The most important thing is to make sure that the seat you choose is suitable for your child and for your car. If you use the child seat in more than one car, follow the advice below for each car.

Before You Buy
Don't rush the decision. Look through the manufacturer's catalogues, or on their websites or in shops that sell child seats to assess a range of seats.

Think about how you will use the seat. For example, if you will be constantly taking it in and out of the car, a lighter weight seat might be preferable. Or, if you do a lot of long journeys, a seat that reclines may be more comfortable for your child and help him or her sleep.

Choose a seat that is suitable for your child's weight and height.

Babies should be in rearward-facing baby seats. Do not move your child to a forward-facing seat until they weigh at least 9 kgs and can sit up unaided, but keep them in a rearward-facing seat for as long as possible. Once your child is above the maximum weight for a rearward-facing seat or the top of their head is above the top of the seat , they should be moved into a forward-facing seat. It is not important if their knees are bent in the seat, provided they are still within the seat's weight range.

Contact the child seat manufacturer to check if the seat will fit your car. If you are considering a Britax seat, you can enter the details of the seat and your car on their "Fit Finder" website if it fits your car and the best position.

When Buying
Ask the retailer if the child seat is suitable for your child and car. Try to find a retailer who will let you (or even better, help you) try the seat in your car before you buy it.

If this is not possible, make sure that you can return the seat if it is not suitable, and replace it or get a refund.

Avoid buying a child seat by mail order, unless you are sure that it will fit your car.

Check that the seat meets the United Nations standard Regulation 44.03 or 44.04 - look for the 'E' mark.

Do not buy a second-hand seat, you cannot be certain of its history (it may have been involved in an accident and been seriously weakened - the damage may not be visible) and often the instructions are missing. Second-hand seats are likely to be older and not designed to current standards.

Only accept a child seat from a family member or friend, if you are absolutely certain that you know its history, it comes with the original instructions and it is not too old.
 

Why choose an electric bike?

1. Hill Climbing
That may sound obvious, but it's the primary advantage. A good electric bike effectively flattens hills, increasing your average speed and eliminating the 'groan' factor when a gradient comes into view. Provided you supply a reasonable amount of effort, you can expect to climb hills of 1 in 10 (10%) on an electric bike with ease, and clear a maximum gradient of 1 in 7 (14%), or much more. In hilly country, the effect is nothing short of miraculous.

2. Safety
It sounds unlikely, doesn't it? But the mathematics is compelling. Think of a steep and busy road, with cars climbing at 30mph. If you previously slogged up the hill at 6mph, but can tackle the same gradient at 12mph with an electric bike, you will see 33% fewer cars, and they will pass you at 18mph rather than 24mph. Or at least, we think that's correct. Whatever the figures, there's no doubt that an electric bike helps to keep you out of danger. The same general principle applies to road junctions - the faster your acceleration, the sooner you can get out of trouble. And with no need to rush the hills, you won't be tempted to ride downhill at breakneck speed... another useful safety feature.

3. Running Costs
Purchase cost is a little more than a conventional bike, mechanical wear and tear is about the same, and electricity is so cheap as to be largely irrelevant, but there is an extra expense in terms of battery depreciation. Consequently, an electric bike costs more to run - typically 5 - 8 pence per mile against 4.2 pence per mile for a non-assisted bike (a).
However, electric bike running costs should really be compared with those of a moped, or a car, when the electric bike replaces car mileage. With cars costing 50 - 80 pence per mile, an electric bike can save a great deal of money.

4. Personal Fitness
Surely a conventional bike will keep you fitter? That, of course, depends how much - if at all - you use it. Research (b) has found that 46% of conventional bikes are used only once or twice a week, with a further 30% being used once a fortnight or even less. By contrast, a recent survey of electric bicycle owners reveals that a third ride their bike at least once a day and 81% use the bike at least once a week (c). The figures confirm our experience that an electric bike typically gets used at least twice as often as a conventional machine.
Because riding an electric bike is a great deal more enjoyable in hilly country, into strong winds, or when carrying heavy loads, users tend to make better use of them. The motor provides up to half the effort, but more regular use means more exercise for the rider.

