Disclaimer: Mac Ride sponsored the following video. I first bought the Mac Ride paying full retail price and have zero regrets! That said, I’m a veteran bike industry professional and am in the incredibly fortunate position to be receiving products for free (or heavily discounted).

“The Mac Ride, however, was purpose built for trails.”

My wife and I have experience with a few other child carriers, and while they all worked fine for the occasional ride through the park, they weren’t up to the task of actual trail riding. The Mac Ride, however, was purpose built for trails.

We learned about the Mac Ride from some friends here in Bellingham, and boy, are we glad we did! We use this thing almost daily. That’s because we are lucky enough to have singletrack between our home and work, and do all we can to commute on the trails. This includes bringing our kiddo to and from day care. Yes, we’re a lucky family.

“While there are inevitably a few things to be aware of, I really can’t think of any way the Mac Ride could be improved. It’s that good.”

The Mac Ride’s design keeps the child’s weight centered on the bike. This is the best way to carry the extra weight. You’ll notice that the bike has a more top heavy feel, but that’s unavoidable when carrying a 30lb kid on your bike. You’ll also notice that if you turn the bars more than about 45 degrees either way you’ll start to catch your kid’s leg between the top tube and handlebar, but that’s another concession we have to make if we want to go riding with our kids. Compared to the other available front or rear mounted solutions, I feel that this is the safest way to spend two-wheeled-family-time together.

Remember, bringing your kid along on the trail means you’re not going to have a rip-roaring ride. It means you’re going to be going downhill quite slow and safe, and doing your best to get some exercise on the climbs. Still, it’s never going to be a fully safe experience. The human body is designed to withstand impacts up to the speed of a fast sprint or run. For an adult, that’s about 20 mph. For a kid, that’s going to be a bit less. So while there are inevitably a few things to be aware of, I really can’t think of any way that the Mac Ride could be improved. It’s that good.

One of the best things about Mac Ride is that it’s SUPER easy to move from bike to bike, assuming each bike has the corresponding Mac Ride headset spacer (you can easily get these on the Mac Ride website). The Mac Ride only attaches to the bike in two places: at the seat post and the headset. The knurled 5mm bolt on the headset clamp of the Mac Ride will work with almost any multi tool, then the whole shebang swaps over immediately to any bike that also has one of the corresponding Mac Ride headset spacers installed. I think we have 9 or 10 of these spacers among our bike collection, and we swap the Mac Ride among our various bikes daily. This is a HUGE plus- if you ever want to ride without your kid, which I do all the time, then there’s nothing worse than having to spend substantial time in the shop removing carriers and the like just to hit that tasty, tacky singletrack.

In regards to e-biking with your kid, it’s awesome! The extra power of the ebike means that mom or dad isn’t totally huffing and puffing with the extra load. Remember, ebikes top out at 20mph, so while that’s a lot faster than a regular bike, it’s nothing crazy. It’s just fast enough to satisfy the tiny adrenaline junky that lives in all our kids. But perhaps my favorite feature of the heavy e-bike is that they balance the weight of the kid out quite nicely. I ride my non-electric bike a lot more with the Mac Ride, but that’s primarily due to local legalities. The ebike has a solid, planted feel with the kid abroad, and overall, does provide a more pleasant experience than the regular bike.

Have a look at the Mac Ride website here: https://mac-ride.com/

Thanks for the support, Mac Ride!!!