Terry Peloton

Tag: Bicycles for Women

  • LET’S GET COMFORTABLE.

    My Journey to Saddle Comfort.

    Happily climbing Emerald Bay.
    Happily climbing Emerald Bay.

     

    I can vividly remember my very first rides in 1999.  I had signed up to train and ride 100 miles in Lake Tahoe, and my saddle pain seemed insurmountable. Finally, I looked at my coach and said, “I can’t do this, the pain is too intense.” He looked back at me and using his charming French accent said, “go get a saddle with a cutout and I’ll see you next week.”

    I hobbled to my bike shop and repeated the words of my coach (without the accent) and, I am happy to report, my shop put a Terry Butterfly on my bike.  Best bike upgrade ever!

    The rest is history…I rode a very comfortable 100 miles in Lake Tahoe and a few thousand more.

    A good bike fit and good, padded, breathable shorts (without your underwear) will also help you achieve saddle comfort.  I was very lucky to find a great saddle so quickly and I have great sympathy for those struggling with this endeavor.

    The moral of this story is to keep working to find the best saddle for your needs and reach out for assistance if the road gets rough.

    Tailwinds,

    Lisa Wilkes

    About Lisa: If you’ve had the pleasure of talking to a “real person” at Terry, chances are good that it may have been Lisa or one of her team. As a former bike coach and our Customer Service Manager, she’s full of personal inspiration and professional expertise when it comes to getting comfortable with saddles, choosing the right apparel, answering questions about cycling and a few other specialties that are guaranteed to help improve your attitude, if not your ride!

  • SISTER SESSION.

    “Girls gotta start somewhere.”

    This film is important – for girls, women, men, boys, BMX, cycling, the world – this is important.

    Breaking through the BMX barrier, this 11 minute film (part of the Bicycle Film Festival) is an absolute inspiration. As I watched these women flip through the air and go full speed toward ramps, jumps, and staircases that I would give my left arm to avoid on two wheels, I had chills.

    The women in this video came from all over the world to do what they loved in front of a crowd who was waiting for them to fail. Even the people who supported them in putting the session together said they were too weak for BMX and yes- they fell – but when it ended and they were piled together in sweat and tears and joy, there is no way that anyone could see this as anything but an extraordinary success.

    If you want an extra boost of faith in humanity, watch the video here, and read all of the stories that this film inspired in the comments section.

    Ride on sisters, and thank you for your awe-inspiring contribution to women’s cycling.

  • SPRING CLASSIC: THE MUDDY ONION.

    It’s officially mud season in Vermont – an incredibly fitting name for this dreary phenomenon. With bare trees and sloppy, frigid mud covering every surface imaginable, one bike ride stands as a beaming ray of joy, inviting riders to revel in this unlikely cycling paradise. That ride is the Muddy Onion hosted by Onion River Sports in Montpelier, VT.

    Over 200 riders lined up to grind 34 miles of gravel roads around Vermont's capitol of Montpelier.
    Over 200 riders lined up to grind 34 miles of gravel roads around Montpelier, VT. Photo credit: Bill Merrylees

    Terry Graphic Designer, Erika Boyce, joined in the action for the third year in a row saying, “this is my favorite ride to kick my butt into shape”. This year, her goal was to ride all of the hills (this course happens to be one giant gravel hill with over 4500′ of elevation gain) and she succeeded!

    Erika is all smiles at the first rest stop after enjoying some pickles and chocolate dipped bacon.
    Erika (right) is all smiles at the first rest stop after enjoying some pickles and chocolate dipped bacon.

    One often imagines the picturesque hillsides of Vermont covered in golden leaves and happy dairy cows, but even when those hillsides are brown and covered in mud, this is a pretty great place to grab your bike and embrace the joy of gravel.

    A typical April day in Vermont-- 40 degrees, no leaves and plenty of cows!
    A typical April day in Vermont– 40 degrees, no leaves and plenty of cows! Photo credit: Bill Merrylees

    If you’d like to join us in getting muddy next year, visit www.onionriver.com/muddy-onion/ for more details!

    Tailwinds,

    Whitney McKiddy

  • Valkyrie Tour: The Video

    All about the Valkyrie Tour and its versatile features that can’t adequately be explained with words. I’ll walk you through all its unique aspects. If you’re thinking about purchasing a Valkyrie, this is a great way to learn more about it.

  • Ride2Recovery is Our October RIF Winner

    Verna Bell submitted the story of her daughter, Sara, who volunteers for Ride2Recovery. We couldn’t think of a more deserving cause and we’re thrilled to present a Symmetry bicycle to Verna and a Susan B. bicycle to Ride2Recovery. Here’s Verna’s entry:

    Ride2Recovery is a not-for-profit organization that promotes rehab for those heroes who have been injured while serving our country. This group helps all wounded veterans and features cycling as the core recovery activity. My inspiration for supporting this cause is in part to my daughter, Sara’s, participation and involvement in R2R. She rides along and assists riders that need help. R2R provides bikes, lodging, meals and transportation to those veterans who want to participate. Much effort and creativity goes into the preparation of the bikes for those who are missing arms and legs or both, so they can participate.

