Wonderful jogging stroller for non-joggers!

Background
My wife and I have a toddler and we live in a hilly urban residential area of Los Angeles (Los Feliz for you locals who know the topography). We enjoy taking our baby son outside ... on walks, to go to the local cafe, to the park near our house.

We already owned two strollers, an "umbrella"-type folding Chicco and a heavier folding Inglesina. We like both strollers but neither was suitable for the hilly terrain of our neighborhood, nor the broken-up sidewalks and occasional road hazard (leaves, twigs, brush trimmings, pebbles). The Chicco and Inglesina are much better suited for the shopping mall, the airport, and the museum.

So we set out to find a more "outdoorsy" stroller, something with shock absorption, strength, and a design tailored to pushing up hills and rolling over debris.

Do you really jog?
Our needs pointed to one type of stroller, the so-called jogging stroller. These strollers are typically three-wheeled instead of four, use pneumatic tires instead of hard rubber or plastic, and are constructed of tougher materials.

Jogging strollers are suitable for jogging. You can strap your baby into the seat and then go for a run, pushing the stroller in front of you. The air-filled tires, long wheelbase, and stiff frame construction allow the stroller to glide along without too much jostling or wobbling.

Well, I don't jog. I only run when something bad is chasing me.

But I do hike and go for long walks. The more I looked at the jogging strollers out there, the more I thought "overkill". It's like buying a mountain bike to ride only on paved streets. Or buying a Range Rover to drive to the office complex. So I would advise you to ask yourself the question "will I really go running with my baby?" and answer it honestly?

Because if your answer is "no, I won't go jogging with this thing", then you shouldn't really spend your money on most of the jogging strollers out there. The BOBs, Keltys, Burleys, and InSteps of the world really are designed for jogging. Their tires are big, their wheelbases are long.

Several parent friends of ours have complained that they bought bona fide jogging strollers and stopped using them because (1) they're too big to fit in their cars, (2) the strollers are too heavy, and (3) the strollers are tough to manuever in tight spaces such as malls.

Mountain Buggy of New Zealand
My online research, then, for a non-jogging stroller suitable for outdoor use on hilly terrain and broke-up sidewalks led me to Mountain Buggy. A New Zealand company with limited distribution in American stores, they seem to have a different design philosophy than the other makers of outdoorsy strollers.

Mountain Buggy's Breeze model in particular exemplifies their less-is-more approach. The model weighs less than 18 pounds. Some Zooper jogging strollers (a popular brand, especially among yuppies) weigh 30 pounds! Most distinctly, the Breeze uses 10-inch wheels and short-ish wheelbase. This combines to make the entire stroller about the same size as a non-jogging stroller.

But it also means you probably cannot actually go for a run with the thing. It might tip over or baby would bounce around too much.

But that's okay, cuz, hey, I don't jog!

Details and Features
The aforementioned 10-inch wheels are, in my opinion, the perfect size for outdoor use. They are big enough to roll over twigs, leaves, curbs, and pebbles. But they aren't the 12- or 16-inch monsters you see on many true jogging strollers.

The wheels are pneumatic with Shrader-type inflation valves. You'll need an air pump or a visit to the gas station to fill them up (pump not included! take note!). The owners manual advises 20 psi. I fill it a bit softer for a more compliant ride over the cracks and bumps.

The tire itself is a black rubber compound with a mild zigzag tread holding an inner tube. Just like a bicycle wheel. The spokes are hard thick plastic.

The wheels are fixed in that they don't swivel. This makes for a more stable ride. But it does mean you need to practice turning, especially in tight turns. But after some practice, it becomes second nature to slightly lift the front wheel when you execute a turn.

The three-wheeled design is achieved by a frame held together by aluminum tubing connected by plastic joints. It's very solid with no shakiness or squeaking.

The frame can fold down flat, as if it were squashed by a giant hand, simply by sliding two switches and pushing down. Collapsing is really fast and easy and the folded size is pretty compact. It fits inside the back of our BMW wagon and our Toyota Prius easily. If you've got a minivan of SUV, no problem carrying this around.

(Side note: As an avid bicyclist, I pay attention to things such as wheels and frame tubing, and I can say that the Breeze's frame is above-par. I'd believe it if I found out Mountain Buggy is staffed by bicycle nuts who make custom frames on the side.)

The stroller's seat is constructed of thick nylon and comes in black or red. The seat and seat back are one piece of material, sort of like a shaped sling, suspected from the frame's tubing. There is no padding or cushion. Our baby seems to find it comfortable. I can put him to sleep at nights by going on 30-minutes walks :-)

One very keen feature about the seat is that it has an infinitely variable seatback angle. And it's cleverly simple how this is achieved. The seat back is held in place by a piece of hard plastic inserted into the material. That's all held upright by a nylon webbing strap and buckle system. If you loosen the strap, the seatback moves back. The more you loosen the strap, the farther back the seatback goes. You can loosen it fully and the seatback goes all the way horizontal, thus, the seat has become a flat bed!

For infants and toddlers, being able to make the seat flat for them to nap is a handy feature. Most of the jogging strollers I researched and tried out had maybe two seatback positions, if that.

The Breeze sports a wireframe basket attached to the bottom of the frame, sitting in between the three wheels. It's roomy enough for a blanket, a Sippy cup, a bag of snacks, a couple of diapers. But it's not enormous and it's shallow, so tall items can be bumped out. I find it adequate. But then again, I'm a travel-lightly kinda guy.

There is a hood/shade on the top constructed of the same nylon as the seat. It's kept taut by means of an internal wire frame and has hinges so you can flip it open and closed quickly. There's also a clear plastic window insert so you can look down from above to spy on Junior.

I should also mention the handle and the brake. The handle is a one-piece unit covered in ribbed rubber. It's very grippy but not spongy. I like it, though it sort of smelled rubbery for weeks on end. The handle can adjust easily, swinging upward or downward, depending on your height, simply by simultaneously pressing two plastic buttons on the handle's hinges. You can alter the handle height on the fly easily.

The brake is rudimentary but works. It's a piece of metal that you flip down that inserts itself into a hole in the wheel's hub, thus preventing the wheel from turning. It's stiff and a bit awkward to engage. You end up squatting and flipping the metal bar down with your hands and doing the reverse to disengage it. There's no handbrake option.

Buggy love
We love our Buggy and so does our son. It's the perfect outdoor stroller for the usage we put it to. Cracked sidewalks, hilly terrain, pebbles and twigs and leaves, curbs -- our Buggy handles it all with aplomb. A friend of ours remarked when she saw it "I should've bought that one! I used my jogging stroller once and put it away forever because it's so big and heavy."

Our son often walks up to our Buggy, taps it and motions "outside". He loves going out in it. We think it must be comfortable for him. It's comfortable for us to wheel around!

If this all sounds like a rave, it is. I have only two caveats:

- The price is high. $300 is a lot for a stroller. And bravo to you if you can find it for under MSRP. I couldn't.

- If you actually want to jog/run, this stroller won't do you well.

Other than that, if your stroller needs are like ours, the Breeze is hard to beat.