I have mentioned Mike Burrows on the blog a few times before; I even mentioned him in one of my very first posts. He has designed many great recumbent bikes and trikes throughout his career, but I most admire the work he did on uprights like the Lotus bike for Chris Boardman and the first compact frame Giants in the 90s. I haven’t heard much about him lately, but I just saw a link on VeloVision to a video of Mr. Burrows showing off his bikes. Also, bottlemasher has some great photos of the Ratracer V.L.R., one of Burrows latest creations. The photostream is worth checking out. In particular I like the photos, like this one, which show Mr. Burrows piloting the Ratracer.
I would recommend Mike Burrow’s book “Bicycle Design”, published around 2000,to anyone interested in his designs. The book is pretty basic and it is definitely biased toward the author’s strong opinions about bike design, but I still think it is a pretty entertaining read. As a definitive book on the subject of bicycle design, it is definitely NOT a substitute for Whit and Wilson’s “Bicycling Science” or for Archibald Sharp’s classic book, but Mr. Burrow’s book is fun to look through if you are interested in his perspective. I believe his book is out of print at this point, but you can check your local library for a copy if you want to see fun illustrations, furry helmets, nicely shaped carbon frames, and plenty of monoblade forks.
Photo credit: bottlemasher on Flickr
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