5. No Sweat!
Sweat may not be a serious issue when you're out for a leisure ride, but it's more important if you're cycling to work. Although some employers are rather grudgingly providing showers and other facilities for cyclists, the great majority have no intention of doing so. An electric bike eliminates the problem at source. Oddly enough, you won't sweat on an electric bike, even if you put in the same amount of effort as you do on an ordinary bike. This is because you will be going faster, and the 'wind chill' effect is greater, keeping you cool. In hot weather, it's possible to maintain a normal schedule by transferring a bit more load to the electric motor. In colder weather - or if you feel in need of exercise - just throttle back, or turn the motor off.

6. Clean & Green
Electric bikes obviously consume energy, where a conventional bikes does not (provided we ignore the environmental cost of growing and processing food - see below). However, the amount of energy used is very small compared to a moped, motorcycle or car. Besides fuel, the only consumables are the batteries, and these can normally be recycled when life-expired. As for energy use, electric bikes typically consume fuel at an average rate of 100 to 150 watts of electrical energy, against 15,000 or so for a car (admittedly travelling faster, out of town at least). In terms of fuel consumption, an electric bike achieves about 800-2,000mpg (280 - 700 km/litre) (d). No other commercially available vehicle can match figures of this kind.
If it's hard to place these numbers in your own lifestyle, think of a 100 watt electric light bulb burning for an evening - that's enough energy to propel an electrically-assisted bike for 20 to 40 miles...

7. Genuinely Sustainable
There's a lot of nonsense talked about sustainability in transport, but an electric bicycle can be made genuinely sustainable. Purchase electricity from a 'green' supplier, or generate your own with a roof-mounted windmill or solar panel array, and the vehicles' fossil fuel consumption will be zero. Surely a conventional bike does that already? Only if you grow the food you consume whilst riding it. Unfortunately, most modern food production and distribution is so fuel-intensive that the consumption of a typical cyclist is not terribly good. To see this in practise, take a look at our Climate Change pages.

8. Faster Travel
In theory a car can average a high speed, but in practise speed often falls below 10mph in cities. The problem is congestion - motorcycles get around this to some extent, but they're still confined to the road network. An electric bike can maintain a higher average speed than a bicycle but take advantage of the same network of cycle facilities, giving access to routes that cars and motorcycles cannot reach. The result is often a faster door-to-door journey time than any other mode. And by taking advantage of the uncongested cycle network, but eliminating hills and headwinds, electric bikes are often the most consistent mode of travel.

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9. High Resale Value
Electric bikes are new technology, and these are early days, but the evidence points to a much better resale value than a conventional bike. True, a typical electric bike costs more to buy, at £400-£1,000, but it seems you'll get most of that back if you sell the machine on.

10. Motorised, but no Red Tape!
You know how it is... MOT due, log book missing, insurance costs rising year on year. Electric bikes are treated just like ordinary bicycles for legislative purposes, so there's absolutely no registration or legislation to worry about. You are of course free to insure the machine if you wish, but there's no compulsion to do anything but enjoy yourself!

If you use the child seat in more than one car, follow the advice below for each car.

It's safer to fit child seats in the rear of the car, but if necessary they can be fitted in the front. But, NEVER fit a rearward-facing baby seat in the front if there is an airbag on the passenger side of the car. If the airbag went off it would strike the seat with considerable force.

Read and follow the manufacturer's instructions for fitting the seat. If you have lost the instructions, contact the child seat manufacturer to check if they can provide a copy. Click here for contact addresses.

Make sure the seatbelt passes through all the correct guides on the child seat. Some seats have an alternative routing if the seat belt is too short to go around the main route.

Push your weight into the child seat as you tighten the seat belt to make sure the child seat is securely held. There should be no slack in the seat belt.

 
The child seat should rest firmly on the car seat, with hardly any forwards or sideways movement. Check that the seatbelt buckle is not resting on the child seat frame (this is known as 'buckle crunch').

Keep the fitting instructions with the child seat in the car.

