Bicycle Design (Richard's Cycle Books) | 
 enlarge | Author: Mike Burrows
Publisher: Snowbooks Ltd.
Category: Book
List Price: $19.95
Buy New: $13.57
You Save: $6.38 (32%)
Avg. Customer Rating:  7 reviews
Sales Rank: 483312
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 160
Shipping Weight (lbs): 7.9
Dimensions (in): 7.3 x 5.4 x 0.7
ISBN: 1905005687
Dewey Decimal Number: 629.2272
EAN: 9781905005680
ASIN: 1905005687
Publication Date: November 1, 2008 (In 20 Days)
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Not yet published
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Mike Burrows is a legend, and this is the masterwork from the world's most famous and irreverent bicycle designer and inventor. Bicycle Design is the essential handbook if you want to know how to go faster, if you want the secrets of great bike design, or if you simply love cycle technology.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 2 more reviews...
 Not very objective December 21, 2006
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is a fun read, but much is opinion, rather than fact...... OK for a laugh, see bicycle science for a more serious, and objective study.
Okay but not great April 11, 2006
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Mike Burrows is or was a designer for the Chinese bike mfr, Giant. He's a Brit and the book is replete with his understated and self-deprecating British humor, which I think some reviewers misunderstood. Other reviewers also seem put off by the lack of quantitative data in the book, in spite of Mike's title as an "engineer." However, the title of "engineer" in Britain has the connotation of a mechanical tinker, not just the math whiz designers that we turn out in the States. Mike Burrows rose to his current position from experience as a mechanical tinker, not through mastering calculus, and there's nothing wrong with that.
I was disappointed with the book, however, because it had the potential to be so much more. Mike obviously knows a lot, gives us his opinions but fails to present the basis for them. It's not terribly helpful, for example, for Mike to show a picture of a bicycle, pronounce it bad, then fail to give his rationale. Perhaps he feels the flaws to be evident from a simple picture but they're not.
It feels more like a coffee-table book than a serious bike book--thick glossy paper stock, sixteen color pages in the middle, etc. Graphically, it's attractive, even if many of the illustrations are cartoonish.
About the only sections where I found new information was when he discussed hub gears and suspensions.
I think it would be fairer if the book were entitled "Mike Burrows' opinions about bike design" than "Bicycle Design." Readers interested in quant stuff should get "Bicycle Science" by Wilson. Readers interested in building their own machine should get "Atomic Zombie's Bicycle Builder's Bonanza" by Graham and McGowan.
I read the book cover to cover in two sittings over three hours. I'll probably donate it to my local library. I would have been pleased to read it there, probably would have been okay with paying about $12.00 for it, but was disappointed that I spent $27.
 Very Superficial December 26, 2005
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
I only read about 25% of the sections. I did not proceed because every section I read was astonishingly shallow. Either nothing at all would be stated on a subject or extreme statements would be made with no back up reasoning what-so-ever. For example Mr Burrows says that all types and alloys of steel have equal rigidity in bicycle frames and anyone that claims otherwise "is a liar." This contradicts all the data about different qualities of the variety of steels. Maybe Burrows is right but he gives no supporting evidence at all. In other instances he will be wordy on a subject, send the reader to another publication sometimes stating "if you can find it available" -- This about steering and trail in the chapter dedicated to handling. About handling he concludes "tyre size is not so important... Wheelbase is unimportant and neither are angles or fork rake ... there are no good bikes just good riders. And I should know, because I'm crap on all bikes." This is an exact quote from page 35.
 A Valuable Work June 30, 2004
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Burrows' statement about his lack of knowledge of algebra is probably tongue-in-cheek. His original occupation was designer of packaging machinery, which I would imagine requires an engineering degree. More importantly, Burrows is an intuitive designer; one need only look at the Windcheetah recumbent tricycle to see a design that was unprecedented at the time, yet both useful and beautiful. Burrows brought radical innovation to the world of racing bicycle design, and is a voice of sanity in the recumbent world, a field with more than its share of crackpots and ignoramuses.
If you are looking for engineering information, consult Whitt and Wilson, or indeed Archibald Sharp, to whom Burrows refers repeatedly. This book is more an overview for the lay reader rather than the professional designer. That being said, Burrows' explanations of why certain ideas won't work is clear and accessible, and wouldn't cause any harm if consulted by engineers long on theory but short on common sense.
Perspectives of an innovated designer January 17, 2003
15 out of 16 found this review helpful
Mike Burrows has been involved in innovative bicycle design for many years. This book reflects his interests in a diversity of human powered land vehicles, including road bikes, mountain bikes, city bikes, recumbents and tricycles.The book covers some of the major problems of bicycle design, including aerodynamics, rolling resistance, and the strength and stiffness of materials used to make bike frames. The book is not a comprehensive, evenhanded guide to all of the issues involved. Instead, it gives the fresh perspective of an iconoclastic designer. Burrows likes (for specific uses) disc wheels, monobladed "forks" (like Cannondale's Lefty shock), recumbents, non-standard frame geometry, disc brakes, hub brakes and composite construction. He refers to tires as "annular pneumatic suspension". He dislikes bogus "aerodynamic" frame tubes, bladed carbon wheels, shaft drives, belt drives, and the stifling design rules imposed by international bicycle racing organizations. The book does not include rigorous mathematical analyses of the engineering problems involved; to get that perspective, see "Bicycling Science" by Whitt and Wilson. Burrows has the perspective of an inventor. The writing has a humorous tone and the diagrams are clear and amusing. I'd recommend the book to anyone who is interested in the technical aspects of human powered vehicles.
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