Terry Peloton

Category: Sidesaddle Blog

  • Spring 2012 Preview

    The modern Cyclista Tee — a perfect mate to the new Burlington bicycle.

     

    For the love of the bike :: the new European heritage.

    Cycling heritage and a sense of nostalgia for the roots of the sport are being honored and reinterpreted in new and contemporary ways as more people look to the bright future of cycling. Communities around the world are taking a fresh look at alternative transportation and the health and happiness of their citizens. With this New European Heritage collection available in early 2012, Terry honors the history of cycling as we excitedly pedal toward the future. Our photo shoot in bike-friendly Chicago last week was electrified with color, new products prints and bikes all designed to celebrate urban bike life and the beauty of cycling.

    "Wheels are wings" in the Red Nostro Peloton with custom graphic panels. Fast Woman bike.
    Meet the new Echelon collection: SS jersey and all-new Coldblack short.
    Mandarin Jersey in Parisian Pied a Terre.
    Ride like a girl in new Signature Kit. Flat Bar Symmetry.
    New Signature Tri kit says it all.
    Mesh Top in new Bike Shadow print. Shown with Stretch Mini, Euro glove. Susan B bicycle.
    New Bella Halter with Bella Short-Short.
    Freedom of expression in le Midi skort/knicker.
    Shorter hemline, high performance, Coldblack Echelon Skort is NEW for 2012.
    New Tri Tank in blue/black, shown with Terry Tri Short and Tailwind bike.
    Bike tunic in Topo Rose with Terry Actif Knicker.

  • Cycling fashion trends from Interbike 2011

    Interbike 2011 brought more than 23,000 cycling fans to Las Vegas to spend several days exploring up-and-coming trends that will steal the stage in the cycling industry for the next few seasons. Paula and Abbie headed out west to spread the word about the latest happenings at Terry and see what other companies like The North Face have been doing.

    This year’s Interbike highlighted cycling’s growing place in urban living. Blogger Lovely Bicycle named “transportational elegance” one of this year’s top trends, and Terry’s soon-to-be-released commuter bike, the Burlington, certainly fits the bill for fun and functional riding. Bikes for the Rest of Us recently wrote a post on the chic 8-speed, which comes equipped with fenders and a rack to make the transition to biking for transportation as simple as possible. The Terry Burlington is set to debut in late December, just in time for New Year’s resolutions to ride more and drive less.

    Other companies premiered brightly colored technical clothing and accessories. The North Face debuted their new reflective line of urban commuter cycling wear, in addition to its Spring 2012 mountain biking line, which included a hot pink long sleeved jersey and a casual purple hoodie with orange highlights. Fixed geared bikes with a variety of frame and rim colors will remain a popular choice in urban markets, and Poc’s new helmet colors for next year, including sky blue and lime green, provide both safety and style.

    The Terry Cadence dress at Interbike's City Style Fashion Show (Photo by David Niddrie, compliments of momentumplanet.com)

     

    New bikes and bright colors weren’t the only ones turning heads at Interbike. The Terry Cadence dress made an appearance at the annual City Style Fashion Show put on by Momentum Magazine. The versatile ¾ sleeve black dress stays comfortable while commuting and running errands yet looks smart enough to wear to work. The Cadence appeared in the Interbike Trend Guide and has gotten great reviews. Terry continues to lead the way in creating cycling clothing for both on and off the bike.

  • A Perfect September Ride

    Leaving my house, I turn out of my neighborhood and onto a lightly traveled, recently chip-sealed suburban road which makes me really appreciate the comfort of wider tires and a compliant frame. Within a mile, it’s decision time. Continue straight on a flat-ish route or turn right up a small hill. Wondering whether a recent week of riding on pan flat roads in Maryland has made me an even worse climber than usual, I decide to take the chance. With a flick of the handlebars, right it is. If I’m lucky, I’ll hear Paul Sherwen’s voice in my head, “digging into her suitcase of pain.” Without luck, I’ll hear something along the lines of “no power in the engine room.” But today I’m lucky! Up and over.

