Jané Twone Review

The Jané Twone is a very neat, tidy, compact tandem, that is extremely easy to push. To be honest, this last feature is probably the most important about the Twone, and is one I want to highlight! The Twone is very easy to push full loaded!!!

We first saw the prototype of the Jané Twone in 2011. Early in 2012 we got the opportunity to put the children into the Twone seats and to push it. We were amazed at how light it was to push. However we did not handle, fold and use the Jané Twone. So with a brand new Twone in our hands at last, we set out to find out more about it.

The Jané Twone arrived in a small box for a tandem pushchair. Out of the box came a very compact package consisting of a neatly folded chassis and two seats sat tidily on top, with the raincover included too. I happened to have our Quinny Yezz to hand, and to be honest, it was very surprising just how small and neat the Twone was compared to the Yezz! When we put the Twone in the car later on, it only half filled the boot and it fitted with the seats wrapped around the chassis. So the Twone should be a really great pushchair for anyone with a small car boot, or with storage issues.

Simple to Use

One of the best things about the Jané Twone is the simplicity of it. There is literally just the chassis and two seat units with no extra adaptors needed. The chassis has a closure strap, and with the strap removed, it is then easy to flick the chassis open to an open upright position. The upper seat simply clicks on in either a forward or parent facing position as a single pushchair; or it forward faces in tandem mode. We have taken photos of the upper seat parent facing in tandem mode simply to show that it is possible, but this position is not safety tested and we do not recommend you use it. The lower seat simply clicks on easily too. There is a choice of car seats, including the lie flat Matrix Pro seats. These click straight onto the chassis using the Profix points as marked on the chassis. We believe the Micro carrycot is not suitable for the Twone. All round the Jané Twone is just very simple and easy to use.

Seats & Fabrics

The Jané Twone upper (main seat) has three recline positions including a good upright position and two recline positions. The upper seat does lie flat but the bucket type seat means that it is not suitable for newborns. The upper seat reclines very easily with a button recline at the rear of the seat. The lower seat has four recline positions. The seat has both a zip out recline section to lie the child flatter, but also a tilt recline. Each method of recline can be used independently or in combination. The tilt recline uses two buttons at either side of the seat. These are quite difficult to reach ie you have to get underneath the handle and your arms around or over the top of the seat – a bit of a ninja move to be honest. Plus the buttons are pretty stiff to release and also to do up again when the child needs to sit upright. One of the Best Buggy Focus Group (BBFG) also has a Twone, and their buttons are also stiff to release. Again, the lower seat is not suitable for a newborn.

The upper seat has a ledge at the back of the seat. It is noticeable with my eldest child that it was causing her to slump ever so slightly. It is not bad – but worth mentioning. Our eldest can reach the footrest which does help her. The footrest is well placed for older children. The calf rest lifts up for younger children and babies. The buttons to move the calf rest are inside the seat space which made it a little difficult to do with a child in the seat.

The Jané Twone seat fabric is a good quality canvas type fabric. However the hood rims, bumper bar and harness pads are made from a spongey fabric which is covered with a thinner fabric. Within hours, our bumper bar had some very tiny pulls in the fabric. I would be worried about damaging the other areas eg the hood across time.

Hoods & Harnesses

The upper (main seat) has a full hood and a swing away bumper bar. The lower seat has no bumper bar but has the smallest hood ever! We are not entirely sure it was worth adding on and it has bemused the team greatly. Strangely there is plenty of room for a larger hood between the seats, and the BBFG were convinced there was a hidden panel under the zip – but there is not! The BBFG member above has bought fabric and zips and has extended her hood with a middle panel (adding it in where hood zips off), which does look considerably better and offers the lower child some shade.

The Twone harnesses to be honest are massive. In the photos, you will see the little one in particular playing constantly with the end of the harness. So there is no fear that the harness will not fit a child. However the harnesses have the opposite problem – they are just too large and can not be tightened to what I consider to be a safe level ie a maximum of 2 fingers underneath the straps. Harness safety for me is critical (I know of two children who were ejected from a pushchair seat when they overturned), and for me its even more important when the children are not facing me ie in my eye sight. So I was not impressed that I could easily put my hand underneath the harness on their absolute maximum tight position. This was an issue with my 2 year old, so this must surely be a greater issue with a younger child? It was an issue on both upper and lower seats.

We also had concerns with the Twone buckle – there are two slim pins on each side of the harness which need pushing into the buckle. These were very flexible and we were concerned that they could easily snap off. The buckle was easy to do up and to undo although I did keep putting the pins in the wrong hole!

Handlebar & Handbrake

The handlebar pivots to a very high and a very low position with several settings in between. There is a good choice of settings. The handlebar is covered with a plastic type material which feels fine under hand although it is not my choice of handlebar covering. The handlebar all round feels comfortable to use.

To the right hand side of the handlebar is a handbrake. We were pleased to see the handbrake, as it can be hard to locate a footbrake on the rear of a tandem. The handbrake was tight to flick on and off but it was decisive. It is good to be able to clearly see whether the brake is on or off. Our only worry was that the plastic feels a little on the flimsy side, and given the brake needed a good push / pull to get on and off, we wondered how well this would stand up to daily use.

