Mike Burrows
Mike Burrows (born 1943) is a bicycle designer from Norwich, England.
He is best known for the design of the track carbon-fibre Lotus 108 time trial bicycle manufactured by Lotus for Chris Boardman, when he won the 1992 Olympic 4000m pursuit in Barcelona. He also attempted to copy the famous "old Faithful" bike used by Graeme Obree, to be used as a spare in an attempt on the world hour record. However the bike was not liked by Obree and not used in any record attempt.
Burrows has long been involved in the recumbent bicycle/tricycle world, having designed the Speedy or Windcheetah trike and more recently the Ratcatcher, Ratracer and Ratracer B. He has collaborated on projects with Richard Ballantine.
He is also involved in utility cycling and has designed a folding cycle (the Giant Halfway), an especially thin machine (the 2D) that takes up little space in a hallway, the 8-Freight freight bicycle in use with cycle courier companies such as Outspoken Delivery, and makes customised screen and PA carrying freight bikes with extendable "batwings" for AV2 Hire.
In the 1990s, Burrows worked for Giant Bicycles and designed the compact frame TCR road bike among others.
Burrows' designs often feature cantilever suspended wheels. He supplied a bike fitted with a front monoblade to television science presenter Adam Hart-Davis, which featured in some of Hart-Davis' programmes. Hart-Davis also owned a Speedy, finished in pink and yellow.
Bibliography
- Bicycle Design: Towards the Perfect Machine (ISBN 1-898457-07-7).
- From Bicycle to Superbike (ISBN 0953617459).
External links
- Windcheetah - Mike Burrows
- Velovision 8-Freight review
- Velovision Ratcatcher review
- Official 8 Freight website
- 8 Freight users