The buggy question, till we - Christina Cherry

Zora’s siblings will soon be born, and that is where the pram question arises for us.

At Zora it was clear to us – for reasons of space alone – that the sling and the bike trailer, which could be used as a stroller if necessary, had to be sufficient (although such a Burley does not really fit well in a tram). Half a year later the smallest no-name buggy was added. So far we have managed to make ends meet with this combination.

For child no. 2 it should now be a stroller. Because of the wear and because we now have a little more space. And because there are just two children who may have to be transported somehow.

For us, this raises the question of purchase criteria for this market, which in terms of model diversity and image orientation, almost approaches the automotive world. Or, we have some criteria. The real problem is whether there is a stroller that actually complies with them. So far, it doesn’t look that way.

What should the pram do? We don’t have a car, but we do a lot of traveling by train and public transport. So it has to be portable in local transport, so it has to be small, and ideally it should also be easy to fold up. That means: suitability for the city is important – but there should also be the possibility to push the pram easily and comfortably on the forest path to Zora’s kindergarten (and on the cobblestones that are omnipresent in Freiburg). Oh yes: we live on the first floor – and parking space is more in the basement than on the ground floor. So it also has to be light (and still robust – where are the great nanomaterials?).

Then it must be usable by people of different sizes. And it should also be suitable for a newborn – but also long afterwards. Most chic three-wheeled pushchairs are more likely to fail for newborns because the insert tubs are not quite the real deal. Or?

Finally: space for shopping and the possibility of attaching a hanging board for Zora would not be bad either. (Oh yes: he can be eco too ;-)).

The stroller prices are probably more oriented to the automobile market – a lot is too expensive for us. After all, there are also used prams. It seems all the more important to me to collect experience reports beforehand. Therefore my request to all who can say something: speak up! We are grateful for recommendations, experience reports and tips.

Why am I blogging this? Let’s see if crowdsourcing is helpful in such a case.

21 comments on The stroller question

So … As already tweeted, it is probably not possible to combine all the criteria in one vehicle. Since costs (for me mostly) are an exclusion criterion, bugaboos are probably out of the question, which (although I lack my own experience) are quite good, chic, narrow and robust. But expensive.

So far we have driven well with not very small strollers. Large wheels are important for off-road suitability, and the newer models are often quite light and agile. The handles or the handlebars should be adjustable in height, clear, and I would also recommend a four-wheel model with a proper (removable) carrying bag in which the child can lie flat.

The best thing to do is compare a few types to choose a model that is not too wide – maybe measure it for orientation to see how wide the aisles in the trains are. The large strollers usually don’t fit through there.

The robust models also have the advantage that you can attach a buggy board, which is a great luck with two children. (And highly recommended.)

In general: go shopping and take a close look at the individual models, fold them up, lift them up, etc. Unfortunately, I cannot suggest specific types or companies; our first was old when we got it (and too heavy and stiff), our second would only be a conditional recommendation.

My two cents. I wish you success!

I’m happy to help with crowdsourcing. a hobbyhorse of mine.

We use for our two sons a used pram from Teutonia. Overall, the fifth child is already using the car and it is still usable. So quality is pretty good. The following Teutonia Primus should roughly correspond to ours – ebay

Otherwise I can completely agree with rrho. Not too small strollers, preferably with larger pneumatic tires, are an advantage. Especially for stairs, sidewalk edges and when getting on and off the bus and (suspended) train. Larger tires are also more suitable for forest trails. The car is only folded when it has to go into the car or to save space in the basement. We also use a buggy board and there is enough space for shopping in the car.

Oh, by the way, my wife’s dream model is the HESBA CONDOR coupé, but it really costs a lot.
http://www.hesba-kinderwagenfabrik.com/data/hesba.php?seite=h3

Good luck with your selection.

Greetings from Wuppertal
Markus

We had (until 6 years ago) a simple, used Teutonia stroller. Similar to the one described by Markus, but with solid rubber wheels and without a height-adjustable handle. Lezteres was the only real deficit in our cart.

Almost all models in circulation have height-adjustable handles, now I would only make sure that the handle extends far enough beyond the rear axle. So far that even on steep downhill driving you don’t kick your feet against the axle (handlebars vertical, car inclined, clearly?). Also good, because then there is enough space for the passenger / passageuse on the trailer board between the pusher and the car insert.

Finally, a basic point: Despite some ergonomic advantages, we found luxury terrain design sports boxes to be disproportionate also with regard to the short useful life: at the end of the first year of life, we reconfigured the stroller to the back carrier and buggy.

we drove very well with the skater from Hartan (http://www.hartan.de.

Has cut a good figure both in city traffic (ÖPNV) and in the fields, forests and meadows. In addition, the vehicle can be made very small and works with a baby seat and as a buggy. The trolley has a spacious shelf under the seat and a large net between the handles; stowing away weekend shopping was never a problem.

