Georgena Terry Gambit
 

I was hoping there would be a petite lady on the forum who has had experience riding this unique Women's Specific Design and could share their impressions. I just picked this little beauty up at a garage sale (yes, I know she has seen better days, but so have I), and have been wondering if the design truly is better for a short woman's anatomy or if it is just hype. Of course, I have both a wife and daughter who are about 5'2" and I am hoping this bike will be just the thing for one or the other. It came equipped with Shimano Light action derailleurs, Sakai SA crankset, Diamcomp brakes and levers, Araya rims and petite Hsinglung (?) handlebars. I'm fairly knowledgeable about Suntour bits, but don't know the Shimano timeline and rankings. Does anyone have an idea 'bout how to date this? Thanks.
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I have not ridden this particular bike, but I have a lot of experience riding what are essentially knock offs (my Nishiki Prestige and the Centurion Dave Scott Ironman Expert).

My impression of both my bikes with the smaller front wheels is that they are a bit twitchy compared to my other bikes, but I easily adjusted within a few hours of riding.

They seem to be very light bikes, very fast. I would guess that your wife and daughter would LOVE this bike, based on my experience. Of course, they'd have to ride it for themselves :) . It's a nice, nice bike. When I first started looking at older bikes I was actually hoping I would run across something like a Terry bike.

I'm guessing 1987 by the colour scheme. Terry is still in business, and may be able to help you date the bike if supplied with the serial number. In fact, when I sent an e-mail to the Terry website, Ms Terry herself answered it :D !

East Hill

I had a Terry Solstice given to me. I kept it for a while as 2 of my grand daughters are Chinese & quite petite. Terry bikes really do fit small women well, and mine also appeared to have smaller brake levers that were compatible with small hands. We moved recently and I sold the Terry along with many other bikes to make our move easier. You should have no trouble selling the bike if your wife & daughter don't like the fit.

Ah yes, I forgot to mention that not only are the brake levers smaller, but the handlebars are quite narrow. I'll have to go measure the width, but they are definitely narrow.

East Hill

Its not possible to build a bike smaller than a certain size without compromising up the geometry. At the time the big/small wheel concept was popular the rationale was that using a 700c rear wheel allowed you to use normal cogs and chainwheels and have standard gear ratios, which you couldn't do with 2 24" wheels. IIRC 650c wheels didn't exist yet and small cogs weren't available yet, though the would be soon.

The first big/small I ever saw was built by Bill Boston. I dunno if the idea was original to him or he copied someone else. Terry was the first to market a line of bikes specifically for women and she used the big/small wheel design on her smaller sizes.

My ex-wife had a custom 700c/24" bike. It worked well for her.