Terry Bikes

[skygayle]

Anyone have any suggestions on Terry bikes? I am 4'10" and am having a very difficult time finding a bike that fits me. Any suggestions are certainly welcome.

[Juliette]

I have two Terry bikes, a road bike and a mtn bike. They fit just great. I'm 5'1" and used to ride Cannondales. After riding the Terrys, they seemed so big and clumsy. The Terrys are much more comfortable and are easier to handle.

The road bike does look kind of goofy with the smaller front wheel and guys have asked me what is wrong with my mtn bike (it has 24" wheels) but hey, whatever works for me.

Another place you might check is www.bikefriday.com. I have been looking into getting one of these bikes primarily for travel, but the people I talk to who have them say they are great bikes. Since these have 20" wheels and are custom made, they should be good for those of us who are stubby.

[massbikebabe]

I have an old Terry bike...a Precision that I bought somewhere around 1985/1986. Prior to that I had a Bianchi that was just too big for me. I love the Terry, and still ride it. It has aged very well
not a chip on the paint. It will always be my favorite bike. My daughter who is also small loves the bike also. My only complaint about the Terry is they are still very heavy bikes...but worth every penny you spend!!

Karen

[emily_in_nc]

I ride a Terry Isis and LOVE the fit. But, as Karen points out, they are heavy bikes for the size, since they're steel. I recently put the upgraded wheel set (from the Terry web site) and Terry carbon fiber fork on my bike, which helped my speed slightly, but when I pick up my bike and then any of my female riding pals' bikes (which are mostly aluminum, a few ti or carbon), I am amazed at the weight difference! My bike weighs about 23 lbs. with my seat bag (C02 cartridges and injector, two tubes, etc.) and pedals - more with filled water bottles. The titanium Terry is obviously lighter, but $$$$.

At 4'10", skygayle is probably going to need the 16" size, the smallest Terry road bike (assuming you're looking for a road bike - you didn' say). I'm 5'2" with a 28" inseam and ride the second smallest (17.5") size.

Right now I am coveting an Aegis Swift, all carbon, two 650C wheels (only have to carry one tube instead of the two I carry), about 18 lbs, and come in sizes down to 43 cm. But I'll ride my Isis a bit longer since I only got it in Oct. 2002, and wait til I am ready to plunk that kind of money down.

And it's true, some people do comment on Terrys looking weird with the small front tire, but I could care less about that!

Good luck in your selection!

Emily

[Veronica]

I'm always somewhat skeptical about the difference a few pounds on a bike can make for the average rider. 5 pounds is about how much your water bottles weigh. Try riding without your water bottles sometime to see if it really will increase your speed before you buy.


My club always gives me a (goodnatured) hard time because I have started carrying three water bottles on our Monday night ride. "The extra weight will slow you down." Yeah right - the lack of water will give me a screaming headache. It was really funny when one of them ran out because he'd only brought one and Thom gave him some of mine.

Veronica

[christine]

Hi Skygale:

I was following your posts and wondered if you were able to find a bike yet. I'm also 4'10" (yay! there are at least 2 of us!) and I've just begun looking into buying a bike. I haven't ridden since jr high so I didn't want to spend a lot in case I don't get hooked on the sport, and also `cause it'll be a first bike.

The Terry "Susan B" sounded perfect since it actually says it's made for a 4'10" woman, and it's more reasonably priced too.
I also can't find anyone that carries Terry bikes. I live in a super-bike-friendly area (northern California), but so far no luck even when calling stores that are listed as Terry dealers on their website. I'm going to call Terry directly and see if they can tell me who actually carries the bikes in stock, but I'm not expecting any.

My sister is 4'11" and rides a lot, mostly mountain biking. She has one road bike: Cannondale R400 (2000 model). It's not specifically for women but she got the 43cm and has fitted other parts. Unfortunately, we live on different coasts so I can't even try out her bike!

In the meantime, tomorrow my husband and I are going on our first bike-testing trips. I think I'd prefer a hybrid or touring bike, but will be happy with a road bike if it fits and is comfortable. I'll be looking for the following bikes based on what I've read on these threads and a couple of other sites & message boards.

Maybe you can look into some of these too if you haven't already? If you have tried them, can you tell me how they were for you?

~Trek: 2000WSD, 2200WSD, 2300 WSD, 5200WSD
~Cannondale: adventure 500 feminine, comfort 400 S femine, R400 triple feminine
~Specialized: alleze vita woman
~Giant: cypress women's, cypress dx women's, cypress lx women
~Fuji: finest women's, newest women's, kobe lady
~REI: novara carema
~Bianchi: eros donna
~Raleigh: capri
~Gary Fisher: big sur GS

I know we're supposed to get the bike that feels right. It just seems hard to do that when you can't even get a small enough bike to test ride (sigh).

Keeping my fingers crossed for both of us,
Christine

[emily_in_nc]

Hi Christine,

I test rode the Trek 5200 WSD a couple of weeks ago so can comment on that one. First off, the smallest size this model comes in is 47 cm. I guess Trek doesn't think that tiny women can be serious cyclists as this is their top of the line, all carbon, WSD bike. I ride the 17.5" Terry Isis mentioned above and am 5'2" with a 28" inseam. I had fine standover on the WSD, but the top tube felt a bit long - I felt a bit stretched out. It's possible that a stem change would have helped this. However, if the bike felt a bit big to me, it would certainly be too large for someone 4'10".

That said, I do think that some of other Trek WSD models come in a smaller size (43 cm, I believe) - just not the 5200.

Good luck!
Emily

[christine]

Hi Emily:

Thanks for the info. My height is definitely working against me (as usual). I've also stopped looking at road bikes since I realize I'm not quite ready for that kind of speed and the hunched over position. We're now looking at hybrids and mountain bikes that we can swap out tires for later.

I've also stopped focusing on frame size and been looking mainly at standover height and top tube length. It's really narrowed the search!

Not giving up yet, though.

Thanks!
Christine