baby jogger city select 2 June 2013 at 11:48PM in MoneySaving mums 5 replies 2.4K views

sugarplum10

I am due baby no 6 in 8 weeks and really need a double pram as DS is just 18 months, he hates being in the pram anyways but hates it even more if he is not parent facing. Where i live the paths are quite narrow so i cant get a side by side unless i want to be walking on te road so I was thinking of getting (second hand) the baby jogger city select.
anyone got this pram/ know if its good etc, the reviews online rave about it but say it is quite heavy- i thing weight is gona be a prob with any double pram as it need to hold 2 kids. LOL
Thanks:p

dizziblonde

Have a look on the bestbuggy website for reviews and photos of different ones - might be something out there you haven't considered as a possibility to be honest.

We tried it out (I have an 11 month age gap but a very large 1 year old - 98th centile for height and weight, more like a 2 year old size) but what put me off it, and what I gather becomes a problem fairly quickly, is how front-heavy it is even unloaded (I know you can seat the children to redress this a bit but this was with no kids in whatsoever) - I could see it pulling on sloped pavements and being a nightmare to get up/down kerbs fairly rapidly.

I had a B-dual for a while - could have the baby in the soft carrycot on the bottom (you don't even need the soft cot - it's fully lie-flat and almost like a nest down there anyway) and the older one parent facing if you were prepared to have a little bit of annoyance getting the little one in (I used to just unhook the top seat to load the baby and then clip it back on) - but the fact it was slightly too wide to get through our door comfortably (we have a very narrow back door) annoyed me and I'm selling it on.

Currently have the ubiquitous Phil and Teds that I picked up cheap as chips second-hand. Fantastic for a newborn + toddler combo (my eldest loves the fact that set like that the seat is really high up so she can wave at all the cars and press things like lift buttons), pretty dire when the baby hits the point of being too long for the cocoon part comfortably (we're just about managing with an almost-3 month old on the 98th centile for height - I don't do short babies apparently - but it's not going to be long that we can continue to use it comfortably), and then good again when you've got two big enough to use the seats - especially if you've got an older kid wanting to walk for stretches.

What about (you'd have to buy it new though since they're not around second hand yet) the Oyster Max? Or keep an eye for a flood of iCandys hitting the 2nd hand market since there's a new apple2pear one coming out

sugarplum10

dizziblonde wrote: »

Have a look on the bestbuggy website for reviews and photos of different ones - might be something out there you haven't considered as a possibility to be honest.

We tried it out (I have an 11 month age gap but a very large 1 year old - 98th centile for height and weight, more like a 2 year old size) but what put me off it, and what I gather becomes a problem fairly quickly, is how front-heavy it is even unloaded (I know you can seat the children to redress this a bit but this was with no kids in whatsoever) - I could see it pulling on sloped pavements and being a nightmare to get up/down kerbs fairly rapidly.

I had a B-dual for a while - could have the baby in the soft carrycot on the bottom (you don't even need the soft cot - it's fully lie-flat and almost like a nest down there anyway) and the older one parent facing if you were prepared to have a little bit of annoyance getting the little one in (I used to just unhook the top seat to load the baby and then clip it back on) - but the fact it was slightly too wide to get through our door comfortably (we have a very narrow back door) annoyed me and I'm selling it on.

Currently have the ubiquitous Phil and Teds that I picked up cheap as chips second-hand. Fantastic for a newborn + toddler combo (my eldest loves the fact that set like that the seat is really high up so she can wave at all the cars and press things like lift buttons), pretty dire when the baby hits the point of being too long for the cocoon part comfortably (we're just about managing with an almost-3 month old on the 98th centile for height - I don't do short babies apparently - but it's not going to be long that we can continue to use it comfortably), and then good again when you've got two big enough to use the seats - especially if you've got an older kid wanting to walk for stretches.

What about (you'd have to buy it new though since they're not around second hand yet) the Oyster Max? Or keep an eye for a flood of iCandys hitting the 2nd hand market since there's a new apple2pear one coming out

thanks for this, I have borrowed a phil and ted vibe to try out from a friend but my son is too long for the seat. when baby is in the underneath cocoon he cant sit back as his head is over the top (of the smaller clip on seat) also we tried it with him in the back and he screamed his head off. shame really as they are going cheaqp on ebay at the moment. Im going to our local pram shop this week to try out the b dual and another few to see what works for us then ill look on ebay for a second hand one of whatever we decide.
thanks for the reply, i didnt even consider how heavy it would be to get u kerbs etc.
food for thought. thankyou:cool:

dizziblonde

You really have to try them out as the handling on doubles is so different from singles (take a fully heavy bag with you as well if you go trying things out) - it's not just the sheer size of 'em - it's how they handle with assorted permutations of kids in them, and it very much seems that what's amazing for the newborn stage might be awful for two toddlers, so some of the best advice I got given was to look at them as almost "rentals" and buy second-hand and sell on if your needs change as time goes on. At the moment the P+T is working really well for us but I have a freak of a child who sleeps better sat UP in a pushchair than reclining! I miss the hoods on my b-dual though (it's not sold in the second-hand shop listing it for me yet and I'm tempted to get it back and "accidentally" forget to put it on gumtree for a few months) cos they have these really long hoods you can unzip and pull almost completely over the child with a mesh panel in the middle and they're amazing for getting a kid to go to sleep (think Zippy from Rainbow is the best way to describe it) - but it was a prime example of buying something and then your circumstances changing... bought it, then hubby got promoted meaning I didn't have car use at ALL during the weekdays, and the local bus route went bust so I had a killer hill to push it up every single time I went anywhere - the sheer weight of it was giving me awful shoulder and wrist pain as a result... shame cos I bloody loved it in terms of versatility for how doubles are set up.

Don't disregard side-by-sides though - some of the narrower ones aren't much bigger at all than a tandem like the width of the b-dual... our local shops are terribly dated in terms of design and accessibility and I can get a cheapo second hand Cosatto I keep in the car for abusing walking the dogs through no problems. I also increasingly use a smart trike+sling combination while the weather's nice.

Gallen_Patris

sugarplum10 wrote: »

thanks for this, I have borrowed a phil and ted vibe to try out from a friend but my son is too long for the seat. when baby is in the underneath cocoon he cant sit back as his head is over the top (of the smaller clip on seat) also we tried it with him in the back and he screamed his head off. shame really as they are going cheaqp on ebay at the moment. Im going to our local pram shop this week to try out the b dual and another few to see what works for us then ill look on ebay for a second hand one of whatever we decide.
thanks for the reply, i didnt even consider how heavy it would be to get u kerbs etc.
food for thought. thankyou:cool:

As I see the post as it is really helpful for me also that you have a really nice things to have in.

Krystaltips

I had the Baby Jogger city select and can only say good things about it. My baby was 11lb 4oz born and still fitted in the carrycot for 4 months. I used to put the carrycot on the lower position at the front and have my toddler at the back facing forward, I found that the best of both worlds for being able to see them (and it meant that the toddler wasn't staring at the back of the carrycot when she was seated in)

Yes it is quite heavy but this didn't make it harder to handle. You get into a rhythm with it getting up and down kerbs. Sometimes putting your foot on the back wheel makes it easier to flip the front up. Having the brake on the handle is great as well and it's a really firm brake too, it doesn't slip at all even with a fully loaded pram on a steep incline travelator.

They also hold their value well too. I bought mine second hand and sold it on again a year later for exactly the same price