# Just Ordered an ibert



## ShreddedMeat (Oct 24, 2007)

I'm excited to get my son out there with me...I normally ride a lot of single track but with him I'll be sticking to nice easy bike paths...woohoo! Can't wait to get out there with him on Sunday...


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## traffic002 (Dec 16, 2008)

I've had an ibert seat for several months now. Pretty cool seat. My only downside is that I had to get a new stem with a high rise to clear my daughters legs/feet. Which subsequently caused me to get new brake cables that are longer. Maybe you don't have to is you have a riser bar.

But otherwise it's a lot of fun to go riding with the fam. My daughter loves it. I get to talk to her and enjoy going over "bump, bump" on rolled curbs and such. The front suspension allows for a pretty plush ride.

But yeah, gotta just stick to easy walking trails.

One thing I find useless is the harness. It's a pain to fasten and remove. The bar helps keep her in place. And I figure if we really do need the harness, then we've got bigger problems.


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## ShreddedMeat (Oct 24, 2007)

That's weird about the harness...

I hope I don't have to get a new stem...we'll see though...my son does have really fat legs...hahaha!

I'm pretty stoked...my dad is going to join us on sunday...3 generations out riding...woohoo!


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## ShreddedMeat (Oct 24, 2007)

Just got it installed!

I took it for a quick test ride sans child and it seems like it will be pretty comfortable. I had to scoot my seat back just a bit but overall pretty good...Only thing that sucks is I mounted my bike computer on the stem so I won't be able to see it anymore...


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## ShreddedMeat (Oct 24, 2007)

We'll be going on a ride on Sunday so I'll post up a full review after that.


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## Kasper (Feb 23, 2004)

ShreddedMeat said:


> Only thing that sucks is I mounted my bike computer on the stem so I won't be able to see it anymore...


 Don't worry! You got a co-pilot now to give you readings


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## ShreddedMeat (Oct 24, 2007)

Well Kaper called it!

I took my son for a quick spin around the block and he spent the entire time looking down playing with the buttons on the bike computer...hahahaha...the plus side is we couldn't get him out of it once I was back at the house...it seems he likes it...


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## adept1 (Jul 25, 2008)

I had one for a while.

I didn't really like it for these reasons:

Even though I run riser bars, the fit was very tight. Had to take off my daughter's shoes to get in/out.
The spike that attaches to the stem should be made of something lighter and rustproof like aluminium or titanium, and it should be easier to remove/install. Given the weight/size limit of the seat and the price of the thing, the spike doesn't need to be made of crappy iron with that horrible finish
Even though I'm running a set-back seat post, my knees would still scrape it quite easily (and I'm only 5'8")
This part is my fault, but I didn't realize how quickly my daughter would outgrow it. Within a few months of purchase I could not really use it any more.


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## ShreddedMeat (Oct 24, 2007)

My knees were hitting a little bit until I moved my seat back a little. I put him in it for a spin around the block and he seemed to fit pretty well wasn't too snug at all and his legs slid right into the legs of the seat. 

Granted this is after a 5 minute ride...we'll see if I/he still likes it after the ride on Sunday.


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## ShreddedMeat (Oct 24, 2007)

We did about 20 miles on sunday on a paved bike path along the Green River and it went great. I did notice that I had to spread my legs ever so slightly to avoid hitting my knees on the rim of the iBert. I fatigued pretty quick since this made me use slightly different muscles. My son loved the seat and had a blast. I can't wait to get out and use it again.

Oh and the harness is pretty worthless.


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## jcholpuch (Oct 14, 2008)

*Age for iBert*

How old is your child?
What is a good age/size/weight to start a child in the iBert seat?


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## redwarrior (Apr 12, 2007)

Awesome! I had one of these for my son when he was younger, he loved it. We've now graduated to a trail a bike which is more trail worthy.


Red


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## Eric Z (Sep 28, 2008)

very cool! i haven't seen one like this before- i like how the child see exactly what's going on; probably like being in the front car of a roller coaster! i've been using a trailer for my little guy. enjoy!! as you've probably experienced, bringing your little one on rides is very rewarding!


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## bestromann (Jul 16, 2009)

Nice modify!!


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## cannondalejohn (Jul 4, 2009)

*cool*

wow...that looks pretty neat..

p.s

yr son looks very cute.i can't wait to have a son as well


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## swivel_dick (Jun 4, 2009)

...so, you've had it for almost a year now - whadda ya REALLY think of the iBert? I am seriously thinking of snagging one...


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## Broccoli (Jun 11, 2008)

swivel_dick said:


> ...so, you've had it for almost a year now - whadda ya REALLY think of the iBert? I am seriously thinking of snagging one...