Furthermore, the quality of workmanship should be emphasized: we had inherited the part from relatives who had already transported two children with it. Now that our son is standing on his own two feet, we have given the piece away again. Everything is still tippitoppi.

However, we had the previous model and not the one currently presented on the Hartan website.

Greetings from GuFi,
Marks

We are in a similar situation right now. My wife dreams of a buggaboo, http://www.bugaboo.com/, which is quite expensive and is probably not very off-road. With our first child we had a cheap car from ABC-Design, unfortunately it is quite heavy and there were always problems with the pneumatic tires. I wouldn’t do without pneumatic tires if you spend a lot of time in the forest. Four wheels will certainly do better and are more stable.

Keep us up to date, I am also interested in the choice.

I find the feedback quite helpful. To add a few comments that I got on other ways (Twitter etc.):

1. "I’m looking forward to the decision" – we are probably not the only ones who are faced with this question.

3. »we have: urban jungle from one tree hill. relatively large, but comfortable, all-terrain. great part. do not buy: easy walker «

4. »we recommend the bugaboo: it is flexible, cool, off-road guaranteed with winter wheels. but at a higher pharmacy price… «

Interesting note that the bugaboo should be off-road. It has a very good resale value and is available in large quantities on ebay at slightly more affordable prices.

@Andy: seems to depend on the tires if I understand the comment correctly.

»In fact we had the hartan vip for baby purposes, it was great. large bowl, look at child, not so expensive «

Congratulations on Gerburt.

Last weekend we also bought a stroller. This is used by one of the countless baby flea markets. In our region in March / April and Sep / Oct, almost every community has such flea markets. You can buy everything at reasonable prices, often in very good quality.

Hi Till,
we drive well with a Knokin car bought from the first child together, who has already driven the niece and is now doing his job with child No. 2. We like it more classic, and it should be eco. There are also on Ebay, there are also accessories such as rain protection, etc..
greeting
Jörg

Hello Jörg, thanks for the hint. Knokin does not seem to be produced anymore, the Naturkind carriages given as substitutes on the linked page are not quite convincing to me yet.

Thanks everyone again for the tips. We then bought a car today: the shortlist included four-wheel cars with smaller swivel wheels and larger wheels: one from Emmaljunga, Hartan VIP, Hartan RS or so and Teutonia Mistral S..

In the end, it became the latter – on the one hand for very pragmatic reasons (it was a little cheaper because of the previous year’s design, it could be taken directly), but above all because it was the one from which a kiddie board could be attached directly. Compared to the others mentioned, the Mistral S is a little bit heavier (but still much better than any classic stroller). The Hartan VIP disturbed the rather deep-lying child, we found the Emmaljunga cars to be chic and easy-going, but for the pragmatic reasons mentioned, they weren’t exactly the truth. Overall, the push bars on some strollers could be longer / higher.

The noble bodies of the Bugaboo variant were of course a little lighter, but somehow not exactly the right one for us We also looked at the Hesba Condor mentioned above and a few comparable chrome penny-farthing models. First of all, they weren’t for our wallet – and secondly, with the rigid wheels in terms of driving characteristics, they seemed rather impractical.

Let’s see, maybe I’ll write in a few weeks Another "test report" – Rasmus got on well with the car the second time he went in there.

I’m curious to see how he does it.
The Bugaboo convinced me, if only because of the weight.
And the only one that is also simply designed. In terms of price, they somehow do not take each other enough that I wanted to neglect beautiful AND practical criteria.

Well, it wasn’t worth the 200-250 euros surcharge for a Bugaboo for a bit fancier design and felt two kilos less weight compared to the 2008 Teutonial Mistral (495 €). But may also be due to the status of "academic precariat"

Ok, that may be true. But in some review I read the great sentence that the Bugaboo "even convinced fathers" … which is really true in my case.

Because I can’t grasp all the other criteria anyway … Off-road capability etc. …

BTW – this would now be a good blog post for Google Ads

Well, it seems that it is mainly fathers who are intensively discussing strollers, at least according to the participation in this post.

If I go more often posts like this one in my blog, I would actually use Google Ads or similar. think – I once had context-sensitive Amazon ads inside, but mostly they only displayed crap instead of suitable recommendations, and even where, not very often clicked on. In this respect, I have left it again and see this as a "hobby" and not as a "way to earn money". Gives you freedom.

Very interesting article. I am looking for pages with more information about prams, you have tips?

A current test by the Stiftung Warentest seems to confirm our selection (however, the Mistral, as one of the three best strollers in the test, was only "satisfactory"!).

BTW: Our Teutonia Mistral is also doing quite well in the practical test – he has so far taken a holiday in Italy with a long train journey with changes and a variety of trains etc. as well as city traffic and forest paths (find swivel wheels if in doubt). I still find the high maneuverability positive (small turning circle thanks to swivel wheels), negative the quite high weight (and the lack of automatic sun shading adjustment ;-)).