Myself and the other half both ride full-sussers, or rather we did until the joys of parenthood arrived... on a recent hol we hired a pair of "hybrid" (seems to mean bleedin orrible) bikes with a child seat and the nipper loved it, so I want to get a cheap but not nasty bike... I think it'd have to be a MTB frame with MTB tyre clearance as those hybrid tyres don't look like much use for off-tarmac riding, also I got numb hands from riding a bike with no front suspension. Our current bikes are Orange and Marin so don't really want to step down to cheap but overpriced Halfords/Raleigh shop stuff, a mass-produced Marin or Kona hardtail would be ideal, but with current finances I guess it would either have to be heavily discounted, 2nd hand, or a frame for DIY build.
The trouble for me is knowing which models have got fixing points on their seat stays to take the luggage/pannier carrier necessary for the child seat. A lot of MTBs seem to do without them, and its not the sort of thing mentioned in specs and its hard to tell from most online photos.
So... I'm sure its an issue that faces many MTBers when they start a family.... any frame / bike recommendations please?
