We recently purchased our fourth stroller for the imminent arrival of our second child.
1) Zooper Hula - Single heavyweight infant stroller
2) Chicco Capri - Single lightweight toddler stroller
3) Dual Burley - this is a trailer technically, but since we bought the running handle, it fits my category of kid transportation via pushing
4) BOB Revolution Duallie Stroller
We bought ours at the local REI (Bloomington, MN) since we like shopping there and could take it home with us.
The Good
- It rolls like a dream. For the money it should power itself, but you can feel the quality in its roll. I liken the roll to driving a Lexus, very smooth and precise.
- The brake system is solid and simple. It won't move when enabled. Disabling the brake requires some foot dexterity, but there is a rope of some sort that I think is supposed to be used as well.
- The seats for our toddler seems very comfy, although it take some work for him to climb in.
- The basket underneath is roomy and easily accessible
- It folds up very nicely, you push and grab the strap and pull and its done.
The Bad
- We bought the BOB Infant Car Seat Adapter with Tray - Duallie adapter, but our car seat (Chicco Key fit) didn't fit. We should have figured this before hand(car seat is too wide). We won't be able to use the stroller until our youngest can sit in the seat without the car seat.
- It's huge, it fits in the garage and in the back of our Touraeg, but its a big investment to put it into the car. We often have the other strollers in the truck and have to take them out to put the Bob in.
I guess the jury is still out on the new stroller for me. To me the best measure of is which stroller we use on a day to day basis. The Bob is a quality piece of engineering, but until we start using it over the other strollers I will withhold my final verdict.
UPDATE 1:
We now have a few more weeks under our belt on this stroller. A couple of important notes
- We found a great product called the "Snuzzler". This works great with our 2 month old to keep him in the seat.
- We purchased the Bob handlebar console for duallie. This ~$28 add on adds a drink holder which is useful for cell phones, keys and I guess a drink or two. There is also a zippered pocket for keys or money.
- I figured out how to work the sun shades on the stroller. The best feature is a clear plastic window with cover, so you can peek in at the child without having to raise the shade or peer under the lowered shade. This is useful for answering the question "Are they sleeping".
- The brake control has not gotten any easier to release. I guess this is a feature, but I keep trying to use my toe or front of my sandals to release the brake. It may be easier with regular shoes or sneakers. Our primary use of the stroller has been going to the neighborhood pool, so my footwear has been minimal.
Up next, the Indy 500 of strollers, the MN State fair. We plan to take the kids, diaper bag and other gear to the fair this weekend with grandpa and gramdma. This will give us 5-6 hours of non-stop use in an all terrain environment and 200K of our closest neighbors! More to come...
