Part of her problem is your seat. You moved back 2 inches into her space. She can't move back. My wife had a similar issue when I had my back rest in so I had to ride with out it. I moved the tour pack back 3" inches and she's a happy camper now and I get to use my backrest again. It made a big difference on how far she had to spread her legs to get around me and gave her some space between us. Someone else mentioned the kuryakyn adjustable foot pegs with floor boards. I also highly recommend those. They will give her more options to move her feet around. If you are regularly going to make long hauls like that, consider adding a full size tour pack. She will love the wrap around backrest that also giver her a place to rest her elbows. The additional storage is awesome too.

Another option I have had success in keeping her comfortable is to buy her a plane ticket, have an awesome ride by yourself and then pick her up at the airport.

Good luck finding what works for the both of you.When you move into the touring family, the order of modifications changes. Comfort first. Performance second. Looks last.

 

First of all, quit trying to make a bar hopping piece of junk into a 2 UP Touring bike. If you want your wife to ride with you and be comfortable, get a 2 up Touring bike that allows her to ENJOY the trip, instead if having to ENDURE the trip. Trade that RKS bar hopper for an Ultra Classic or Ultra Classic Limited. THEN you have a bike that she's comfortable on.
For you, get some highway pegs. For her, put some grab bars/rails on it so she has something to hold on to. That's yet ANOTHER thing that used to be standard equipment(and still should be..cheap Harley!) for a touring bike.

Do those things and you won't here any thing from your wife but purring back there behind you. You don't need anothet seat or bars or anything else. You just need the RIGHT BIKE!

 

Adjustable foot boards, better seat to start. Suggestions on the seat is a personal comfort question that you have to pick. We have a Mustang Super Tour and we love it.
The adjustable boards can be had from Kuryakyn or Harley... also look at Dennis Kirk, Motorcycle superstore, Eastern Performance cycle etc....

 

Can somebody tell me what year passenger grab handle was standard . ( bars or rails)

 

It wasn't. Maybe he was thinking the saddlebag guards which are too far away for a passenger to comfortably use as a grab rail unless your woman has monkey arms.

 

We try not to call other people bikes pieces of **** around here brother.

Furthermore, a RKS is a touring bike and can be modified to be just as comfortable as an Ultra for far less than taking a 10,000 dollar hit in a trade for something he already mostly has.

 

Couple of things sorta jump out at me.

Your bike comes without a windshield, have you at least added one? Makes a big difference not having wind beating against you for long rides.

A true touring seat would help you both. If you're willing to live with the look, the likes of a Russell Day Long is darn hard to beat for a long ride. Since these bikes are easy to swap seats on, just using it for touring is a reasonable alternative.

Underwear. You don't mention it, but the right undies make a huge difference in sitting comfort. Conversely, the wrong ones make it hell. Pretty generically, anything called "panties" are uncomfortable for her, and anything called "briefs" or "boxers" will be uncomfortable for you. You want snug fitting athletic type shorts, so there's no seams to sit on, no folds or creases.

Similar your pants. Rivets, pocket seams, etc all create hard spots to sit on and result in hot spots on your posterior. Really do consider some genuine motorcycle riding pants for long rides.

A backrest for you, to keep you from slouching into her space, will probably help keep both you more comfortable. She's already cramped back there, you intruding into her space isn't helping her. It's also actually not helping you either.

Ear plugs. Wind noise is exhausting. Some ear plugs to keep it down can go a long ways towards keeping you both feeling better as the day wears on.

Frequent breaks. Lots of folk screw this up. You can hardly move on a bike, so you need to get off it fairly often, and for long enough for it to help. Just gassing up isn't a break. Go pee, get a drink, walk a bit, stretch. Talk and think about something else. A 3-minute gas up break is pretty worthless. 10-minute active break can do wonders.

Quiet pipes. If you're running loud pipes, they're pretty exhausting on a long ride.

 

Sorry, but for the WAY he was trying to use it, It was a piece of junk. The bike is in the touring category, but the way it is designed, it's not a very good 2 up touring option.
And I stand by that statement. How can you love your wife and put her through what she had to endure? Just so he can keep what he thinks is a "macho" bike, blacked out and all, to ride around town on. Nope, if you want a 2 up touring bike that keeps your wife comfortable, he bought the wrong bike.

The RKS lists for $23, 089. The Ultra Classic lists for 24, 589...a $1500 difference. You can't make the RKS into an Ultra for $1500. That's one of the other reasons for my comments.

 

YES, the passenger grab rails were standard equipment at one point in time. I had them on my 2002 ElectraGlide Classic, and I think on my 2007 Ultra Classic. Some time after that model year, 2007, Harley removed them as standard equipment and started listing them as a accessory. The same was true for the Fork Dam on ..they claimed.the ElectraGlides. It was standard equipment until the motors started getting more powerful and having the fork dam underneath didn't let enough air get to the motor.

 

So to clarify some stuff, this was our first trip longer than 2 or 3 hours to a destination. We've been quite comfortable until the trip stretched to 6-8 hours and I'm the type of person who wants to see how what I have works before I go changing stuff. Our longer trips won't be all that frequent with no more than 2 a year so I see no need to get a bike that I don't want to ride the rest of the year to accommodate infrequent trips. As for the seat, I needed the extra space for myself as I'm 6'4" and my wife is 5'2", so she is snug but not extremely cramped. A windshield is on the list now as up until the last trip I haven't really thought I needed it yet and we do wear legit motorcycle gear with earplugs and all that. I do however, need to plan the trips for more stops with a bit of length each time. Like I said this was our first road trip on a bike so I'm still figuring out what works and what doesn't work for us. I do agree with the suspension upgrades, the Legends I got on my bike last month have made a world of difference in comfort. Also, the comment about not keeping anything in your pocket is spot on. I noticed my hip was starting to bother me and decided to ditch my wallet in to the bag and was instantly more comfortable and started doing that each time. Thanks for the advice so far I really appreciate the help.