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Help! Wife's not happy...

Merlynn

Merlynn

Active Member
Just returned from Leesburg bikefest with a disney detour. Great trip, 650 miles - not the farthest trip we've made but at 5 days on the road, the longest.

Wife complains of back pain and says no more long rides unless something changes. Lots of posts here about comfortable seats from the rider perspective. Anyone have any experience, or ideas as to making the back seat ride more attractive? Bike is an 09 Ultra Classic. Relevant items being grab rails and back rest. Stock seat. Bike also has stage 1, SERT and rineharts.

Oh and now she says my lovely rineharts give her a headaches after a couple of hours...

She's always been game to ride but this is a potential disaster, I didn't buy this bike to do Cafe 27 every Sunday. Help!
 
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My wife had the same problem until I put on the road Zepplin , air seat even in the back for her , I also have V&H pythins and she complained until I put in the hog tune set up

Solved her back problem and I picked a fairly new one up on ebay for 350 , be pacient it will come
 
Sorry to hear that she is not enjoying the rides. Before you pop for a new seat, consider all of the other things that may contribute to her problem, and she is not really aware of. Wind buffeting her, height of her footboards, her helmet not fitting perfectly. My wife smokes:(, and gets antsy not knowing when the next stop is. Try really hard to determine if her uncomfort may be something else, buying seats is expensive. One little thing that helps for us, I got a 6' aux cable and ran it from the radio, under the tank and seat, up through the back rest slot. Now she can control the music with her itouch. Scanning, etc. It gives her something to do. Also Kuryakyn makes some real nice arm rests for the passenger, pricey but nice.
 
+1 on the Zepplin seat. It takes a bit to get it comfortable, but it gives the ability to adjust while riding too. My wife figured this out when she got off the bike at the gas station and her seat looked like an exercise ball. Let some of that air out and she was much more comfortable headed to the next stop.

Mine has not complained about the sound of the SE pipes, yet, but we also have the in helmet intercom so she has music by her ears. The HD intercom is not the best when it comes to speakers, there are many better, but being close to the ears helps. Another option, if you don't run an intercom are noise cancelling ear buds for her. You can start with the less expensive ones, I like those, on up to the Bose. It helps to have the music right there as a distraction.
 
Before you go the new seat route, unless you are unconfortable too, I would have a gel pad installed under the cover and down in the foam. This won't raise her up and get her head in the wind. I would also look into a recurve windshield and they do make more than one type of baffle for the rineharts
 
I don't know where her pain is, but for my bride, she complained of a sore lower back. I ended up stuffing the little flappy backrest thing with some pillow fill material and it seemed to help.

If you take the flap off, there are a couple holes at the top that you can push the material in. I used a pencil.

Don't know if it will work, but it is the cheapest "mod" I've ever done :D
 
My wife had the same issues, I installed the kuryaken adjustable rider pegs so she can change the angle of her knees. No more complaints. May also want to check the air pressure in the shocks to.
 
Back pain, not rear end pain right? Sounds like the seat is not the problem. There's a lot of stuff you should try before you mess with the seat, by changing the seat, the problem usually goes from back pain to (self editied) pain. Try moving the foot boards first or gettting some aux. foot pegs so she can move her feet around. Or try the HD Docking Kit for the tour pac, I think thie kit allows you to move the Pac back a bit.
My wife has her own bike........if you think getting a woman comphy on your bike is a pain.........it's much worse getting the right stuff to make them comphy on their own bike cuz they want it to look just right too.
 
+1 on doing other mods before changing seat. Chances are the floorboard adjustment option as well as floorboard hieght will make a difference. My wife is tall for a women ( 5' 10") and she loves the set up on my 09, but if she was shorter, I would have to change the passenger floorboards. Prior ride had pegs and her back hurt, floorboards made all the difference. And I don't like the leg eating (My legs) rascals either, but if she ain't happy, nobody is...:)
 
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