Yoyo-ing around – review of the Babyzen Yoyo on public transport

The Babyzen Yoyo is compact, easy to fold, and lightweight.

So it came as absolutely no surprise to me whatsoever that it is GREAT for public transport.

But it wasn’t until I took it on tube, bus and train that I realised just how great the design makes it, whichever type of transport you are using it for.

1. Buses. If you are like me, you’ve stood for ages at a bus stop only to find that the bus that eventually pulls up is already full of pushchairs. Ordinarily, I might sit down again wearily, and wait for the next. But the advantage of the Yoyo is that it folds down so quickly, and so small that you can carry it easily over your shoulder whilst shepherding two small children down the aisle – without being subject to the wrath of the driver and passengers because it’s taking a ridiculous amount of time and the bus won’t move until everyone is sitting down nicely.

The somewhat limited shopping basket capacity comes into play here too – because it IS a basket that ranks somewhat on the smaller side, generally I have packed very efficiently and I don’t have hundreds of things that I have to remove before I can even begin folding it!

The Yoyo is so small that I can stick it in the footwell of the seats too, meaning I don’t need to worry that it’s going to jump out of the luggage area or get stolen if I take my eyes off it.

One word of caution though – if you are lucky enough to get into the pushchair space on the bus and you don’t have to fold it down, be careful getting off the bus. I’ve found it’s best to exit backwards, otherwise the front wheels can complain a bit if you go forwards first and you’re quite likely to scrape the frame at the back too.

2. Tubes. Oh. My. Word. Tube travel has been made so, so much easier since I got this pushchair. It’s easy to carry folded up and down stairs, whilst still having hands free to hold onto the kids. And it’s lightweight enough that I can carry it up and downstairs on my own too, if Bubby D is sitting in it. The black side struts are at the perfect height to use them as carry handles, with the pushchair turned sideways. I can also fold down the handle, and carry it with the back of the pushchair resting on my chest. Whilst we’ve been travelling around, we’ve had lots of comments from fellow weary travellers with kids, asking in amazement ‘what pushchair is THAT!’.

The folding handle means that it can be used as a very compact seat option too, if the train is rather full (it often is; full of hot, tired, grumpy commuting sardines when I’m doing the evening nursery run). As one of these sardines myself I know how precious extra carriage space can be when you’re trying to get home.

3. Trains. The Yoyo can be folded and put on the overhead luggage rack, or stowed in the footwell, with a minimum of fuss. It’s also narrow enough when Bubby D is sitting in it to fit into the narrower-than-tube doorway areas whilst still allowing people to get on and off the train easily.

And finally, something that is very relevant to all these forms of transport – the brake works really, really well. Sometimes a little TOO well – I have had trouble on occasions getting it to release but I suspect perhaps it needs a little clean after our beach jaunt a couple of weeks ago! But it any case, once it’s braked, it won’t move. And that’s always a big bonus when you’re in a big, moving vehicle with people who don’t want to be squashed by a maurading pushchair!