I’m trying to get my girlfriend into biking more. She enjoys it, but we’ve had a hard time finding a comfortable saddle for her. We’ve tried a gel saddle (which I advised against but she thinks I’m biased against comfort and for performance), then we tried a harder cruiser saddle and finally I got her a Brooks B68S. She hasn’t biked in a long time so she doesn’t really know what kind of pain is normal as you’re getting your bum used to biking but it sounds like what she’s experiencing isn’t just the usual soreness under the sit bones. It sounds like there is a lot of pressure on the flesh/muscles behind the sit bones. She’s been dealing with it for a while and she’s not getting used to it.

I’m not sure if this is a function of her upright position or the wrong saddle. Is it even possible to sit on your sit bones when your torso is upright? I’ve never ridden an upright bike with any regularity but when I sit on one, I feel like my weight is resting on my muscles, not bones. Any advice would be appreciated.

I had a very similar problem, tried different saddles and finally solved my problem ( think) by adjusting the seat properly. my seat was too low (not much : 1/2 inch)and too close of the handle bar (1 inch). I'm not 100% sure that it was my problem but the very next ride I did after adjusting the saddle the pain was gone, immediatly so I'm pretty sure.

Is it pressure on the tail bone? If you're sitting upright as a victorian you may want to angle the nose of the saddle slightly up to keep the back of the saddle from pressing on the tail bone area.

She did describe it as pressure on the tail bone. We looked at some photos of skeletons and it seemed like the tail bone doesn't come that far down, but maybe the soft tissue is getting pushed up into the tail bone. I'll try to angle her seat angle up a bit.

Consider a less upright position by lowering handlebar height, adjusting seat height and angle. That'll put more of the weight on the hands and off the spine-butt axis. You may then not need a new seat.

On a Brooks saddle the nose and the part you sit on aren't on the same plane. So in order to get the part you sit on level (which is what you want), you have to tilt the nose up slightly. It looks a little uneven until you get used to it.

It's hard to adjust someone else's seat for them...