I have it for a year now - and yes, snag one. My son absolutely loves it.


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## bryanus (Jun 1, 2008)

I just got one and tried it out with my 10.5 month old on Saturday. He's about 20lbs and 30-inches tall. I fit the iBert to a Medium Specialized Globe Centrum singlespeed. I bought the iBert based on reviews at Amazon saying that it wouldn't hit my knees.

Installation was easy, but you need about 3/4-inch of steer tube exposed for the bar to attach to. I had just enough. I found that regardless of how tight I clamped the bolts down, the bar is easily moved off center with a little push. During our ride, the seat moved about an inch to the side. It didn't affect the ride, but looked weird to me mostly.

The reviews on Amazon are pretty ecstatic. But as a former mechanic, I found the mechanism just "so-so" in terms of stability and design. The thing wobbles once the seat is attached; the interface between the support bar and the seat itself isn't very tight, so there is quite a bit of play, but I don't think it's really noticeable once the child is on the seat.

Since the seat is attached to your steer tube, it does add a little weight to the steering of the bike. 

While riding, my knees did hit the sides of the seat, but because the plastic is very smooth, they just slid by and it wasn't very noticeable to me. My wife said I looked funny pedaling, though, so I must have been splaying my knees outward.

The main issue I had was that there is not enough clearance between the back of the seat and my saddle's nose. I could barely squeeze between the two (and I'm considered "thin"). Squeezing in between is necessary to get started peddling on the bike and it's a little tricky. I've just ordered a seatpost with a little more setback to see if that gives me another inch to play with. the other thing is that you can't get out of the saddle to climb; you will hit the back of his head and seat.

The seat itself is just a hunk of plastic. Not much to say about it. He had no issues fitting into it, but the straps aren't exactly securing; they were pretty loose no mater how I adjusted them. On the way back from our 14-mile total ride I looked down and his head was all flopped over! He fell asleep! I felt bad for him to have his neck like that and wondered if I should have bought the Kangaroo seat instead which has a built-in rest.

I don't know if there really is a "perfect" seat out there that solves the knee and clearance issues as well as provides a safe and secure ride for the child, but for now the iBert seems just about as good as any of the other options.


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## Broccoli (Jun 11, 2008)

ShreddedMeat said:


> Oh and the harness is pretty worthless.


Did you order the new, improved one? Just a few bucks - big improvement with a center buckle.

http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=571088


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## CrazyAirborne (Jun 16, 2010)

Im patiently waiting for my iBert to get here, I hope it works well for me and my about to turn 2 daughter, She loves bicycles tho so this is going to be great


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## byknuts (Aug 9, 2008)

better to resurrect this thread than dignify the "darwin awards" one...


beach days with the new ibert, works perfectly, swaps between bikes easily enough, stable and well-angled so it doesn't introduce crash fears during minor drops and quick enough to almost catch seagulls!  
as mentioned- only issue is head bobble when they fall asleep. easily remedied with a bit of "papa-participation"


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## Broccoli (Jun 11, 2008)

byknuts said:


> as mentioned- only issue is head bobble when they fall asleep. easily remedied with a bit of "papa-participation"


One thing that helped quite a bit with handling - I put on one of those origin8 spacebar (similar to on one mary etc) - radically bent. Add a lot of leg clearance and allows me to crank uphill (I use it on a singlespeed), Little dude loves it when I ride on large dirt bumps - at Shoreline/Baylands


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## portere (Aug 27, 2010)

amazing,you are a nice guy,I have never thought of this seat for kids.besides,it is an exciting thing for your baby


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## R+P+K (Oct 28, 2009)

The iBert is a really good seat.

The only problem we have now is that our daughter has outgrown it so I can't go riding with her anymore which means I don't go riding as much :-(


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## jewels (Mar 17, 2004)

*ibert*

bump of an old thread. Picked up an I-bert and installed it this week for a short test ride. My 10month old (20 lbs) fits good in it. Here's my take:

Pros:
Easy to install
He's comfortable in it, feels stable while riding
Able to purchase accessories/spare parts cheaply and easily online
He likes it!!

cons:
Really tight to squeeze in between seat and Ibert. 
(Installed on a 16" bike and put a setback seatpost and pushed the shortest nosed seat we have all the way back on the rails and it's still a *very* tight fit. A larger/longer TT bike would work better.)

Installed a longer stem to try to get I-Bert seat pushed forward. (Was 50mm, now 90mm)

As mentioned by others, you need to get on a curb to get started or just ride with your seat low. Or maybe a gravity dropper?

