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Home > Bicycle Design: The Search for the Perfect Machine (Cyclebooks Series)
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Bicycle Design: The Search for the Perfect Machine (Cyclebooks Series)
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By Mike Burrows
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 (9 Reviews)
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Publisher:
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Snowbooks
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Published:
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December 31, 1969 |
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Binding:
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Paperback
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Pages:
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216
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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:
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 Superficial and disappointing, December 22, 2002
By A Customer
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I have a number of problems with this book. The most immediate is that the author, who is a high-school drop-out and unabashedly admits that he doesn't even know algebra, repeatedly refers to himself as an engineer. Those of us who worked hard and long for our engineering credentials don't appreciate this. Would he call himself a physician because he can bandage a cut finger? The book shows the limitations of a nontechnical person addressing a technical subject. The author's lack of a quantitative understanding of his subject is palpable. For example, while he skewers some bicyling myths that badly needed skewering, he buys into others that are just as bad, such as the myth of the "whippy" frame. Another is the incessant focus on aerodynamics. The author has gone to great lengths to design aerodynamic bikes, while not really appreciating how little improvement really can be obtained, and how much wind resistance is from the rider, and thus irreducible. I would like to have seen a discussion of this, but it seems to be beyond him. Finally, his treatment of rolling resistance is embarassing; he recommends tests that have large errors and don't produce quantitative results. If you want to start understanding how bikes work, a much better book is Bicycling Science by Whitt and Wilson. However, you will have to know a little algebra to understand it.
22 of 41 people found the above review helpful.
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 Perspectives of an innovated designer, January 17, 2003
By Kevin L. Kirk (Corrales, NM United States)
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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.
19 of 20 people found the above review helpful.
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 Okay but not great, April 10, 2006
By Barry Gardner (Wheaton, IL)
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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.
12 of 12 people found the above review helpful.
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An essential beginning, January 24, 2002
By Gary F Mason (Vijfhuizen, North Holland, Netherlands)
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I have been scouring the world for books on the technical background of bicycles. There are very technical ones that are slow reading, and usually are restrictive in scope. There are coffee table ones that are very shallow, but nice to look at. And then there is this one. I can't find anything bad to say about this book, except that Mike Burrows stopped before the series was finished. This is a superb, and eminently readable, introduction to the technical basis of bicycles. One always has to make the decision about how much stock to put in an author's opinions, but considering this author's background, that decision is fairly easy. Mr. Burrows - if you read this, PLEASE write more, with additional depth, on almost anything you want to related to the technology of the bicycle!
6 of 9 people found the above review helpful.
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A Valuable Work, June 30, 2004
By Leopold Bloom (USA)
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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.
Burrows brings a unique perspective to several areas. Discussing the famous drawing of a bicycle by Da Vinci, he notes that it is not by Da Vinci and does not depict a bicycle, proposing that it is not an elevation view of a bicycle-like structure, but a plan view of something else. Burrows also proposes a different theory for the bicycle's origin. As an engineer, he knows that cutting a four-wheel cart in half to create two two-wheeled conveyances won't work - any engineer would know that the resulting machines would simply fall over. Instead, Burrows theorizes that a second, in-line wheel was added to an ordinary wheelbarrow, allowing a laborer such as a woodcutter to guide it through the narrow paths of a forest while carrying a larger load than an ordinary wheelbarrow is capable of. Burrows provides an example of an old drawing of such a machine. It is insights like these that demonstrate Burrows' ability to reexamine established opinions, and make him so delightful to read.
If you are looking for hard 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.
3 of 3 people found the above review helpful.
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Very Superficial, December 26, 2005
By Al Mayberry (SF, CA)
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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.
2 of 4 people found the above review helpful.
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Eccentric Tinkerer, March 15, 2010
By numero uno (rochester, mn)
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The book is short and doesn't claim to be anything that it isn't. Burrows is an eccentric tinkerer and he covers nearly every topic that a commuter like myself could querry. The section on aerodynamics is terrific, the suspension section omitted Zipp bikes and Soft Ride suspensions, perhaps Burrows doesn't consider Zipp 3001 bicycle frames and Soft Ride seats suspension at all.
Burrows doesn't cover everything, but what he does cover is covered with the honesty of trial and error. There's no index, but the bibliography covers anything that Burrows might've forgotten.
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 Decent review of basic design concepts, November 12, 2008
By Woland99 (Austin, TX USA)
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I just picked up brand new copy of "Bicycle Design" by Mike Burrows at used book store for $9 and I have to say that for that price it is very nice review of basic design ideas. Ir is true that that book is not technical at all and if I paid $70 for it I would be rather disappointed. I think that max price I would pay for it is about $18-20.
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 Not very objective, December 21, 2006
By Josh LLoyd (Boston, MA)
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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.
0 of 2 people found the above review helpful.
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