and in the end used a Graco Universal raincover for the front seat and a B-Dual raincover when in tandem mode. We did eventually get a raincover, but never used it.

Both children wore helmets when the Taga was in tricycle mode, but not in pushchair mode. The baby was around 12 months old when he went on the Taga. He did have a safety helmet but we did find that it pushed his head forwards. When riding we used a neck support for him to keep his chin up, and removed his helmet asap after the journey. When the baby was in the second seat, it was easy to keep an eye on him as he was very close and to adjust his head or support if necessary. As you can see our eldest (rising 3 years old) had loads of room in the seat unit and had plenty of leg length. However the hood came down fairly low on her.

There were disc brakes on the Taga but also a parking brake.

We didn’t realise for ages that the Taga comes with a lump of metal in the base of the basket which is meant to help you practise with a load on board before trying it out with a child on board! The bike felt considerably lighter once this got removed!

All round Mr BB loved the Taga. In fact the Taga did what we hoped it would, and it got us all onto bikes and enjoying the sunshine and the beach (which is just too far to walk, but on the bike it is a quick run). Mr BB bought me a bike for my birthday because I was feeling rather left out and we all had some lovely family bike rides on summer evenings and weekends.

By the end of the summer Mr BB really had the cycling bug and after much discussion he bought an electric bike and a Croozer trailer, and is now, the weather is a little warmer, about to start taking our eldest on the several mile journey to nursery before work each morning. I am still not happy about the children being in a trailer, but the school run is mainly along a cycle path and the roads are extremely quiet. But last summer I enjoying pulling the children along the cycle path to the sea front and I can’t wait to do it again this summer.

But the Taga is missed and we would highly recommend it!