What makes a jogging stroller a jogging stroller? The standard, 4-wheeled baby jogger has certainly been used for jogging in past years. Those runs had to be carefully planned to cover only flat, smooth surfaces, and great care had to be taken in securing and padding the child while you ran, because the stroller had a tendency to skitter every which way on the path due to its shopping cart wheels.
Over the past decade, a new breed of baby buggy has evolved with three large fixed wheels, shocks, 5-point safety harnesses and drink holders for the child. Since our last stroller review in 2002, the jogging stroller has continued to develop, and the models available today offer unprecedented ease of use and safety, both for the runner and the rider.
THE BREAKDOWN
Stability: Stability, of course, is a good attribute for a baby travel system that will carry your precious bundle for many miles. But a well balanced stroller is not a runner's friend. Turning a stroller when running depends on uneven distribution of weight among the three wheels so that the runner can easily and smoothly lift the front wheel incrementally to turn the stroller around a corner or bend in the road. We observed that many of the strollers that are made for walking as well as running were much more stable, making them more difficult to maneuver when running. Take into consideration how much of your stroller time will be spent running versus walking.
Wheel Width: The main reasons to consider wheel width are spacial and aesthetic. Some might feel self conscious pushing around a stroller that takes up more than half the sidewalk. Some of us just don't have space to store such a device when it is not in use. But the wider wheeled strollers tend to offer more space for carrying along supplies or errand material, provide a better fit for larger children and feel more stable than the strollers with more narrowly spaced wheels. The more narrow vehicles feel sleek and slim, and fit through doors more easily.
The Strollers
The biggest change since the last time we reviewed jogging strollers (in 2002) is the swivel-option front wheel. In the past, jogging strollers were for just that: jogging (or running, as we Americans tend to call it). So a family generally had to own a "regular" stroller and one used for running. Most major brands of jogging strollers now provide parents an option to get 2-in-1 with a front wheel that can be locked into place for running or turned loose and allowed to swivel, making the stroller much nicer to use for walking. The result is that while your stroller garage now requires only one parking place, the stroller has gotten more complicated as companies try to satisfy the needs of users in more situations. It is conceivable that parents who don't run at all would purchase one of these strollers since the big wheels and comfortable handles tend to make them much easier to push than the ones with the small plastic wheels.
The other big change since our last review is that the wheels, as a general rule, have gotten much smaller. The largest wheels in 2002 were 24 inches and many measured in around 20". In 2009, however, the largest wheel size, 16" was shared by several of the strollers and many were smaller.
