Picked up a Burley Duet tandem the other day, have logged a few miles - trying to increase stoker comfort.

I'm 6'3", and the bike is a large size - I'm comfortable. I am, however, dating a gal that's 4'11" and my kid (10 - 4'9 or so) is a bit shorter than that (she'll look down on the GF in no time).

What this means, of course, is that the stoker compartment is a bit oversized. Flipping handlebars, swapping out seat for something lower profile, and some pedal blocks (cut up flip flops) have made the bike comfortable for both, but I don't have high optimism for the long term longevity of the pedal blocks and nothing commercially available seems to be great quality either. Seems the best solution I can come up with is either short cranks, or crank shorteners. Neither stoker is a powerful biker, so I'm not too concerned about the torque that'll be applied. Is the ride2 crank shortener my best long term solution?

Did an easy 15 mile jaunt on Sunday, which we both enjoyed, despite a bit of mud on the road and no fenders. Bike is nice and quiet, and it's a joy having the GF be able to keep up while I'm getting a decent workout in. Sure, I stop and wait - but she feels hurried, and I annoyed, when that's happening.

Is there a relatively easy crank arm swap that'd set me back a similar amount? Any other easy mods that can be done to gain that inch or two? Bought used for a reason, don't want to dump a ton of money into making it fit, but I'd like to keep my stokers happy... Fairly mechanically adept, but haven't done any major bike mechanic work for 20 years....

Got a lot of oos and ahhs riding down the rail trail - looking forward to many more happy miles.