Bell Cocoon Rack Mounted Bicycle Child Carrier
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Description of Bell Cocoon Rack Mounted Bicycle Child Carrier
Take along your child on a biking adventure using Bell's protective and comfortable rack-mounted child carrier. The Cocoon will carry your 40-pound-or-less child in safety, comfort and style, as it features a thick seat pad, high back for added protection, a five-point harness, molded spoke guard, and adjustable foot rests (which also allows the seat to grow with your child). Easy to attach to most 26- and 27-inch bikes (without rear suspension), this carrier can also be removed easily for solo rides. A rear reflector is included. About Bell
More world champions have worn Bell Helmets than all other helmet brands combined. From Grand Prix racing through the Indy 500 to Olympic cycling, Bell helmets have played a vital role in protecting sportsmen and women for nearly 50 years. Bell began as a small auto parts store in a suburb of Los Angeles. Growing under the leadership of Roy Richter, Bell became a leader in safety equipment for auto racing, motorcycling, and then bicycling. His commitment to creating great product through a close connection with the sport, along with his trust of and care for the people who worked for him, turned Bell from a one-man operation into a multi-million dollar enterprise. His legacy lives on today in Bell's commitment to racing, quality and innovation.
Sports reviews of Bell Cocoon Rack Mounted Bicycle Child Carrier
Customer Review: The rack alone is worth the purchase price.
Sport shop rating: 4 Stars
A rear rack runs around twenty bucks. This price is really low for a rack plus a child seat (I purchased this on sale). Yes the seat does flex, but I don't necessarily see this as a safety issue for the child. The failure mode of rigid plastics like propylene is cracking, while this urethane will crease and turn white when over stressed. Anyway, which is safer in a fall is debatable and I think it would depend on the circumstances.
I will say the flexing makes balance and handling of the bicycle a bit strange. So if you are a bicyclist with iffy balance, or if you plan on high speed maneuvering, spending several times as much for a fancy seat would be worth it. If you're like me and stay around 10mph, and have decent balance, this does fine.
The mounting system worked fine on my 27" road bike. I even mounted to the thick main vertical tube instead of the seat post and it still fit fine. If you are short and have the seat in the lowest position you can try this like I did.
Bike weight balance with a 25 to 40 pound child is terrible, but this is going to be true with any rear mount seat you buy. My CroMo frame bike wants to wheelie when I get off of it! MTB or cruiser bikes will likely be better in this regard.
Mount kit comes with clear plastic sleeves to prevent paint damage, but I threw them away as my bike is already scratched to hell, I can't say how well they would have worked. The guys out there with fancy big buck bikes are probably looking at the other seat options anyway.
One star deduction for the flex, but it holds four stars for excellent value.
Customer Review: Solid, but a caution...
Sport shop rating: 4 Stars
This is my first child carrier, so I don't have much in the way of standards for comparison. That said, so far I'm quite happy with the Cocoon. Assembly instructions were straightforward and well-illustrated, and took me just under two hours. I'm confident I have the unit on correctly, and it is very stable on my bike. The seat itself can be quickly attached or detached from the rack so I don't have to take the seat with me every time I ride. Most important, my daughter is safe and comfortable back there, and we both feel confident.
The caution: I have a Klein Quantum racing bike with slightly oversized aluminum tubes. The rack mountings are designed for (narrow) steel frame bikes, and also intended for hybrids or mountain bike style bikes. With the hardware the rack came with, I was just shy of being able to mount it on my bike. I went to Home Depot and bought four 3/16 X 2 bolts (and accompanying nuts) which are just slightly longer than the bolts included with the unit and made a successful installation on my racing bike. My daughter is the fastest three-year old on the bike path!
Customer Review: Reasonably priced, works well, a few quirks
Sport shop rating: 4 Stars
For a removeable seat, you can't beat the price. However, there are a few quirks. The whole seat is somewhat flexible, but does not seem to be a safety hazard. Removing the seat is not quite ideal procedure-- you loosen by hand three screws under the seat pad; this takes a few minutes and a bit of work, trial, and error. The same amount of work to re-mount, make sure you get them tight.
The front of the rack attaches to the seat post-- need to have sufficient clear seat post to attach or the rack won't work.
You may need to adjust the installation a bit if your bike has very wide rear stays. Instructions show struts of the rack attaching to the inside of the vertical tube of the rack-- I had to attach to the outside, and then it worked fine.
I echo others' advice to not fully tighten any of the nuts and bolts until you have all the angles of various parts all worked out-- it's a bit of a complex geometry problem with one ideal solution. The key parameter is the width of the rear stays, which determines where the rack struts attach.
Customer Review: Good seat
Sport shop rating: 4 Stars
We think this seat is just fine and we're having a great time with it. It's solid, sturdy, safe, and my daughter loves riding in it. I don't think it's flimsy at all and, if installed properly, should not be wobbly or loose.
This is our second child seat - we bought a much more expensive Co-Pilot Taxi at a bike shop when my son was small but sold it when we moved cross country. Now we have a little girl and I think this less expensive Bell is just as good.
The only reason I don't give it full stars is that they could have made the installation a little easier. Some of the bolts were awkward to get on, but my husband is good at that kind of stuff, so there was only a little cussing involved.
Some reviewers are saying that the seat makes the bike wobble from side to side and throws their balance off. EVERY child seat is going to do that. You have to get used to it and learn to compensate for the weight on the bike being redistributed.
We think it's a great seat for a great price.
Customer Review: Good and robust products
Sport shop rating: 4 Stars
Pro: good desgin, robust
Con: worst manual and package.
I purchased this Bell Cocoon from Walmart. It actually took me a while to figure out the manual, then 2.5 hr to install everything. My plan is to install it on my wife's 24" mountain bike, however, it does not fix, so I installed it on my 26" mountain bike instead (I purchased a Copilot for that 24" bike.)
Overall, I do like Bell's design, it is robust since it provide several points to secured to the bike, and once it is secured, it just don't move. For my other Copilot seat, there are only 4 points to secured with bike, plus one belt to fasten to seat pole. It seems not a good design to me. However, Copilot does provide me an advantage that I can remove car seat easily which Bell does not.
I suggest Bell can write its manual more friendly. Or, at least, assembly the rack in factory, then customers just secure it to bike. That is why I just give it 4start, not 5.