GEORGENA TERRY TO BE INDUCTED INTO THE BICYCLE HALL OF FAME.

On behalf of all of us at Terry Cycling, I am thrilled to announce that our founder, Georgena Terry, will be one of five inductees into the US Bicycle Hall of Fame in the fall of 2025.

Georgena discovered the freedom of riding a bicycle early on and never looked back. The bike became her wings and with them she explored the roads of Montgomery, Alabama. The energy crisis widened that wingspan to bike commuting at college in Pittsburgh, fueling her desire to get a mechanical engineering degree from Carnegie Mellon and her ultimate decision to ditch the corporate life at Xerox to start Terry Precision Bicycles in Rochester, NY.

Using herself as a guinea pig and her basement as her workshop, Georgena taught herself the fine art of brazing a bicycle frame. Others began asking her to build them bicycles…what she noticed was that most of them were women who complained about not being comfortable on their bikes. She conducted an in-depth study of the anatomical differences between men and women which led her to a different approach to frame geometry that recognized those differences and ultimately would fit women better. Inspired by the French practice in the 1800s of using a smaller front wheel, her no-compromise approach helped define her bicycle line and was the dawn of women-specific bicycle design.

Her business multiplied from 20 bicycles in 1985 to 5,000 in 1987. Initially all bicycles were handbuilt by Terry and a small cadre of like-minded engineers outside of Rochester, NY.

Once the bicycles were rolling, Georgena took on the next frontier: saddles. Her customers were complaining about saddle pain, so In 1992, she designed and patented the first Terry Sport Saddle. What made it innovative was the removal of the plastic substrate under the saddle’s nose, relieving pressure on the front of the saddle. From there, she eventually engineered complete cutaways and voila, another major revolution was born.

Since those early days of saddle design, cutouts have become common (imitation being the sincerest form of flattery), styles and materials have improved, and a full range of men’s and women’s saddles are now available to meet various cyclists’ needs.

In addition to her passion for product design, Terry also launched Team Terry, a pro women’s racing team to give young female cyclists an avenue for building their racing skills, founded the Wild Goose Chase, a benefit ride for Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge that has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars since its inception in 2008 and took up computer programming to launch the first Terry website.

Georgena sold her interest in Terry Precision Cycling and returned to her roots as a bike designer at georgenaterry.com, working one on one with customers from around the world. In 2012, Syracuse graduate student Amanda Zackem created an award-winning short film about Georgena, debuting at the New York City Bicycle Film Festival. Click here for 5 minutes of her own personal storytelling: https://community.terrybicycles.com/sidesaddle-blog/catching-up-with-georgena.

As the lead associate handling phone inquiries at Terry, I often hear success stories about Georgena’s impact. These stories inspire me daily and reflect her core mission which is still a vibrant bike-building business today (https://georgenaterry.com).

A customer recently shared her experience with a persistent tire puncture issue. She was amazed that she could work directly with Georgena to resolve it and noted that Georgena went above and beyond to find the cause and solution… she also mentioned that she is just 4’10”!

For the past 15 years, I have cycled her signature ride, “The Wild Goose Chase,” in Cambridge, MD, explored the farmlands of Vermont, Zwifted through the pandemic, and exchanged stories with Georgena. We’ve discussed everything from cycling and Le Tour de Femme to baseball and birds. I consider her a dear friend and an incredible role model, and I am still starstruck to call her my friend!

Cheers to you, GT, with your signature glass of Milk and a Nutella treat.

Lisa Wilkes runs the customer service department at Terry along with our partnership marketing efforts with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Vermont and events around the country.