The Lower Seat & Basket

HOWEVER we were massively disappointed to find that one of the main features that had really sold the Jané Twone to us as being a potentially great tandem had been altered namely that there had been a large amount of leg room the lower child at Harrogate (see the first photo above).

The basket has been shortened which has made a critical difference to the Twone – both because my eldest (aged 3 years 9 months old) really is not comfortable in the lower seat now. Look at how she could stretch out in the first photo compared with the second photo! In the final Twone, her knees now practically touch the centre bar and her feet are turned up at the end of the basket. Her height has not changed since the first photo was taken. It is obvious when I look through my photos that she wasn’t happy in there – and yet she usually loves lower seats in pushchairs. Plus Jané recommend that the heaviest child goes in the lower seat, but it really is not practical. The push of the Jané Twone is definitely better with the heaviest child in the lower seat – the Twone is noticeably heavier to push when the heaviest child is in the upper seat.

Access to the lower child in the Jané Twone is extremely hard. I have been unable to extract my children without removing the upper seat.  For me, the lower seat is too low which combined with poor access, because of the side bars, and the seats being too close together, make it too hard for me to extract a child out directly from the lower seat. However our BBFG member, does manage to extract her younger children, and her 2 year old can squeeze in through the bars.

Access to the lower child is best done by removing the upper seat. Underneath the upper seat is a bar which swings open. This is a tad tricky and does require two hands to do it. All round, personally there are too many steps to remove a child from underneath. During our photoshoot, our youngest fell asleep in the upper seat, the eldest then needed the toilet, and it took two of us to remove the sleeping child and then extract the eldest. We learnt a valuable lesson that removal of a child in the lower seat quickly is difficult to do, thus which child sits where, is something to think about. Personally we would not put any child in the lower seat if they are potty training or likely to be sick. We found even a simple nose wipe of the lower child was tricky through the side bars.

Not only is there not much space now in the lower seat, but it means that valuable basket space has been lost too. We put a muslin into the basket and our youngest took great delight in throwing it out every few steps. We quickly realised there was no point putting anything in because it was well within reach! We added a Mummy hook which was useful and the handbrake stopped my handbag sliding down. The BBFG Twone user has added side pannier and net pockets to her Twone. But we have all had to get creative thinking of ways to add storage without adding width.

Size & Fold

We thought that one of the big advantages of the Jané Twone was the small neat size, especially after seeing it next to the Quinny Yezz. So we were hugely shocked to see that the iCandy Peach Blossom 2 is only approx 1.5cms longer than the Jané Twone. There is a set of photos in the Side by Side Comparisons section where it is clear to see that even though the two pushchairs are a similar size, the Peach Blossom 2 makes better use of height and space plus it gives you the storage space too.

The Jané Twone folds very easily. The two seats quickly pop off using buttons at either side of the seat. These are some of the easiest seats we have removed on a pushchair. A button needs depressing and then two sliders at the top of the handlebar will cause the handlebar to drop and then the pushchair can be pushed flat. There is a rubber strap with a hole on the end to hold the pushchair closed. We were amused to find that this is branded with “Muum” rather than Twone. When we first opened the pushchair we found this strap kept pinging into the lower child’s face. But we later realised that the strap hooks on down the side of the chassis very neatly. The upper / main seat will lie flat to store, but the lower seat is set at a 90 degree angle and the neatest storage is to wrap and stack both seats around the edge of the chassis.

Raincover

The Jané Twone raincover is nigh on useless! Yes it fits, but there is a wire support inside which means that the raincover folds down to quite a large rectangular size when not in use. With no basket space, we have been fairly boggled as to where such a large, but essential, piece of equipment could be stored on the Jané Twone. There’s no pockets to store it in and indeed they would need to be large ones. Any ideas Jané?? Where did you think a user would store it?

Conclusion

I need to conclude this review by saying I am very disappointed that the basket has been altered. From a user perspective, this has fundamentally altered the age range of the child who can sit in the lower seat. However, the pushability is superb – we were forced to push the Twone one handed all the way home (because I had to carry shopping in the other hand!!) – and it was an easy push even with a 2 and almost 4 year old on board. I have to say the push really is the biggest selling feature of the Jané Twone compared to the other tandems we have used.

Meanwhile, our Best Buggy Focus Group Member and I both had an iCandy Peach Blossom (hers was a version 1, and I have the version 2) at the same time as the Jané Twone. I preferred my Peach Blossom 2. She decided she preferred the Jané Twone and she has since sold her Peach Blossom 1. I add this in to balance out my view, because as it says at the start of this website, these reviews are personal and subjective: everybody is different and will need, and like, different pushchairs and features. Our BBFG Member has had a number of tandem pushchairs too, and the fact she has chosen to keep her Jané Twone says a lot.

The Jané Twone sits high in our list of tandem pushchairs that are worth a try. It is just a shame that the basket got altered because that tiny difference has really made a HUGE difference to us.