Overall: so far so good for neighborhood rides, not sure if mtn bike trails is a good idea on it. We have a Burley trailer also, so it'll be interesting to see which we prefer. So far, neither has hit the trails. But I think the Burley is great, but I think the babe enjoys the I-bert more. so it gets a :thumbsup:


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## XJaredX (Apr 17, 2006)

^
I really don't care so much about the adult, but the baby, even for just a 1 minute "tooling around the street for photo op" session, needs to have a freaking helmet on. Sigh. **** happens when you least expect, and that skull is so very delicate at that age. 

P.S., I am not normally one to tell others how to parent. I'm about to buy either an iBert or a Wee-Ride so I'm also not like the d-bag that started that Darwin awards thread.


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## jewels (Mar 17, 2004)

post edited


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## Koppuh Klyde (Jul 13, 2010)

I see what you did there. :nono:


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## jewels (Mar 17, 2004)

hey, I just wanted to post a short review. I removed the pix so he and others wouldn't get upset. (not to hide the fact that I didn't have a helmet on my son). I leave the photo on, I piss someone off. I take it off, I piss another person off. Reminds me of an old pregnancy post, where others lectured to-be-mothers on what they deemed safe and unsafe exercise during their pregnancy. Yes, it was a 1 minute ride up and down my empty street. Nevermind, no need to justify anything... end of story.


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## Koppuh Klyde (Jul 13, 2010)

LOLs. Funny thing was it took me a few minutes. I looked up and down for the pic that wasnt there. Dont worry about it too much. Its just the interwebz. 

Now off to find this Darwin thread.


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## judgemint (Oct 11, 2011)

Looks Great!


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## PghYinzer (Sep 28, 2011)

Saw one at REI the other day for $40 but husband gave me the "How many ways do you need to have to carry the kids?" speech... A friend is giving us a rear mounted seat. I am so intrigued by the ibert but I am also short and have a small frame bike and I just can't fathom as I am riding how on earth it could fit in there...


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## sf1973 (Oct 8, 2011)

I'm happy with mine. My daughter is 2 1/2 and fits fine. Other than not being able to stand and pedal uphill its great. 

And I think the helmet thing is hillarious. I feel like a hypocrite being so into helmets for my kids, when I never wore one, I still have to remind myself to put mine on nowadays. I guess my childhood was spent doing stupid things that I pray my kids will never even think about.


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## Broccoli (Jun 11, 2008)

PghYinzer said:


> Saw one at REI the other day for $40 but husband gave me the "How many ways do you need to have to carry the kids?" speech... A friend is giving us a rear mounted seat. I am so intrigued by the ibert but I am also short and have a small frame bike and I just can't fathom as I am riding how on earth it could fit in there...


Rear seat sucks.

Get an iBert.


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## backcountryeti (May 21, 2004)

My daughter and I have run the life of the iBert, just wrote a review of it not too long ago on my blog: Shameless plug...
In short, its a great seat. Buy one if you have kids. It also holds a sixer of beer quite nice if you are out without the kiddo.


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## lchrzan31 (Dec 19, 2011)

*what do I need to change to make iBert work for us?*

We just purchased an iBert. My son's helmet hits my chest when I'm riding. He's only 32" tall and I'm 6'. I have an older hybrid mountain bike. So which of the following do I need to do to make it work?

1) Buy a new seat with more setback
2) Buy a new stem
3) Buy different handlebars (beach cruiser?!)
4) Buy a new bike (I think mine may be undersized for me anyway...)


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## Broccoli (Jun 11, 2008)

lchrzan31 said:


> We just purchased an iBert. My son's helmet hits my chest when I'm riding. He's only 32" tall and I'm 6'. I have an older hybrid mountain bike. So which of the following do I need to do to make it work?
> 
> 1) Buy a new seat with more setback
> 2) Buy a new stem
> ...


Hard to guess if you have any vertical adjustment space for the mount.

I have improved on clearance by using Origin8 spacebar - that curvy looking thing. (On One Mary is another model like that, also Ragley Carnegie with 25 deg backsweep). With shorter stem, it gave enough clearance for child's legs, but moved me back a bit, with a more comfortable arm position. I also moved my saddle back, and lowered it a bit, so I was sitting a bit more upright.

And I also changed frame, or rather assembled a new bike. So I did all four items on your list. 

_P.S. BTW, too lazy to make a classified post, but $20 and shipping gets you my used iBert. We grew out of it. It is well used, but I would think it will serve another kid or two just fine. PM._


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## chriSto72 (Jan 8, 2012)

I've been looking for a front child carrier as well. this was helpfull. thanks


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