    From there, I pick up a convenient four-way stop at a usually busy road which will lead me out into a more rural setting. But since today is Sunday, there are very few cars and I feel as though I have the road to myself. A few more miles of pedaling and I’m surrounded by corn and soybean fields. And let’s not forget the flora. What better time than fall to enjoy the muted colors of hawkweed and aster — New York and New England.

    My halfway stop is a small park. This time of year, it’s the home base for school football games, but today it’s deserted. Just me and a handful of American crows. They put up with my poor imitation of their near cousin, the fish crow. Overhead, a line of Canada geese chime in just for good measure. Perfect entertainment while I enjoy some snacks.

    By now, the sun is high and my wind vest and long sleeve base layer are no longer necessary. Since it’s just me and the crows, I have no inhibitions about shedding the base layer while exposing a little flesh. Ah, that feels better. The wind vest folds neatly into my jersey pocket and the base layer just makes it into a very tiny handlebar bag.

    The second half of the ride rolls a bit more. For a seemingly long north to south slog, I’m on yet another chip-sealed road. I don’t know why, but there’s always a nagging head wind on this road. Always. That, combined with the roll and the rough surface, gives it a heavy feel. I can never seem to find a rhythm that suits me.

    But it soon ends, and I turn onto a delightful road that runs along a ridge, winding past old farms and houses. Eventually, it flows downhill over a small emerald green stream and leads me to the finishing stretch. Another uphill, but this one very, very gradual with unfolding panoramic views of verdant farm fields. Open space at its best.

    If every ride can’t end with a tailwind, then I’ll take a downhill, and so it is with this ride. There’s no feeling quite like swooshing onto my street, thoroughly exhilarated, hungry and ready for a mellow afternoon catching up on cycling news. What would have happened in the Vuelta if Sky had decided to support Froome instead of Wiggins? Today, that’s about as complicated as life is going to get. Long live the bike!

  • Bikes at Fashion Week.

    NYC Fashion Week :: bicycles front and center.

    September’s NYC fashion week went mobile this year, with bikes front and center in the inaugural Tour de Fashion. A group of 30 haute cruisers were customized by top designers like Diane von Furstenberg, Isaac Mizrahi and Betsy Johnson. Bikes are complements of fashionable Bowery Lane Bicycles, dedicated to making bikes by hand in NYC for urban commuting. Runways to roadways, we like it!! Cudos to Bowery Lane and the Fashion Center Business Improvement Center for getting things rolling. See all the bikes here.

     

    Betsy Johnson with her custom creation.

    Vogue’s Fashion Week, online
    Bungee cord that gazillion dollar designer purse!

  • The New Rider: I Love Cycling!

    Cycling in Vermont
    Riding in Northern Vermont is so beautiful!

    I have come to love cycling. Really! I am not just saying that because I work at Terry Bicycles. My husband and I have gone out on some really great rides together. It’s something that we can do together on our days off or when we find the time. He is new to cycling as well, so it’s a no-judgement type of thing that we can share while we get better at it and improve our overall health.

    Cycling is good for my brain in so many ways. When I was younger I was an Equestrian (Dressage specifically), so I was very fit and active riding every day. Making a large animal do movements that don’t necessarily come easily to them is a challenge, but it’s a challenge that I loved. I really miss riding horses and now that I don’t have much time and have a family it has become more difficult to find time for myself. Cycling has gotten me back into the mindset of achieving personal goals. I really love Dressage because it suits my perfectionist personality. I found while riding yesterday that cycling gives me that same feeling of accomplishment that I got from Dressage. There are certain tweaks I was making while riding and seeing immediate results. My mph speed yesterday was quite good for me and I felt great after the ride. I wasn’t sore and I felt that my position was good. All of your suggestions about sitting back in the saddle when going up hills and staying out of my drops when I get wobbly helped so much. I felt like you all were there in my head while I was riding. It’s great to feel such a connection to the cycling community already! Thank you so much for your support.

    I am almost ready to try clipping into some pedals!

  • The cycling executive’s briefcase.

    The Swig rocks for cycling.

