With the Shotgun Pro mountain bike seat for kids, your kid gets to be in the middle of the action with their hair in the wind and splatters of mud on their teeth. There are more convenient ways for kids to ride with you on your bike but there are hardly any as raw as this.
If you want to read about different ways to take your kids on the trails, check out our kid’s bike buyers guide here: kids bike buyer’s guide – 11 exciting concepts at a glance. If you already know that you need a kid’s seat, our “The Best Mountain Bike Child Seats in Review” article is a great read too.
With the Shotgun Pro MTB, your child sits right in front of you, their feet in straps on the left and right of the frame and holding on to your handlebar. That way, kids can experience the wind in their hair and mud splatters in their face even more directly than you do! You can transfer the shotgun seat from one bike to another without tools and simply remove it when riding on your own. There aren’t any annoying mounts that remain on the bike.
Unlike the previous model where the saddle was clamped onto the top tube, the seat of the Shotgun Pro is attached to an additional strut that gets mounted to the steerer tube and seat post. For this, you first have to slide one of the special spacers included onto the steerer tube, effectively replacing or adding a 10 mm spacer under the stem. Unfortunately, the clamp didn’t have enough space under our short 45 mm stem, meaning that we had to insert an additional spacer. If you’ve already shortened your steerer tube to the maximum and you can’t put any spacers under your stem, the Shotgun won’t work for you. At the back, the strut of the Shotgun gets clamped around the seat post. All you need is a finger’s width.
You can adjust the position of the saddle and tilt it up or down along with the footrests. In case the well-illustrated assembly instructions aren’t clear enough, there’s a QR code on the box that will take you directly to video instructions. These should be easy enough to understand. However, make sure that you adhere to the specified torque when tightening the bolts so that they don’t come loose on the trail!
You can attach and remove the fully assembled seat from the bike in just a few simple steps. Since Shotgun include two of the special spacers required to mount the kid’s bike seat, you can setup two bikes that you can easily swap the seat between. However, we’d recommend asking someone at your bike shop what the manufacturer of your bike says about the use of the Shotgun seat before using it. It could affect warranty claims and your maximum permissible weight limit. You’re not allowed to use the Shotgun in every country either. Child seats must always be behind the saddle according to Austrian law, for example.
The Shotgun Pro feels solid and makes a high-quality impression with its subtle black finish! The construction momentarily even managed to carry the weight of our test boss Felix. And he weighs… cough… more than 27 kg. At the same time, the strut also offers a bit of compliance, keeping your little passenger slightly more comfortable when things get bumpy. If you’ve got an oversized 35 mm handlebar, it may be too big for your child’s hands to hold on to. And if their hands slip off, they can hit the stem, which could turn ugly if you haven’t padded it. In that case, the separately available handles from Shotgun (€ 40) may be a good option.
The seat simply gets clamped to the steerer tube via the special spacer provided.
The back part of the seat gets attached to your seat post via a quick-release mechanism. It doesn’t require much room.
Thanks to the straps and footrests, your child sits nice and secure while riding. Their position can be easily adjusted by loosening the two screws.
Without the Shotgun seat attached, there’s hardly any sign of it on your bike. Only the special spacer remains.
On the Shotgun Pro MTB kid’s seat, kids can have the wind in their hair and get a feel for the steering with their own hands. There’s nothing closer to the real thing! With so much action, the kids have to be fit and alert for it to be safe. For long rides, we would recommend using a child seat with more support. But if you want to instill young shredders with a love for mountain biking as early as possible, the Shotgun is great!
Tops
- pure trail feeling
- solid construction
- quick to mount and switch between bikes
Flops
- minimal support for your child
Find more information here: kidsrideshotgun.com
11 exciting concepts at a glance
You can get an overview of this comparison test here: kids bike buyer’s guide – 11 exciting concepts at a glance.
All kids bikes in this group test: Tout Terrain Singletrailer Trailer (Click for review) | Shotgun Pro MTB child seat | Leg&go balance bike (Click for review) | Mondraker Grommy-E-balance bike (Click for review) | Early Rider Hellion 16-kids bike (Click for review) | Woom OFF 5- / OFF AIR 5 kids bike(Click for review) | Woom UP 5 kids ebike (Click for review) | Ben-E-Bike TWENTYFOUR-SIX E-POWER FS kids mountain bike (Click for review) | SCOTT Ransom 600 kids mountain bike (Click for review) | VPACE MORITZ26 kids mountain bike (Click for review) | YT JEFFSY PRIMUS 24 kids mountain bike (Click for review)
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Words: Moritz Geisreiter, Peter Walker, Felix Stix Photos: Peter Walker, Daniel Geiger
