Adventures on a Mountain Buggy UNIRIDER
Wendy Rumble
I’m going to assume you have no idea what on earth a Unirider is and take it from the top. Describing it is tricky, sort of like a wheel on a stick that you can push your kid on. Luckily, we live in a modern age so I can put us all out of our misery with a picture or two.
Whilst it’s very simple to put together, it took me about 20 mins as Austin enjoys playing games such as hide the screw, eat the bolt, and if in doubt, run off with it. It could be done in a matter of minutes without the help of any children, making it perfect for travelling and holidays – ha, sorry. I mean when you go away for a ‘change of scene’.
Obviously, when it first arrived we had the classic wrestling and fighting between the boys, which is always so fun #blessed. After a few falls, the one year old admitted defeat and realised life was way better in the buggy where he could eat snacks and sleep. With that established, I was keen to get out and see if the Unirider could handle the farm terrain. We live in the bottom of a valley, so not only do we have the standard countryside lumps, bumps and gravel, there’s also the small matter of climbing Everest every time you need to check the sheep/go to the park. With the exception of a near miss involving a fox hole (whether the blame lies with me, the driver, or Jake who leaned over to look down the hole, is still under discussion…), the Unirider fared surprisingly well. It proved particularly useful when we were in the throngs of lambing and Jake wanted to help but complained after walking more than 500 steps. Side note – it’s possible to clock up 30,000+ steps per day when lambing, so Jake’s effort of not quite 2% of this = quite a lot of frustration from all parties.
With the Unirider being a hit on the farm, we ventured into London over the Easter hols for a test run in the city; plus, I really wanted to go to Crosstown Doughnuts. I get really nervous about taking the children anywhere near a road so I was delighted to have them both contained. The Unirider doesn’t really take up much space so it was super easy to take on the train/ tube/ bus. It handily balances on the back of the buggy too, which was great as we had all hands available to entertain (pin down) the kids for the 40-minute train ride into town. We visited the National Army Museum, which has a toddler friendly pre-bookable soft play – great for the boys to let off steam. We didn’t manage to stay for the full hour as Austin was screaming blue murder every time another child touched the steering wheel of the army tank…..things got too awkward. After that, Jake happily sat on the Unirider for over an hour of walking across town and Austin slept in the buggy.
For those of you who don’t enjoy lots of words, here’s a short summary of my thoughts on the Unirider:
Wins:
- Easy to take apart / put together
- Drives well on a variety of terrain
- Your child has to balance, which is a great step towards riding a bike - not to mention good for their core strength
- Perfect for the in-between stage where you don’t need a buggy but your child can’t manage much walking
Keep in mind:
- You need two hands to steer, so you will need a backpack for the essentials
In even fewer words, would I recommend the Unirider? Absolutely!!
Enjoy adventuring!
Love, Mel x
P.S Mountain Buggy Unirider £79 CLICK here to buy.
