My wife is having regular chiro visits for her sacrum. She doesn't ride her upright very often, but it does seem to put her sacrum out a bit when she rides. Would a recumbent seat provIde a less stressful position, or is the seat type irrelevant wrt to sacral strain?

You need to have her try a variety of different recumbents as each person reacts differently to an individual seat. I have a friend who bought the identical trike to the one I own. I find it very comfortable and can ride for miles without any back pain. He had back surgery shortly after getting his trike and found that he could not ride it more than a few miles. Yet he can now ride an upright bike for miles without pain. Who would have figured?

+1 from me. Recumbent seats have more variations than upright seats, and can be particular to the bike's or trike's design.

At risk of sounding like a broken record: if you want to learn about recumbents, come to the Human Power Challenge (in May) or the Recumbent Retreat (in August). Either one is a no-pressure environment to look around and learn about 'bents.

Memnoch_proxy,

I really should have discs in my low back and neck replaced, or fused together. The thing of it is, I know what I'm dealing with now and never know how the surgeries will come out. (I was told by my orthopedist; unless I was ready for suicide over the pain, don't @#%*ing mess with surgery!!!)

I go to a chiropractor, but not much anymore, use an inversion table, a clip to my belt portable Tens unit and have taken pain meds for the last 28 years. I've also had surgery to both shoulders, both elbows and the left bicep tendon repaired. Better, but live with pain. So anyway, that gives you an idea what I'm dealing with.

I tried an upright DF bike and got too much pressure on my low back to be able to enjoy it. It also didn't do wonders for shoulders/elbows. Whenever I sit I need to have the back part of the chair reclined. I have driven my car and seat in the big rig like this before it was in style with the kids nowadays. (Not quite to their can't control the car, or where the little turtle head pops up to see over the dash extreme...but it's enough that they probably think, look at that old dude trying to be cool. On the recumbent I don't get any more pain from it than I was already in...well, sometimes it, or anything can make things worse that normally doesn’t.

Does the seating positing sound anything like the way your wife sits to be comfortable? If so, then a recumbent might work for her. Might check with her doctor, or chiropractor if it's just the seating position, pedaling, or a combination of the two causing more problems?

I have a Sun X3-SX delta trike that I got to run my dog. Maybe a trike might work better for your wife over something with 2 wheels. There wouldn't be any of the balancing issues to throw into the mix that might make it worse on her back.

Bob

In general terms, a recumbent bike would be less pain-provoking than an upright for someone with sacral pain. That can vary considerably from person to person, though, so try before you buy.

Chronic sacral pain is frequently caused by hyperpronation (or supination) of one of the feet. Have her chiro evaluate her feet, if he hasn't done so already. Not diagnosing, just making a suggestion.

These are good points to discus with my wife, thanks gang!