On Saturday, July 28, 2018 at 12:47:52 PM UTC-7, Joerg wrote:
On Friday I talked to a woman who rides very little because the saddle
causes her pain after a short time. Most likely this is a combination of
factors, the hardness of usual road bike saddles plus the fact that road
bikes have no suspension whatsoever and hard tires.

MTB saddles are often a little cushier. Then there are thud-buster type
systems but that's more for hard MTB riding which she doesn't do. Maybe
there are similar systems for road bikes?

Are there recommendations what could be done without breaking the bank
and without switching to a slow beach cruiser?

Recumbent? One of those stair-master bikes? The first question is "pain where?" It could be a million things relating to saddle position and saddle type. A lot of times, the tractor-seat saddles make things worse and not better. What your friend needs is to hook up with a bike shop willing to let her try saddles and with sales people who can make reasonable recommendations. My favorite local shops have generous saddle return policies. My son -- who can buy whatever he wants on pro deal -- bought an OTC Shimano Pro Stealth saddle from Western Bikeworks for discounted retail, and that saddle has a 30 day free return policy. He loves it. IMO, its an odd design with a short nose. The moral of the story is that you don't know what works until you try. Suspension isn't the solution -- you just end up with a sore ass and a pogo-stick.

-- Jay Beattie.