Posted By Laura in Baby, Out and About, Review, Toddler | 1 comment

Well. For me, the Red Castle Shop ‘n Jogg IS my Pushchair Moment Honestly!

I can tell you right now that it’s not for everyone. This is not a review that will interest an about-town Mumma much. Oh no, it a real proper grown-up all terrain pushchair (ATP), this one. For getting off the tarmac and heading onto the fields, moors and beaches. Or, as someone sweetly pointed out ‘For outdoor-offroad-nutty-families’.

But for me, this is it.

It isn’t utterly brilliant in town; it works, but frankly it’s too long, too wide, and the ‘shopping basket’ is so small it won’t hold much shopping.

But unlike some of the other big ATP’s, it does handle beautifully, and the front swivel wheel means that manoeuvring around the streets is a breeze.

The seat doesn’t sit absolutely upright, nor does it lie completely flat. It uses a zipping mechanism to change the angle, and Red Castle say it is suitable to use from birth.

This is a BIG pushchair. It’s solidly built (though not heavy), and doesn’t fold down to teeny proportions. I was concerned about fitting it in the restricted boot space of my ‘baby bus’. But the rear wheels have an instant release, and minus those it fits comfortably, and it’s so easy you can pop them on and off even on the school run.

Take the Red Castle Shop’n Jogg offroad, however, and it really does come into its own. The overriding, best, most genius piece of design work is the lockable front wheel. We all know you need a swivel wheel for in the town, and a locked wheel for off road use on bumpy ground, yes?

How many of you have had the locked wheels come unlocked as you’re bouncing down a pot-holed lane? Or even when locked there’s still some give, and the wheels wobble and jam on a stony path? The Shop’n Jogg locking mechanism is a stroke of genius. You spin a small wheel-like nut to fix the suspension with a bolt, absolutely locking the wheel in place. It takes a minute to do it (especially in the winter with cold fingers!), but once it’s fixed there’s no moving it, and you have the perfect truly-locked front wheel needed for the roughest of terrains. It is honestly the best mechanism I’ve seen – and I’ve tried a few.

These pictures were all taken when we were giving it a spin in November – we really tried hard, but nothing stopped it!

The next fab thing about the Shop’n Jogg is the handlebar. The pushchair is quite tall, but the bar is fully adjustable, so my 6’ frame is not stooped, nor is my 5’2” sister struggling to push it comfortably. And the whole thing is wrapped in soft non-slip textured foamy… stuff. Which means that even if you’re halfway down a tricky hill in the pouring rain your hands will not slip off as you watch the pushchair bounce away from you down the hill.

Ooohhh, there’s so much I could tell you about this pushchair. The nicely padded and interminably adjustable straps, the gorgeous big and comfy seat which fitted Ella at 10mths, but will take an older toddler easily, so is still practical for those longer walks (instead of you having dead-weight-tired-child on your shoulders for the last mile). The high clearance of the basket, making rough ground a breeze. The properly ratcheted sun hood which stays where it’s put. The removable safety bar. The easy-clean fabric. Even the choice of colours is pretty good for a proper ATP!

The tyres are a standard size, so replacement inners are available from any bike shop. (NB – make sure you check the outer tyre before replacing the inner, just in case you might, on the faint off chance, have a whacking great thorn still resident that will gleefully pierce your new inner tube the minute your back is turned…).

So. The Red Castle ‘Shop’n Jogg‘.

I quite like it. ;)