If you are unsure about anything, seek advice and if possible get someone to check the fitting of child seat for you. Click here for contact addresses. If you have a Britax seat, you can enter the details of the seat and your car on their "Fit Finder" website for advice on the best position to fit it.

Never modify the seat or adult seatbelt to make it fit.

If you are fitting a forward-facing child seat in the front of a car, make sure the car seat is as far back as it will go, so the child is as far as possible from the dashboard. This reduces the possibility of head or chest injuries in a crash.

If you take the child seat out of the car, make sure you fit it properly every time you put it back in. If it stays in the car permanently, check it regularly to make sure it is still securely held

What is VOLTAGE and which Voltage is best?
Voltage can be thought of as the pressure or strength of electric power. All things being equal (see AMPS below), the higher the voltage the better, because high voltages pass more efficiently through wires and motors. Very high voltages (100+ volts) can give you a nasty shock because they also travel through people rather well, but the sort of voltages found on electric bicycles (12 - 36 volts) are quite safe. As a rule, a 12 volt system is fine for low-powered motors, but more powerful machines work better with 24 or 36 volts.

What are AMPS?
Amps can be thought of as the volume or quantity of electric power. To aid this analogy, the flow of amps is called the current, as in the flow of a river. Unlike a river, though, the speed of the current is fixed - only the volume varies.
The maximum flow of amps in a bicycle drive system can vary from 10 to 60 or more. A current of 60 amps requires thick wiring and quite substantial switchgear.

What are WATTS?
Once we know the voltage (or pressure) and current (or volume), we can calculate the power, or wattage by multiplying the two figures together. The number of watts in a system is the most important figure of all, because it defines the power output. A few examples:
The Zap motor draws 20 Amps x 12 Volts = 240 Watts
The Giant Twist Lite draws 15 Amps x 24 Volts = 360 Watts
The Powabyke draws 20 Amps x 36 Volts = 720 Watts
The Curry Drive draws 40 Amps x 24 Volts = 960 Watts
Despite having a fairly low voltage, the Curry is the most powerful motor, followed by the Powabyke and the Twist, with the Zap coming in last. It's impossible to calculate the power without knowing both the number of amps and volts. Large machines, like cars, trains and trucks have their power measured in the same way - usually as kilowatts, or units of 1,000 watts. The old-fashioned 'horsepower' unit is the equivalent of about 750 watts.

I thought the legal limit was 250 Watts in the UK?
Well, yes and no. The legal limit refers to the continuous power output, whereas the figures above are for absolute maximum power. Most motors can give maximum output for a minute or two, but they'd melt if asked to do it all day - just like a cyclist. Obviously, maximum power is more useful than continuous power as a guide to the way a bicycle will climb a hill. Look at the spec of bikes on sale and you may see 200 watts, 250 watts or (illegally) 400 watts. These figures are only a rough guide to the true maximum power output.

How many watts do I need?
As a general rule, a cyclist can produce several hundred watts briefly, and one hundred watts for a reasonable length of time. To be really useful, a motor needs to produce another 100 Watts on a continuous basis, with peak power of at least 400 watts. Just to confuse things, our measurements are of power consumption - losses in the motor and drive system mean that the power output to the wheel can be much lower.
If you expect the motor to do most of the work, especially in a hilly area, you'll want a peak consumption of 600 watts or more. On the other hand, if you prefer gentle assistance, a peak of 200 watts may be enough.

