Stroller (the baby kind)

i've had a maclaren techno stroller for years. the bugaboo travel system is pretty good for a newborn.

i just got my partner an henrik vibskov stroller for my biz partner's coming baby. pretty cool, but style over function.

Originally Posted by Manton

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McClaren is the Range Rover of strollers.

that's it, that's what we had for the son. for the twins, we went with baby jogger

Three simple words: Urban Mountain Buggy. You need 2 to take advantage of the best features, and they don't break down for travel. But for local transport they are pretty good. A couple of years ago on the UWS a building collapsed on a nanny pushing her charge in an UMB. They credited the stroller w/ saving the kid's life!

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,162772,00.html

Stroller choice is pretty subjective.
Both my wife and I hated the "SUV stroller" with a passion - the big ones with the inflatable wheels, suspension, even disc brakes. They are very heavy, generally awkward to maneuvre, and mostly difficult to fold and unfold - to say nothing of having to lift them into the back of a car, in and out of a train, or on and off a bus.

Therefore, we went for a very lightweight stroller by Aprica.
I am not sure if it is a Japanese brand or not, but they are very popular in Japan.
It has performed excellently for both our kids, with no flaws or problems whatsoever.
It can be folded with one hand and lifted into the back of the car one-handed, opened with one hand, and it is very easy to pick up and carry if need be - it even came with a detachable carry strap so that you could fold it and sling it over your should or back.

Quinny by Henrik Vibskov http://www.quinnydesign.com/ I kind of want to buy some baby **** and save it till i knock some broad up just so my baby can ride around and wear some vibskov

I like the look of the traditional prams.

Originally Posted by lee_44106

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When it comes to babies, convenience trumps all forms of purported beauty.

One hand folding/unfolding mechansim- also very important

Its been a while since we've had need of a stroller, but even from distant memory, the need for one hand set-up and breakdown can't be stressed enough!

+1

They are expensive, but they are very well designed. I've got a 3 month old and we use the Bugaboo Frog with a car-seat adapter most of the time, it just snaps and go's. I got mine on craigslist for about 1/2 price. It does not fold up all that small, but with a Subaru wagon, it fits in back with plenty of room for groceries.

Originally Posted by grimslade

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Bah. Bugaboos are still the It strollers, and for good reason. They are sturdy, well-designed and a pleasure to push. I've never been impressed with McLarens.

The one knock against the bugaboo for your application is that it breaks down into two pieces, which makes it a little harder to stow and retrieve from the back of a car. Quinnys, which I believe are now available in the U.S., are one piece, can be folded and unfolded one-handed, and are pretty cool-looking to boot.

OTOH, if you are going to have an infant in a car seat, that's moot, since you will likely want a stroller that the car seat can attach to directly, and here the Bugaboo's design is actually an advantage because the right car seat will snap directly onto the bugaboo's frame without adjustment or modification.

I've had a Bugaboo for four years after going through at least six different strollers in the previous four years, and it's still going strong. Just make sure you get a compatible infant car seat.

Here's a mystery for the body: Why do Europeans, who don't have kids, nevertheless make all the best strollers?

Take a look at Quinny's products. They're extremely well designed but tend to be compatible mostly with their own products.

The Quinny Zapp is a stroller that folds into the most compact thing you've ever seen (check youtube for video demos). Sturdy aluminum frame, nice details. It is made by the same company as the Maxi Cosi infant seat and adapts to that seat into a backward facing infant stroller. So with one Quinny Zapp and a Maxi-Cosi seat (which comes with the car base), you have a winning combination for a while (infant seat age through toddler). Prices are less insulting than Bugaboo too.

We also bought a Mountain Urban Buggy double stroller for later but in the beginning, we'll use the Zapps.

I have a Zapp, and it's a great second stroller, but I wouldn't have wanted it to be our only one. The Buzz is bigger, but it rolls better and folds and unfolds one-handed. It's a great piece of kit, although I haven't owned one. The Zapp is more of a travel stroller for us--very compact and light and comes with a bag that you can slip into an overhead compartment on a plane. But it doesn't roll that well, the handles are a little on the short side if you're over 5'8", the wheels are small and the back support doesn't recline in stroller mode, which is huge when you have a two-year-old who wants to fall asleep in the stroller but can't get comfortable.

It looks like the Quinnys are now available stateside, which is good. Check out the Zapp.

One thing I found overrated on all these system strollers is the basinet attachment. We didn't use ours very much. With the Bugaboo and some others, it comes included--and you pay for it. As of four years ago, the Buzz sold it as an add-on, which meant you could save some money.

These are good points Grim. We have the Mountain Buggy for later and got the Zapp/Maxi Cosi combo because we liked it much better than other infant seat/snap'n'go combinations we looked at. Also we needed two so we didn't want to spend another over $1k on two second strollers.

Also, living in Manhattan, the compact fold was a very persuasive argument for us.

My brother-in-law and his wife had the Bugaboo which they really liked.

We used a system from Baby Trend which had an infant carrier that you could snap into the base for the car and the stroller. The nice thing is that you could buy extra bases and just leave them in the car. My wife and I had one in each of our cars and my mother-in-law had a base in hers as well. Cars built after 2002 have the LATCH system so you can just clip the base in and it is well attached. If you have an older car, you just use the seat belt to strap the base down and make sure it is tight.

The stroller allowed you to snap the carrier right in and when the carrier wasn't in, you could just use the seat which is useful for when the kids get older.

The biggest benefit to using a system where you can transfer the child from stroller to car and vice versa without taking them out of the carrier is that because the infant will be sleeping a lot, you don't have to wake them up to move them.

Originally Posted by gdl203

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These are good points Grim. We have the Mountain Buggy for later and got the Zapp/Maxi Cosi combo because we liked it much better than other infant seat/snap'n'go combinations we looked at. Also we needed two so we didn't want to spend another over $1k on two second strollers.

Also, living in Manhattan, the compact fold was a very persuasive argument for us.

did you get the double snap and go, too? very very helpful when the twins are small.

Originally Posted by gdl203

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These are good points Grim. We have the Mountain Buggy for later and got the Zapp/Maxi Cosi combo because we liked it much better than other infant seat/snap'n'go combinations we looked at. Also we needed two so we didn't want to spend another over $1k on two second strollers.

Also, living in Manhattan, the compact fold was a very persuasive argument for us.

gdl - the UMB is really a backsaver as they get bigger. effortless to push/roll w/ the inflatable wheels and turns on a dime. it's really no wider than a regular double but does not travel well. for day to day city travel w/ 2 i don't think it can be beat.

btw - have le jumeaux arrived? did i miss the grand announcement?

Originally Posted by globetrotter

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did you get the double snap and go, too? very very helpful when the twins are small.
We didn't - we hated the double snap-n-go so much. The shape seemed very impractical and doesn't really "snap" into most of the car seats - just straps them on. We went for separate frames with the assumptions that we'll rarely have only one person taking both twins in a car by herself. And in that rare situation, we'll have one in the infant seat and the other strapped in the Ergo - battling with two seats and a double SnG in a NYC cab seems just too much to handle.

Originally Posted by romafan

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btw - have le jumeaux arrived? did i miss the grand announcement?

Not yet. They're taking their time. They must be of the laid-back type like their dad