****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
I wanted the sturdiest, no-compromise bike seat on the market, and this has lived up to it's expectations. I love this thing and I will tell you why, but first there are a few caveats. #1 - If you want to install this yourself, you need to be comfortable playing with headset spacers and re-securing the headset. This includes, loosening all the bolts, removing the stem, swapping out existing spacers for the MacRide version, replacing the stem, straightening the bars perpendicular to the wheel travel and finally tightening the headset screw (typically by bearing feel) and torqueing the stem bolts. The rest of the install is trivial. #2 - You want to have basic bike riding skills down, before you take your little one trail riding. A slow speed fall here and there is not a big deal (you cradle them in your arms, and don't react :D), but riding over bridges, bumps, rocks, roots, etc. with extra weight on the front is a different experience than normal riding, and takes some getting used to. Obviously this isn't as big a deal on smooth bike paths.The first time I put my son (he was 22 months) on the seat and rolled down our driveway, he squealed with happiness. I did too! While we love our Chariot bike trailer, this improves on it in a few different ways. #1 - you can actually converse with your kid. This improves the experience as you're not yelling back and forth to/from the trailer. #2 - You don't need to take wide lines and watch how the trailer is reacting to bumps. #3 - With a full suspension bike they aren't getting jostled around, same as you. What was borderline impossible with a Trailer is now fully possible on the MacRide. I once took the Chariot on the mildest set of trails we have around here. It was not fun. My son was getting bumped around wayyyy to much, even at 1-3mph. With the MacRide, we hit flow trails at a regular pace.Then we stop for snacks. You see snacks and MacRide go together like peanut butter and jelly. This is parenting 101, but if you have a younger child, snacks will convert a 20 min trail ride into a 45 min trail ride. And keep them asking for "more bike", "more bike". When you're hangry, you don't want to do anything except eat, am I right?Pricewise, this is honestly money well spent. Times where my trail bike would have been sitting in the garage staring at me longingly, are now times that my son and I can get out on the bike. I waited a year to buy this thing, and sort of wish I hadn't, but at the same time my son wasn't quite big enough. But now that I have it, riding it gives mom a break, it gives me a break, it gets me and my son outside, together, doing something I love, and hopefully something he will love (he already does). It even got him to ride his strider, after being deathly afraid of it all summer. As soon as he got a sense of how the bars operate the front wheel, he wanted to hop on his strider. While he doesn't sit on it very well he likes to walk with it and steer it. All it takes. You can spend thousands of dollars on bike stuff, it's a deep rabbit hole. But this is a one time investment, and we will use it for years to come.The mount itself takes 30 seconds to attach to my bike, and is very secure (attach the swinging headset latch to the special headset spacer, screw it on by hand, then attach the seat tube grip, again by hand). Once it's on, there's no rotating, twisting, whatever. It's solid. My **one** complaint is that with a low seat-tube height (like on my Process 134) I have to attach the back grip to my dropper post housing. Even with that, the angle of the seat is aiming up a little higher than I'd like, it's not sitting flat. While I could extend my post further up, I can only go so high with my inseam, and the higher the grip is on the post, the more it affects the dropper post return function. The dropper is REALLY nice to ride with when using the MacRide for stops and mounts/dismounts. If there was a way to angle the back of MacRide seat up from the beam, that would help. That being said, it's a minor issue, and really my only compaint.On a logistical note, I emailed MacRide directly after my purchase because my ship date varied wildly (2-28 business days!). They promptly replied that they shipped every day and it was a glitch. I also ordered the minigrips (essential IMO in cold weather) and was billed separately for shipping on that, but they refunded the shipping cost since they had a kit with the MacRide + Grips. They are happy to answer any questions.All in all quite pleased, and it has changed my riding life again for the better. I wasn't getting out riding enough and getting depressed. Now we are all smiles and loving the MacRide! More bike! For anyone and everyone! See my Instagram @iduckett for more pictures.