How big a battery do I need?
The capacity of the battery is usually measured as the amount of current it can supply over time (defined as amp/hours). However, this is useless on its own, because you'll need to know the voltage too. By multiplying the two figures together, we get watt/hours - a measure of the energy content of the battery. Unfortunately, it isn't that simple... but you didn't think it would be, did you? In practise, you're unlikely to get results that match the stated capacity of a battery, because battery capacity varies according to the temperature, battery condition, and the rate that current is taken from it.
Lead/acid batteries are tested at the '20-Hour' rate. This is the number of amps that can be continuously drawn from the battery over a period of 20 hours. However, an electric bicycle will usually exhaust its battery in an hour or two, and at this higher load, the battery will be much less efficient. So the figures for lead/acid batteries tend to look optimistic.
On the other hand, Nickel-Cadmium (NiCd) batteries are rated at a 1-Hour discharge rate, so although the stated capacity of a NiCd battery might only be half that of a lead/acid battery, performance on an electric bicycle will be much the same. Nickel-Metal Hydride batteries (NiMH) are measured at the 5-Hour rate, so their performance tends to be somewhere between the two.
The capacities of typical bicycle batteries vary from Powabyke's 504 watt/hour giant (36 volts x 14 amp/hours) to the tiny 84 watt/hour pack on the early SRAM Sparc kit.
It's best to choose a package that will provide twice your normal daily mileage. It's difficult to guess the mileage from the watt/hour capacity, because actual performance depends on the bicycle and motor efficiency, battery type, road conditions, and your weight and level of fitness.

Hope you got some great car seat safety tips for your toddlers and kids of all ages this week in Daily Buzz -- and we'll be announcing the winners of our 4 car seat giveaways soon.

Another reason certain after-market accessories aren't recommended is because there is a potential that they could interfere with the correct use of the seat. For instance, harness covers/strap pads. You need to make sure they aren't too long, especially for infants, in which case they would cause the chest clip to be too low on the child's body (the harness pads would force the chest clip to be placed on a child's belly instead of across the chest where it should be).

This feels very strange.

I'm riding down an alley in San Francisco, pedaling as you would on any bicycle. Each time I put my foot down, the bike presses on a little further. It's all very normal.

But then, with the flick of a switch on the bike's handlebars, it shoots forward with a strong, smooth, motorized thrust. Quickly, I've hit 20 miles an hour.

This isn't normal anymore.

This is Ultra Motor's A2B, a $2,500, zero-emissions scooter that just happens to also be an electric bike.

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Thanks,
The CNET TV TeamThe A2B looks very much like a regular bicycle, except that it has some very heavy-duty looking components, and a wide center stem in which its lithium-ion battery is enclosed.

But in fact, the Ultra Motor folks surely don't want the A2B called a scooter because one of their chief marketing points is that it doesn't require any kind of license or special permit, as does a motorcycle or scooter. And that means that a new buyer could jump on it and get going without any kind of bureaucratic runaround.

The A2B is expected to be available, most likely from bicycle, scooter, and motorcycle dealerships, in September. At $2,500, it seems somewhat expensive, but Amy Robinson, Ultra Motor USA's vice president of marketing, points out that the company is positioning the A2B against high-end bicycles--which can easily run two grand--as well as against gas-powered commuter vehicles like cars, motorcycles, and mopeds.

I also told CEO Chris Deyo that I thought the bike might cost too much to appeal to a large number of buyers, but he said that if you compare the one-time price of the A2B to the ongoing costs of commuting by car, moped or motorcycle--given the cost of gas, insurance, maintenance, parking, and parking tickets--it's not so steep. "We found, in talking to folks, that (at) $2,500, it's a considered purchase, but it's of value to them," Deyo said.

Ultra Motor is expecting the bike to appeal to urban commuters in their 30s and 40s who want an alternative to their car or any other form of transportation that requires them to find parking or buy gas.

"We call it the Mini Cooper of electric bikes," Robinson said. "It's sturdy and solid, but nimble like a bicycle. And it's a great alternative to getting in (a) car."

Plus, she added, the company hopes to attract commuters who like the idea of riding a bike to work, but who hate the idea of being sweaty on arrival. And the A2B's smooth, lively motor lets them do just that.

As for me, the A2B did indeed generate a new round of techno-lust. But at that price, I'm just going to have to sublimate it and keep on taking my morning bus to work.

I picked up a basic, bare-bones car seat for our now 4-year-old daughter for about $60, but I know moms who have spent upward of $250 for a toddler seat! I always wondered -- and worried -- whether my daughter would be safer in a more expensive seat that I can't afford. (Speaking of which, enter for your chance to win a free car seat!)

You can also check out the Car Seat Safety Guide from the American Academy of Pediatrics for additional advice.