    As Marketing Director for Terry, my life is about the art of mobility. I bought a Timbuk2 Swig out of desperation prior to a trade show after retiring an overloaded messenger bag that was making me think weekly massages were a job necessity. This bag rocks, even when filled with them. It’s low profile, ergonomically shaped for carrying laptop and ipad, plus it’s compartmentalized so that you can carry plenty of things in an organized fashion (rather than losing them in the open-pit cavern). It’s a backpack that easily let’s you swing around and access from one shoulder.

    What I also love is how it is perfectly shaped to go under an airline seat and double as a footrest. We are currently stocking a stylish version in gunmetal gray with a splash of wheel print. Super features: bomb-proof Cordura® exterior with outer water bottle pocket, quick grip handle and really comfy padded straps; padded laptop compartment with outer zip for side access.

     

  • Outdoor Retailer Trends

    The Outdoor Retailer Summer Show just occurred in Salt Lake City. Our team spotted some interesting developments on the horizon. Here are some highlights:

    We're not in Kansas any more: heels on wheels from Merrell.
    Urban/fixed gear trend continues: new waxed canvas bag collection from Timbuk2.
    Illumination: North Face's new Bike Commuter Collection may look like no big deal, BUT…
    Look what happens when light hits these shorts!
    Cool bike tees from Lole.
    A romper for cycling with snaps between the legs.
    The new length in outdoor: TUNICS. Look for lots of them next spring.
    Continued focus on fair trade organic fabrics, skinny jeans rolled up.
    Color in footwear.
    Toes in footwear.
    The beauty of wool: armwarmers, with knee warmers to match!
    Outdoor Retailer embraced the bike in a big way, thanks in large part to a trend by outdoor specialty retailers to add cycling to their product mix.

     

  • Bike Shop Hop Along the NY Rail Trail

     

    The NY Rail Trail along the eastern boundary of the state is surprisingly unfamiliar to cyclists, even the

    locals, perhaps because a Google search serves it up in three distinct sections (see links below). You must cobble together the full map: the Putnam County Trail, the North County Trail and the South County Trail. Bottom line, you can now ride from Brewster to the Bronx, 40 miles on a bike path that is wide open to high speed cycling and unencumbered by dog walkers or roller bladers. What a sanctuary from 104 degree July temps in deep shaded forest and with a breeze accompanying views of the reservoirs. Local delis, gelato stands and bike shops can be found at road crossings and short distances from the path in towns along the way.

     

    I parked my car at Yorktown Cycles. Tom the shop owner took time from his service floor to review his past experience with Terry gear; “What happened to your Ride Like a Girl jerseys?”, he asked. “Biker Chick is taking over.” Tom understands how to sell to women and his shop shows it. Well Tom, they are back for 2012!

     

    From Yorktown Heights, I rode south to the junction of Rte 134 and 100. Following Rte 100 north to Seven Bridges Rd and Main St., I cruised into Mt Kisco stopping at Bicycle World. Eric the shop owner was also busy on the service floor but briefly asked about Georgena as if inquiring about an old friend. The cooler full of energy drinks suggested I was not the only one riding by his well-merchandised shop.

     

    Straying from the trail, I ventured from Mt Kisco along Rte 117 to Chappaqua. Westchester County roads, like the Taconic Parkway, are infrastructure of the 18th century; carriage roads with no shoulders, tight hilly curves and open gullied drainage make cycling hazardous. However, the difficult tangent was so worth the effort when I found Will and Paul at Julio’s Bicycles. These are fun loving, but knowledgeable bike guys

    who put you at ease to ask questions that might expose your lack of experience. Every bike (and related customer) is their friend. With 21 years in business and a great variety of everything but Trek and Specialized, including a basement full of vintage bikes (they showed me a Terry Classic with the 24 inch front wheel), Will and Paul inspire you to make this your bike shop for life.

     

    I returned north the way I came and pushed 13 miles north of Yorktown Heights to Carmel where I found Village Bikes of Putnam at another ideal trailhead location for parking. Tim and his wife Sue work two jobs, but their shop is their lives’ passion. Tim proudly reveals that the business has grown, without interruption, in each of its 15 years – affirmation that success comes when you do what you love to do.

