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Mothers Compairson of Double Strollers

The advantages of the Baby Jogger over the Zooper are the great canopies and how easy the BJ is to fold (much fewer steps than the Zooper). The advantages of the Zooper over the BJ is that the ride is much smoother (due to full suspension on the Zooper over just front wheel suspension on the BJ), the Zooper is car seat compatible with a variety of car seats, and once you fold the Zooper it locks and you can stand it up. However, the ease of folding and the excellent canopies on the BJ made this one the choice for me.

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This stroller matches the BOB in terms of how great the canopies are. Easy to open/close, very sturdy and well made, very large with multiple positions (covers my baby's face even in the reclined position), and two excellent see through windows per canopy. You can't beat it. The windows are really a plus. When I push the stroller on walks or in the store or wherever, I want to be able to look down and see my kids and see what they're up to. The PP Aria Twin and the Zooper (although very large canopies also) didn't have these windows - they were mesh like and I couldn't see through it to the seats below. I don't know why you would call these peek-a-boo windows when you can't see through them. Or why would you make a stroller now-a-days where you can't look down and see the kids through these plastic windows. Anyway, another plus about the BJ canopies - unlike a lot of the side-by-side strollers, you don't have these flimsy plastic clips on either side of each canopy that you have to push on to open/close the canopy. It just opens/closes like a normal canopy.

The weather cover issue is pretty annoying though. This is the cover that covers up the mesh ventilation at the top of the seat when it is reclined. You can fold up the weather covers easily and store them at the top of the back of the seat. This is great, especially if the seat is all the way up (gets them out of the way) or when the seat is reclined and it is a warm day (ventilation). But when it's a cold day and your child likes to be reclined or semi-reclined, this is a problem. If the child is fully reclined, the weather covers fits over the back of the seat, covering the ventilation mesh. This is good. But it pops off with any breeze. If the child is semi-reclined (which mine is because he just doesn't like to be flat), then the weather cover doesn't stay on at all. It is made to only really fit the fully reclined position. I don't like this. You really need to be able to either cinch the weather cover to make it tight over the seat back (to prevent blowing off and fit all recline positions), or be able to attach it directly to the seat back.

Regarding the folding - with the BJ you just pull these straps in the seats and voila. It is folded. It is so lightweight that you can then easily just pull up on the straps to lift it up and put it in your car. With other strollers (the Zooper for example), you have to close the canopies and put both seats in the upright position to fold it, and then jostle about with pushing a button and pulling a handle. And then even after it is folded, you have to bend over to pick it up off the ground. I actually didn't mind all that until I saw how easy the BJ is. Then all those extra steps seemed quite cumbersome. The only one that comes close to BJ's ease of folding is the PP Aria Twin.

However, with the BJ, once it is folded it is difficult to lock. I thought it didn't lock and that was annoying (so do many other reviewers). However I called BJ support and it DOES lock, it is just hard to find and there are not any instructions (or mention of it) in the manual. But it isn't that easy to do really - you fold it and then you have to grab this strap, wrap it around the frame, through a D-ring, and then velcro it to itself. It works well, just not that easy to do with one hand when the other is holding the stroller up. Not that quick either. A quick veclro strap or simple lock (like other strollers) would be more convenient. But it works fine once you get it velcroed.

The underneath basket in the BJ is fine. I don't really like the soft bottom, but that is pretty minor. My huge Catini diaper bag is too big and won't fit through the opening, but my medium sized diaper bag fits no problem. I put that bag along with a blanket and a couple jackets with room to spare. NOTE: the best way to get in/out of the basket is through the sides, not the back. If you try to get in/out of the basket through the back, you won't be very successful. The sides allow very easy access. The mesh pockets on the back of the seats are great and provide additional storage, and I bought the parent console accessory. It works fine for me with 2 kids and all their stuff.

The front suspension on the BJ is very nice. It is much smoother than my Graco single. However, once you test drive the Zooper, you will see how much the all-wheel suspension makes a difference. The Zooper is MUCH smoother. You don't need shocks (like the BOB), but I would have gladly paid a little extra for all-wheel suspension on the BJ.

It handles great. I took it to the park, Target, the stroller store (to compare side-by-side with other ones), and the grocery store. No problems on the way to the park or at the park. It handled the cracks in the sidewalks fine (but again, all-wheel suspension would be so nice!). Target was a breeze. I was holding a big plastic bin in one hand and pushing/steering the 2 kids in the stroller with the other. No problems. It fit down the aisles and around the clothing racks with plenty of room to spare. Also, going down the aisle, I could pass a person with their cart on one side and still fit! This made it easy since you know you'll run into other people in the aisles. At the stroller store I easily was able to open the single door with one hand and push the BJ stroller (with both kids in it) into the store with the other hand. No problems. It fit through the door fine, and it was your normal sized single door. Again, no problem at the grocery store. The aisles were plenty large. Someone left their cart in the middle of an aisle and I was still able to maneuver around it (one handed - the other hand held the basket). I went through the check out aisle no problem also. The only pain-in-the-butt part was taking my newborn out of the car seat and into the stroller, then out of the stroller and back into his car seat. I understand they plan on making a car seat adapter for the double stroller later in 2008. That would make a huge difference.

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