  • Bikes for Women: Looks can be deceiving

    When I first started building bicycles for women some 25 years ago, it took only a quick glance at a man and a woman of the same height to see that her legs were longer than his.  Her shorter torso was clearly the reason why she felt “stretched out” on a bike and had to endure discomfort in her shoulders and back. So Terry bikes were built with shorter top tubes on all sizes to address this concern.

    Around 1990, I decided to get a more analytical and less anecdotal about the root causes of some women’s discomfort while riding.  There’s a lot of information about men’s and women’s anatomy and I was looking forward to finding out just how much shorter a woman’s upper body was proportionate to a man’s.  Guess what?  Women have proportionately longer arms and trunks than men.  Looks can be very deceptive, thanks to women’s higher waist lines.

    Yet, women’s discomfort on bikes was very real. But what was the underlying cause?  We were doing the right thing but for the wrong reason.  We needed to know the right reason.

    Enter Laura Lund, then working on her Masters in Mechanical Engineering-Bioengineering at Carnegie Mellon University.  She did some research and came up with some possible causes for women’s discomfort.  In doing so, she confirmed why our designs were working.

    So what was going on? It has to do with the distribution of body mass and the location of the center of those masses. They differ between men and women. More of a woman’s body mass is in her trunk than a man’s. And, speaking in simple terms, it’s higher on her trunk than on a man’s.  Think of it like this: if you put a five pound weight on your lower back and then bend over, it will be a lot easier than if you bend over with the same weight on your shoulders.  Your total weight is the same in both cases, but in the latter case, you’ve moved the center of that weight up and away from the muscles that are doing the work.  This higher “center of mass” means more effort is required by the lower back muscles.  A similar situation exists in the arms with regard to the forces exerted on the rider’s shoulders.

    Add to this the fact that women tend to have smaller muscles than men to support these forces. Not a good scenario!

    But the story doesn’t end there.  Stay tuned….

    Tailwinds,

    Georgena

     

  • Where Have All the Women’s Bikes Gone?

    Based on a quick review of bike manufacturers’ websites, women’s bikes don’t seem to have gone anywhere, but a little probing shows the industry might to be in retrograde mode. Having made so much progress in the last 25 years, it would be a shame to lose sight of the goal: bountiful offerings for all riders.  Although there are more choices than ever for female cyclists, the true distinctions between those bikes and unisex bikes are disappearing quickly.

     

     

    Last month, Bicycling magazine’s annual Buyer’s Guide hit the news stands and for the first time in years, there was no mention of women’s bikes.  Poof! Gone with the wind! I haven’t been able to find the reason for this — so far, all Bicycling will say is women’s bikes will be covered in their Editor’s Choice and in individual bike reviews.  Gone, but not forgotten.

    Now, add to this the fact that, with the notable exception of Specialized, in the past most smaller women’s bikes have offered 650c wheel sizes to fit the rider properly. (At Terry, we go a step further with not only 650c and 700c, but 24” wheels as well.)  But recently, 650c has been disappearing from the lineup faster than real sugar in soft drinks.  No more 650c for Cannondale, Trek, Orbea or Fuji to name just a few.

    So what’s going on??? I spoke to some manufacturers — those who continue to carry 650c and those who have dropped them.  They all told me the same thing. 650c wheels are a must-have for a properly built small bicycle. But there is mounting pressure to build small bikes with 700c wheels.

    Some told me the consumer herself is driving this change. Apparently there are quite a few women who would prefer to ride an ill-fitting bike with 700c wheels than a properly-fitting 650c bicycle. This may be driven by hesitancy about the availability of 650c or the need to conform.

    Others think the “push back” is from those dealers who don’t really understand how a 650c wheel makes a difference in bike fit and choose to stay in the 700c comfort zone rather than educate the consumer.

    Once a manufacturer has decided to embrace 700c wheels exclusively, just how will women’s bikes be differentiated from “unisex” bikes?  Expect to see a lot more of this: “…a shorter crank and stem length, along with narrower handlebars, give it a women-specific fit”.  Gee, that’s just what we did in the good old days of unisex! I can guarantee you that women on the tail of the bell curve, i.e. those very petite women are in for a rough time of it.  As 700c returns, stand over heights are rising.

    Are manufacturers really reading the market correctly? Is there indeed a trade-off between the desire for a properly fitting bicycle and wheel size? What say you, dear reader?