     

    The final leg of my 67 mile ride, 13 miles from Carmel back to my car in Yorktown Heights, revealed an interesting feature of NY geography that explains the colonial aqueduct system feeding New York City. Although the ride north on the Rail Trail is imperceptibly uphill, the return south is noticeably and relentlessly downhill – a great way to cool down as the evening temps finally dipped below 100 degrees.

     

     

    LINKS TO TRAIL MAPS:

    http://www.putnamcountyny.com/planning/files/Putnam%20Bike%20path%20brochure%20&%20map.pdf

    http://www.yorktowndepot.org/North_County_Trailway.pdf

    http://www.westchestergov.com/Parks/Images/maps2/SCTrailwayMaps/SCTrail.htm

     

  • Hey Mister, your tires need air!

    I make rubbings of tire sidewalls and I like to doodle — hence this very stylized tracing of the Schwalbe Durano tire used on my Valkyrie Tour. You can see from this that the maximum recommended inflation pressure for this tire is 115 psi and the minimum is 85 psi.

    Do you think it’s always easiest to pedal your bicycle when the tires are pumped up to the maximum inflation pressure? That’s not necessarily correct. What?!? Well, unless you’re riding on a road as smooth as glass or you weigh quite a bit, a lower pressure might actually make you a faster rider.

    There’s a “magic land” somewhere between tires that are so hard that they jump all over the road and tires that are soft and deform too much, losing the ability to “push back” on the road, helping move the bicycle forward. The idea behind the perfect pressure is that the tire is allowed to become a shock absorber — sucking up the irregularities of the road before they get to the rider and tire her out. A recent article in Bicycle Quarterly estimated that even on smooth roads, you exert 10% of your power just overcoming these “suspension losses”.

    So what’s the optimum pressure? Well, some use the 15% “tire drop” formula. Very simply, the height of the tire is measured without the rider on the bike. With the rider on the bike, the tire pressure is reduced until the height drops by 15%. Voila! Uh, except for the fact that you really do want to stay within the recommended max and min pressures and this might not be possible… unless you want to play around with tires of varying widths.

    Vittoria Tires has another method that relies on rider “feel”. Using a chart, the rider starts with the recommended inflation pressure and then reduces it by 5 psi at a time until the tire “wallows”. This is the least amount of pressure for this rider. Next, the rider increases the pressure by 5psi until the bike bounces. This is the maximum pressure for this rider. Back down we go, 5 psi at a time until things feel just right.

    The long and short of it is that rarely does the maximum tire pressure provide the best ride. It may sound really fast, as you go humming down the road, but the power meter will show that it’s usually not as efficient as a lower tire pressure.

    “Hey Mister. Your tires need some air.” That’s what someone standing by the side of the road might have said to cyclist Jan Heine. Indeed, Jan was running low pressures in these 41mm tires during a tour of gravel roads in the Cascades. The result was an efficient but comfortable ride. Looks can be deceiving.

    So — go forth and let some air out of your tires!

    Tailwinds,

    Georgena

    Sources:

    http://www.vittoria.com/tech/recom-tyre-pressure/

    PSI RX by Jan Heine, Adventure Cyclist, March 2009, pp 34 – 35.

    Comfort Equals Speed by Jan Heine and Mark Vande Kamp, Bicycle Quarterly, Autumn 2009

  • Rides of San Diego

    I’d heard San Diego was a cyclist’s city. So after a brief appearance at the Internet Retailer convention, I set out to visit bike shops and explore by bike an urban world unknown to me. I assembled my bike out of the travel box at the hotel, packed only the gear essential for an unsupported solo ride, and using Google’s beta Bike Maps, charted two bike friendly routes on my iPod (see links below).

    My hotel was on the boardwalk in Mission Beach about 10 miles outside of downtown San Diego.

    Day one: Mission Beach to Encinitas. I took the boardwalk north to the end and La Jolla Blvd. This and Torrey Pines Road are nicely set up for the cyclist with bike lanes, but are often four lanes with 50-60 mph traffic.

