considerably mor

After Edgar had been put down to sleep I fished out 11¼kg of weights, wrapped them up in cotton shopping bags, placed them in a rucksack, strapped the rucksack firmly into the child-seat (aided by discovering that the orange bit flips over like the retaining bar on a roller-coaster to provide something for the occupant to gnaw/rest their hands on), fitted the seat and went for a test bimble on a variety of gradients and surface qualities. It's doable and requires no more adjustment to cycling-method than carrying a fully-loaded 70l rucksack would require of walking-method, though as the CoG of the appended Edgar-equivalent mass was just behind the hub of the rear wheel it's perhaps handy that fitting the seat requires removal of anything else attached to the rack (into which further weight might be put), including the relatively discreet hook-bits of the spiffy newly-acquired Instographic bag-shaped (rather than restrictively briefcase-shaped) tent-smelling pannier which I took out for a test shop after I'd safely returned after a few miles of seat-balance checking. I'll have to give it a try on some steeper hills at some point; though I already avoid unnecessary bike-wiggling when climbing the slightest side-side rotation makes it very noticeable that the extra weight's centre of gravity is quite high up and quite a long way from the bits of the bike I have to grip to try and correct the rotation with. Fortunately the nursery is close enough to make it highly impractical to consider using the seat to transport the wingpiglet there on a daily basis as it could be walked to by the time he was strapped in and generally attached. The main use will be for leisure and general airing, particularly at weekends to free him from the confines of the relatively small area accessible at foot-speeds (and then only the slightly slower speeds available when toting a pram, papoose or backpack). I'll definitely try and speed up my putative restoration of my old frame (created before anyone had invented compact geometry) which should allow slightly more even weight distribution as well as fatter tyres (to avoid too-rapid wear of the rear tyre and the increased risk of puncturing from the increased load and contact area). It might possibly even have eyelets on the front fork for concurrent transportation of child and stuff.