The Tern GSD is a rock-solid cargo bike for carrying 1 or 2 kids or adult passengers. I’ve been lucky enough to ride both GSD Gen 1 and GSD Gen 2 cargo bikes extensively as my kids aged and have also helped outfit hundreds of families with their own perfect family cargo bike setup. This article will cover the common GSD cargo bike setups for carrying passengers. Make sure to add your personal experiences in the comments!
Key Ingredients to Safely Carry Passengers on a Rear Cargo Bike
No matter what cargo bike you have, there are 4 main things you need to ensure your passenger is safe.
- Something to sit on – this is obvious, but some options are more comfortable and padded
- Something to hold on to – unless your child is in a bike child seat, they need something to grab onto in corners and for stability.
- Something for feet – Foot support helps with stability to keep the passenger locked in on the back, and having a bit of support keeps their legs or feet from falling asleep from dangling in the air
- Something to protect feet from wheels – This is often overlooked, but you want wheel covers or properly made bags to cover the wheels, brakes, and rotating bits
Recommended GSD Accessories Based on Human Size
I’m going to bunch the common setups into three human-size categories. You may want to size up or down if your child is smaller or bigger for their age. Also, note that there are many different child seats and accessories made to carry passengers. This is a very high-level overview of the most common setups; if you have unique needs or questions, then leave a comment at the bottom!
Small Child 2-4 years old
The Clubhouse rail system and 1-2 child seats. This gives the child hand protection on the sides, and as they size out of the child seat then, you can add pads and have them sit directly on the bike.
My preferred child seat in the US is the Yepp 2 Maxi. Just remember they need to be rack-mounted, not frame-mounted. If you need to run 2 of these seats, get the newest Clubhouse Gen 3. If you only need 1 child seat, the Clubhouse+ is great.
Medium Kids 4-10
The Clubhouse is still my personal preference for this age range. My 6 and 9-year-olds can fit in together, and I prefer that they are “contained” as they goof off back there. It also allows me to run the Storm Shield cover for rainy or cold days.
Larger Children or Adult
If you read my content long enough, you’ll know I sit on the side of “better safe than sorry.” Sure, my 9-year-old (and any adult I carry) could ride just holding on to a handle, but I prefer the Captain’s Chair Gen 2 for her comfort and my own. I would then run the Tern Sidekick Handle (pictured above) or the Sidekick Bars.
Accessories All Setups Should Have
If you are carrying a passenger, you should add on the Lockstand Extensions.
If you have an older GSD Gen 1, make sure to add on Wheel Guards if you aren’t using bags or may not always use them.
More than 2 Kids?
I have a lot of thoughts here, like Tern, please make a true longtail cargo bike designed for 3 kids on the back. But the most important thing to remember if you have more than 2 kids is that the GSD can tow a trailer!
A Note on Max Gross Vehicle Weights
Tern is a stickler for testing. This is good and bad as it often cuts them short when advertising against other companies that don’t test for the same things but it means you are truly buying a bike designed for what is being used for.
Tern is testing their GSD to the DIN 79010 cargo bike standard, with a max gross vehicle weight (MGVW) of 440 lbs / 200 kg. This means YOU, the BIKE with ACCESSORIES, your PASSENGERS, your CARGO, and your TRAILER (trailers with their own brakes don’t count) all need to be under 440 lbs.
Final Thoughts and Links
The most important thing is to find the setup YOUR family needs. Please reach out or leave comments with any questions or your own setup and why you chose it.
The storm shield was my best purchase (second to my GSD). I use it in the winter to protect from rain, and also in the summer to protect from sun 🙂 I combined it with the larger panniers rather than the storm box because I often use Velcro straps to tie down my sons bikes on the rails of the clubhouse. With the storm shield, no rain ever gets into the panniers nor onto my sons legs (and we commute daily!). The clubhouse is also great for added protection from a fall. My son (6) has no problem climbing in himself while I hold the bike steady. The transporter front rack is also amazing, as I’m sometimes too lazy to pack things into the pannier. Also helps with overflow during my many trips to Costco! Four years in and everything is still going strong. Love our setup ❤️
Lesley, thanks for sharing! That setup sounds intruiging. Would you be willing to share pictures? Which panniers exactly did you get, and how did you strap down the bikes? Do you carry the kids and the bikes simultaneously?
My favorite accessory for the GSD are the atlas kick stand extensions. Both our children like to get on and off themselves, but this makes the bike a little unstable as they grab the bars of the clubhouse on their way in/out. The wide bars keep the bike stable for them.
If I’m taking the kids I’ll always be sure to have a tyre pump, tools and a puncture kit with me. I really don’t want to be pushing them home.
The decision to transition from Clubhouse with kid seats, to Clubhouse + seat pads, didn’t have much to do with size or weight in our case. For us, it was much more about the kids’ impulse control level.
When I got the bike two years ago, my kids were four and one – the older child did fine on the seat pads, and the younger definitely needed the support of a Yepp seat. After one year of regular riding, my younger child was still well within the size limit of the Yepp seat, physically able to ride on the seat pad, but on a test ride in a parking lot tried to hop off the bike while it was in motion. Over the last year, while age 3, my younger child has developed that impulse control around reliably staying on the bike, and now we ride with just the seat pads.
Still well within the weight limit for the Yepp, and we also had a Qibbel Junior for a little while, but it’s easiest to load on and off the bike when there’s one big seat pad and no attached plastic/metal seats.
Great article. I was keen to get one setup that would last me throughout my son growing up, so from age 3 (he’s almost 8 now) he’s been in the captains chair with sidekick handlebars. We used to pretend pressing the end of his handlebars was a turbo button and I’d ride off super fast, to the sound of hysterical laughter and screaming behind me.
There isn’t a huge gap between the arm rests of the chair, and the end of the handlebars, so I always felt he was secure enough.
Kids were 6 months and 3 years when we got our GSD. We have the storm box and storm shield along with wide decks and clubhouse Gen 3 for all weather rising in the UK. Our 3yo was in a Yepp 2 Maxxi and baby was towed in a crooner trailer with baby hammock.
Kids are now 1.5 and 4 and both in Yepp seats.
We have the transporter rack with a crate in the front to transport backpacks, shopping and various toys usually go in the storm box.
We got the GSD when our twins were two. Two Yepp Maxi seats with a Clubhouse 2 is our current set up. Has worked out great for the last year. Hope to keep them in the Yepps as long as possible.
For storage: transporter rack with a crate and the Tern Pocket accessories.
That’s awesome to hear. I’m also a fan of keeping the kids in the seats for as long as they will stand unless it is awfully hot.
Thanks for sharing!
I have a 10, 7 and 4 yr old who I regularly fit on the back of my GSD. I have the extra wide decks plus storm box and the seat pads plus small seat back. I keep the storm box on all year round so I can slot a few small bags between legs, plus it has handy pockets for water bottles.
I find I need to balance the weight of the bike as I’m not particularly big, so I load up the front transporter rack with the heavy items I can’t fit around the children’s legs in the storm box.