Review: Miss America Bike Short by Terry

This review is part of the “Bottoms Up” series of reviews of Terry biking bottoms and contains affiliate links.

As you know by now, I am a huge Terry-or-die bike shorts devotée, and I have a few more reviews coming out soon. Terry provided these shorts for me, but I swear on my cats that I’m giving you the full scoop from what I really like to what I really don’t. I also send my feedback back to Terry.

It’s been a strangely hot spring in Northern California. I just finished the CCCX 2026 race series, my second year racing this series held in Fort Ord. It was pouring rain for race 1 in January, but by race 5 last weekend it was 85 degrees and the poison oak was in full bloom. I have been racing in Bella Max shorts, but I now wish I’d had the Miss America Bike Short for racing in the heat. This post will compare them, as I am considering my shorts options for racing Sea Otter, which is coming up soon.

TLDR; The Miss America Bike Short is 4 stars for me. I really like them as performance shorts for hot weather riding, training, and events. They feel so silky on and I love the shorter length (9-inch legs). If the pocket didn’t have a zipper, they would be 4.5 stars. If there were pockets on both sides with no zippers, 5 stars.

Pros:

1. Flex Air Max chamois. The chamois is the part of my bike shorts that I care most about because it determines how comfortably I can sit on a saddle and for how long. The Flex Air Max is the only chamois I will choose for rides that are going to be 3+ hours of saddle time. This is a personal choice, and my bits thank me for being picky about the padding and the pressure relief where my anatomy needs it most: in the front and the middle of my crotch. Thank you to the chamois goddesses of Terry!
2. 9″ legs. I am overjoyed to have a 9″ leg length option for hotter days. The Bella Maxes sometimes feel even longer, though they clock in at 10 inches, just an inch longer. An inch makes a big different in cooling.
3. The material of the Miss America bike short is silky and also lightweight. When I took them out of the package, I immediately wanted to put them on. They are much silkier than the Bella Maxes, which have a more “indestructible” feel. I’ve crashed several times in the Bella Maxes and even said “hello” to a tree and wound up in a bush (during a race), and they haven’t torn yet. The Miss America shorts on the other hand have that luxe and buttery feeling of your favorite yoga pants, but I don’t know how they would hold up after landing in a bush. I had a killer workout scheduled the afternoon that I tried them for the first time, and I forgot about how much it was going to hurt for a second while excitedly slipping into these shorts. I did wind up failing to hit my watts targets, but the shorts were a total win.
4. The pocket is deep! It is on the right side only, so beware that, and it has a zipper, but I just leave the zipper open for easier access. These days, I won’t ride without a substantial pocket on my bike shorts. I need a place to put my phone and extra treats or gloves. How did I ever ride for so long in chamois shorts without pockets? (Nevertheless, I am still a super fan of the Bella Primas. Ask me how many pairs I have.)
5. These shorts do not have a high compression feeling to them in my opinion, compared to the Caicos Bike Short for example, but they stayed put while riding. I would perhaps call them medium compression. I’ve been trying to drink more fluids and eat more gels on the bike, and as a consequence my belly fills up and expands more. These shorts have a very accommodating waist for these kinds of bodily expansions ;).
6. The leg grippers seem dainty compared to some of my other shorts, but they worked just fine on a very hard 2.5 hour workout. I forgot they were there, and they were perfectly in place when I got home. Leg openings are laser-cut and have a thin 10mm grip strip at the bottom. I actually think the subtlety of the grip strip is a nice, minimalist feature and matches the rest of the shorts. Will it last is another question – we’ll find out.
7. Fit: I’m 5’5″, 130lb, not curvy, and I order size Smalls reliably in Terry shorts. These as a small fit well.

Feedback & Cons:

1. Zipper on the pocket. Terry, if you’re listening, get rid of it. The pocket is extremely deep and does fit my phone, which is perfect, and I can’t fathom anything falling out of it unless I do a cartwheel. The zipper also makes it so that there is no elastic “give” when you stick your hand into the pocket, so it’s hard to get anything out of it easily. I like these shorts so much that I’m taking them to a tailor to replace the pocket zipper with elastic.
2. Pockets should always be on BOTH sides of shorts. Was this is a cost-of-production thing and one side had to be chosen? Two pockets would make those of us who want to keep our right hand on the bars happy, and it would also give more storage for really long rides that are so well suited for the Flex Air Max chamois. I would kill for a pocket on both sides.
3. The name of the “Miss America” model is somewhat cringe. Women who like bikes have enough of a challenge being taken seriously in a bro-centric sport, and the last thing we need is for our bike shorts to be associated with a beauty pageant. A name change should be easy.