Georgena Terry Bicycles – Photos of recent bicycles
It’s been a wonderful year for taking orders for my Georgena Terry bicycles. That translates into meeting lots of super people who love to ride their bicycles! These women are doing all kinds of neat things on their bikes. From commuting and loaded touring to simply enjoying a quiet ride on a back country road at a leisurely pace, they’re doing it.
What stands out? All of it, but some things in particular. Like the Gale Force the customer and I tweaked to become a gravel road racer. Or the Coto Doñana Vagabond that’s doing double duty as a city bike/explorer without the weight constraints typically associated with a city bike. And then there was the Gale Force that coveted the gearing of the Coto Doñana Tour. On the flip side, a Canadian nature photographer opted for a Coto Doñana Vagabond with an Ultegra compact group.
Isn’t this what a bespoke bike is all about? It’s a bike that’s not just steel and components, but a best friend, a trusted friend, who will take you where you want to go, on your terms. How does that happen? Well, it’s a joint effort, an iterative experience. We design the bike together. It’s like putting a puzzle together — bit by bit, the pieces fall into place. It’s my job to figure out how to turn your riding aspirations into the perfect conglomeration of tubing and components…with a paint job that’s over the top. Synergy at its best!
Here are some photos of a few Georgena Terry bicycles. I would be remiss if I didn’t include a legacy Precision, the custom bike I began building in my basement when a career in cycling was barely a blip on my radar.
Enjoy!
An original 1987 Terry Precision painted in Imron® Sea Sprite Green.
A vertical fade on a Georgena Terry Coto Doñana Vagabond. The perfect paint scheme is an expression of the rider’s personality.
Gale Force turned gravel bike! Carbon fork; steel frame. Its owner was thrilled: “I had complete faith in your design for fit and it is perfect, just perfect. I had compete faith that steel was the right choice for gravel, but didn’t expect it to match, 100%, the snap of my carbon frame on asphalt. I don’t know what you did, but this bike climbs like a dream and accelerates much better than its engine will ever be able to test its limits.”
A Coto Doñana Vagabond, flat bar version. Tubus Tara front rack, SKS Longboard fenders.
A Coto Doñana Tour ready to come off the roof rack and start a cross country tour.
S&S couplers on this Coto Doñana Vagabond make it a cinch to pack when visiting far away places, like Alaska.
A 650c Gale Force for a 4′ 11″ customer. This one uses SRAM components. Says its rider: “I went from a 12-13 mph rider to a 16 mph rider with seeemingly no effort.”
The elegant simplicity of a white Coto Doñana Tour, complete with Brooks saddle and matching leather bar tape.
“The most beautiful bike in the world,” said the owner of this Gale Force.
A small bicycle for a small rider
One of the joys of my business is when I can help a rider find unique solutions to her problems so she can achieve her cycling goals.
The Goal:
Ride the Seattle to Portland Classic. 200 miles in two days including training seriously for the ride in the months prior to the event.
The Issues:
The rider is a petite woman in – 4′ 11″ with a barefoot inseam of 26″ – in need of a small bicycle. She has arthritis which affects her right thumb in particular. She prefers a flat handlebar. She’s having surgery to repair the thumb, which will only leave her about four months to train for the ride. Her current bike just wasn’t cutting it in terms of comfort or performance.
This is the bike my customer was riding.
The Challenge:
A bike that won’t aggravate her hand situation, will fit her small stature perfectly and will get her to Portland and back with a smile on her face! Just finishing isn’t enough — I want her to finish and consider it one of the coolest rides she’s done. And the first of many more “bucket” rides to come!
The Solution:
A Coto Doñana Tour, with custom sizing and a very careful choice of components to accommodate her hands. And, oh yes, a custom color as well.
How It Was Accomplished:
The first step was to scale down the smallest Coto Doñana Tour in order to give the rider clearance over the top tube. This was done partly by lowering the top tube where it meets the seat tube and by shortening the fork blades, which lowered the front end of the bike. The customer didn’t need the ability to run fenders on wide tires (which is a feature of the Coto Doñana Tour), so this was an option. With these changes, the stand over height was reduced by about an inch.
The handlebars on her current bike were 5″ above the saddle. This, in combination with a 22.8″ “rider compartment” (the distance from the center of the saddle to the handlebars) was still giving her some issues with too much pressure on her hands. This custom Coto Doñana Tour has a rider compartment of 21.4.” The handlebars are about an inch above the saddle.
The design that would conquer STP.
I specced Grip Shift® shifters to relieve the stress on her hands. Since we knew the diameter of the shifters, she was able to verify that the dimension was manageable and comfortable.
The Happy Ending:
A successful STP adventure!
It was my privilege to see the bike and its owner in action on the Terry Sojourn bike tour this September. Like I said, my job is always fun!
What better place for a bike ride than Vermont!
REI Tempe and a Georgena Terry Bicycle
When you purchase a Georgena Terry bicycle, it doesn’t arrive on your doorstep in a box. Nope. I send it to a dealer and pay to have it not only assembled, but fit to you as well. I’ve had a lot of experience fitting women through emails and phone calls, but I still want a professional to put the bike together and tweak it for the final fit. Whenever I talk to a customer about bike shops and she mentions REI, I know the bike is going to a good home.
My most recent bike, a nifty custom conglomerate of Coto Doñana Tour (most of the components), Coto Doñana Vagabond (the frame and fork) and (the still in its prototype stages) American Dipper, landed at REI in Tempe under the watchful eye and skilled hands of Master Technician Tyler Schettler.
How nice it is to work with a dealer who appreciates the bike and respects the customer. Tyler kept me and the bike owner in the loop throughout the building process. I felt like I was in the shop! Kudos to REI for setting the standard.
You probably want to know more about this bike. Its rider will be doing loaded touring on paved and dirt roads. She’s the average American woman height-wise, but much more slender. She knows a lot about her riding style and her preferences in bicycle components. As a result, her bike is made from the slightly lighter tubing used on CD Vagabond, but with the touring components of CD Tour. The wheels are all-American: Phil Wood 36 hole touring hubs with Velocity’s Aeroheat rims (now made in Florida). The saddle is the tried and true Brooks Team Pro. (Steel frame and fork plus Brooks saddle — these will last for decades with care.) The package is topped off in Iron Ore metallic, a custom color.
I’m looking forward to working with my next customer and hoping an REI is her town, too.
The thrill of meeting your new bike!
Saturday morning was a very special one. A Georgena Terry Coto Doñana Tour was about to meet its new owner. The scene: Sid’s Bikes on West 19th Street in New York City.
Larry Wallach, Sid’s manager, carefully hung this sweet machine ‘way up high so nothing would happen to it.
Making sure every story has a happy ending comes down to working closely with the customer and the shop. When you purchase a Terry, I include a free fitting by the dealer to make sure everything is dialed in perfectly. Sid’s is the best. If you’re in New York City, this is the shop!
From the looks of things, I’d say the bike and rider bonded immediately.
Hearing this after the maiden voyage made my weekend:
“I really can’t thank you enough for this bicycle! Between providing such an amazing ride and its beauty, I’m sure I’ll always be excited to get out and ride. Even the process of working with you on it was so pleasant. It’s been an incredibly satisfying experience to finally meet and ride it!”
My goal is for every Terry customer to feel this way.