The Feva Star Child Seat itself comes flat-packed. Being made of 30mm thick high-density foam it is extremely light – less than a kilo.

Price: £7o-80

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As a passionate mountain biker or cyclist the desire to introduce your young child to the joys of riding a bike will come naturally, and there are many different solutions on the market to help you do this. Front seats, rear seats, tag-alongs and trailers all have their various strengths and weaknesses, but the one that really made me sit up and take notice is Feva’s innovative Star Seat. It was recommended to me by Olympic champion and all round XC legend Nino Schurter, who has one for taking his young daughter to nursery. Endorsements don’t come much better than that.

To assemble you simply slot the four pieces together like you would a polystyrene aeroplane. It really is a doddle. Then you simply slide it over the top tube and secure it to your frame with three webbing straps. It’ll fit most bikes and being foam means that it shouldn’t damage the paint. If you’re worried about this, you can always use some clear frame protection tape under the contact points.

The beauty of the top tube mounting is that your child feels safe embraced by your arms (there are leg straps and a lap strap to secure them to the seat), you get to interact with them as you ride along, and they get both a front seat view of the world going by and a first hand experience of how you steer, balance, shift and brake. You can even get out of the saddle and head off-road, as long as it’s not too rough. My two year-old loved it, and one colleague in our office took his four-year old on a 55km road ride using the Star Seat.

Then, when you’re not using it, removal literally takes a minute, and being compact means it doesn’t clutter up the house.

Criticisms? With your child in front of you, pedalling is impeded slightly. As such you have to pedal with your knees further apart than is optimal. It’s unlikely your toddler will fall asleep like they can with a trailer or rear mounted child seat, which may be a problem.

With no UK Distributor, the Star Seat is only available to ship from South Africa. At current exchange rates it works out about £70-80, which seems pretty reasonable compared to other systems on the market.