Just curious who your underwriter is? When I bought my -4 my underwriter originally insisted on similar hours in the actual plane. Problem is, the RV-4 is a horrible plane in which to receive (and I presume give) instruction. They ended up letting me get 5 hours of dual in any tailwheel RV (I did mine with Jan Bussel in his RV-6 - highly recommended) and then 10 hours solo in the RV-4 before carrying passengers. You might see if they'll let you do something similar.
A little background into why I suggested a change in the training requirements.....the guy that I had lined up to do my transition training in the RV-4 was doing transition training for another gentleman in a newly purchased RV-8 a few weeks before I bought my plane. Although the RV-8 had rear rudder pedals, they managed to ground loop it. The instructor was along for the ride as the new owner fought him on the pedals (the story I heard, at least) and the pushrod connecting the front and rear pedals ultimately buckled, jamming the rudder. Again, in my opinion, the tandems are a terrible setup for transition training. I took the rear pedals out of my RV-4 shortly after buying it.
