fooferdoggie 

my wife has not ridden a bike for 30+ years and she is blink on back of our new tandem. her tailbone was hurting a lot after the 20 minute test ride. the saddle that came with the bike is a normal size but pretty soft. I put this saddle on with a kinect suspension seat post https://www.selleroyal.com/en/optica-moderate-man
I am not sure how she is sitting maybe she is sitting too far forward? I am not sure where to go on this. I just bought her some padded shorts to try today but I don't think that will help on the tailbone issue. I am thinking of moving the saddle a bit forward but I don't know for sure.

Carbonfiberboy 

Try a Selle Italia Diva saddle and set her up to lean much more forward. Maybe move her saddle back and shorten the stoker stem. With pedals horizontal, drop a plumb bob from the bony protuberance below her knee. It should intersect the center of her pedal axle. She should definitely be leaning forward. ~45° torso angle is normal for road cyclists, but stoker compartments are usually too short to manage that. IOW, get her off her tailbone.

fooferdoggie 

yes not a lot of room. here is a a pic of what we have. I can rotate the bars forward and put a stubby stem on it. I want to try that before a new saddle.

Iride01 

If it actually is/was her coccyx that was hurting, then I'd think she is either sitting too upright and possibly on the wrong part of the saddle. Especially if saddle like in picture.

So saddle height, fore/aft and even tilt need to be considered. as well as bar reach if you have control of that.

Otherwise, even I have a few issues with saddle pain when I get back to riding after taking the winter off. Usually after two or three weeks and a dozen rides it becomes an issue of the past.

You can always play the swap saddle game, but every time I did it or others I knew, they eventually wound up with a saddle not too different than what came on the bike. If you are only doing one hour or less rides, an old style saddle with big seat and springs might help. But those will typically be murder on long rides.

Carbonfiberboy 

Ah, I see the problem, or at least one problem. The builders decided, for whatever reason, to shorten up the stoker's cockpit even more, by putting in that extra vertical tube. Stoker cockpits are already too short. I suggest rotating her stem up as far as possible without it hitting your butt, then rotate the bars in the stem maybe down as far as is comfortable for her. I see a lever on her bars. What does that do?

So start by getting her saddle more or less level. With the bike on a level surface, adjust the tilt so that the forward, say 3/4 of the saddle is level, a gap under the level of 1/8"-1/4".
Then adjust her saddle fore-and-aft as I suggested above.
After doing that, set saddle height by having her put her heels on the pedals and rotate them backwards which you hold the bike upright. Adjust saddle height so that her leg comes completely straight at the bottom of the pedal circle, but without reaching for it by tilting her pelvis. When she pedals normally with the ball of her foot on the pedal, saddle height should be about right.

After doing all that, take a ride and see if she thinks her saddle tilt should be adjusted differently.

Good to see couples getting out on a tandem. Our team age is 145.

alo

I like large saddles. I am uncomfortable in a small saddle. Try getting a large saddle.

79pmooney

BTDT. I broke mine 30 years ago and did not get the surgery so it is still unattached. I have to ride saddles that do not press on it. (Not a major issue on the hoods or drops but sitting up to ride no-hands - a real part of both my spiritual journey and reason for riding - meant real pain the rest of that ride and often for another day or more.)

I look for saddles with either a grove or a."V" shaped cutout. (Like your saddle. The Specialized saddles of 10-20 years ago with their full length grooves work well. (They are still going so I haven't looked at the newer ones.) Terry Flys also work very well for me.

fooferdoggie, nice photo of the bike and your wife, but not helpful at all. We cannot see any of the important stuff. (No, I don't want to see your wife, but her seat would tell us a lot.)

There are a lot of choices out there now that have tailbone friendly shapes. Enough that finding the one that also works for the rest of her should be quite possible.

Ben

fooferdoggie 

I will take better pics tonight I was at work when I thought to ask. I bought a new stem its a cheap fix for sure. I will see if I can have it facing forward too. I want to try this over new saddles as thats hard to do when you cant even check them out in person right now.

fooferdoggie 

looking at the stock photo I may be able to use the stem on there just facing forward.

fooferdoggie 

thanks for all of the advice.I forgot to take a before pic but here is the after pic. wife tailbone was fine though its still sore its going to take a few days to get better. but she really enjoyed the ride and we did 8.5 miles today. a record for her me its not even half of my commute (G)

AnthonyG

My experience of cycling very seasonally is that at the start of each season I always suffer from some tailbone pain for a while and would like a really soft saddle to start with. After the miles build up I'm fine with a hard saddle again.
Soft saddles help initially yet you can suffer from numbness after too many miles as you sink into the soft saddle and cut off blood supply. Harder saddles prevent you from sinking into them and cutting off blood supply yet they do also bruise you until you get used to them.

Carbonfiberboy 

Wow, looks great. Enjoy is a good word. So happy for you both. That bar position is as good as it gets with any tandem, much better than many. The saddle looks very good, too.

fooferdoggie 

yes that makes sense I saddle is a little soft but the features I need are flat end to end and side to side. cutouts or curve cause issues and I have only found a couple saddles as flat but harder so maybe I will change later on. so far the longest rides are at most 40 miles I usually do 20 miles a day commuting. Now with the tandem it may be a long time time till I get 40 miles on a weekend.