We got our Madsen thinking that the rainhood would be coming any day, and riding out with a fairly new baby and a 4 year old in cold winds and wet weather was out of the question, so we were really disappointed to find out that the guys at Madsen had had some problems with the hood and it was delayed. I'm not a patient person at the best of times so I looked into a way round the problem. My first idea was to just get a cover for the baby car seat and then wrap the older boy up to keep him warm, however, as we are going for Julian's (www.totcycle.com) baby carrying solution, the seat is going to be so cut down a raincover won't fit. I was getting more and more frustrated, and when I got the all clear from the Doc to start riding again I decided I had to take matters into my own hands. As the Madsen box is not so different to the Christiania, I decided to try and use their design and make it fit the Madsen.
The metal for the mounts which go on the inside corners of the box cost £3.50,our neighbour designed and made them for us. Fixings were £3.58. The Christiania hoops were £22 from hugh at schoolruncentre.co.uk, but we're also going to see how much it'll be to make taller ones to give more headroom, as they are just bent solid alloy tube. The hood itself is a Christiania hood. The way the mounts are fitted means it's a bit too long. It fits okay due to the bakfiets bungies, but looking at the design, it'll be cheap to have a new one made - it's just 1 large rectangle of tent material with 2 small squares sewed on the long sides with two pieces of elastic sewed on the joins and 8 eyelets - there's less than £25 materials in it, even just buying at quantity for a one off.
The material for the tent arrived today so I'm really looking forward to getting our made to fit tent finished. Just need to get started on the baby seat now.
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