     

    Prepare for a highway hill (gradual but long) climb through Torrey Pines State Park before cresting to a spectacular Pacific vista and downhill to the coastline. Thereafter, the towns of Delmar, where you pick up Coastal Highway 101, Solano Beach and Encinitas are strategically situated, like ancient European fortress towns, on “bute” like hills. Delmar is the luxury beach town. The others, including Mission Beach, are urban boardwalk beachfront with a touch of honky-tonk and a genuine California surfer vibe. You’ll find the friendliest people, surf shops, and creative outcroppings of foodstuff and crafts. I visited Nytro Sports and Bicycle Warehouse in Encinitas. Nytro, the upscale tri specialists, kindly did a quick turn on my flat tire. Danno and Brent (from Vermont) of B&L Bike and Sports, the full service shop in Solano Beach, were well versed in the women’s market.

     

     

     

    Day Two: City of San Diego. Yes, you can ride from Mission Beach to downtown San Diego first traveling along West Mission Bay Drive to the Old SeaWorld Highway, now a bike only road that runs along the river. Then take Friar’s Drive, a four-lane highway with a barricaded bike lane, to Fashion Valley Road. Then left at Macy’s, right over the San Diego river and left on Camino del Rio.

     

     

    You’ll note traveling inland that the city sits significantly above you. Brace yourself for a holy shit climb up Texas St, straight up a narrow bike lane in four lanes of traffic. Time the busses pulling over to their stops so you don’t have to stop! On top, back track to Adams Ave with a left on Madison and another left on Arizona. Now you are in small neighborhood San Diego – tree covered streets and older cottages with charming gardens. Beautiful vistas look over the inland hills and the ocean. Adams Avenue Bicycles with frescoed exterior is loaded with retro commuter bikes and Andrew, the shop owner, offers an espresso from the service floor. Café 21 next door, with outdoor tables, exotic ice teas, and fruit and leaf salads, is a great lunch spot. CalCoast Bicycles at the corner of Adams and 30th Street is the most inventoried bicycle shop in all the area, but clothing is sparse. Charlie, the owner talks sensible bike business, and Aaron in service remembers Paula and GT when he led the San Diego Bicycle Retailer Tour in 1999!

     

     

     

    A short way down 30th Street is Velo Cult Bicycle.

     

    Here, Sky offers customers an Inversion I.P.A. Stationed at his cash register, he told me about

    the dozen or so Terrys he has re-marketed – he buys all the small bikes he finds. A few blocks down is Pista Palace, a boutique of expensive European road race machines.  Riding down 30th Street, you get the feel for old style urban riding; no bike lane, buses, cars in anything but single file, but the free spirited vibe of South Park with artisan shops and microbrew pubs is inspiration to go with the flow. At intersections where sports cars line up like the start of the Kentucky Derby, I simply got off and used the pedestrian crosswalk. A right onto quieter Island Avenue with its bike lane takes you up over Grant Hill to views of downtown and a roller coaster descent to the convention center and waterfront.

     

     

    The city harbor boardwalk going north is crammed with bike cabs (great resource for bike route information) and on the Seaport shopping pier you must walk your bike. The boardwalk turns into a bike path to the Maritime Museum. Bike cabbies advocate taking Pacific Coast Highway (with bike lane) from the end of Harbor Drive to the river and catching Ocean Beach bike path west back to Mission Bay Bridge. I took the more scenic North Harbor Drive shoreline bike path past the airport to Nimitz Blvd and Sunset Cliffs thinking I could cross the Sunset Cliffs bridge. Squeezed between a freeway entrance and this narrow bridge with no bike lane, I thought I had made a big mistake not listening to the cabbies. But looking over the embankment I saw a bike path down below. Sliding down on my ass holding bike overhead, I chose this unmapped entrance to a riverside path with no name that took me back to West Mission Bay Bridge and Mission Beach. As a chamois is good for more than a saddle, I will be sure to submit this finding to Google’s Bike Maps. Still in beta, this new Google feature is remarkably bike accurate for San Diego likely because of tell all adventurers like me.

     

    Links to Google Bike Maps:

    Mission Beach to Encinitas:

    http://b.link/maps69

     

    San Diego Bike Tour

    from Google Maps ( more or less accurate except that I came down 30th St from Adams Ave)

    [vertical-spacer]