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Bike designer, Mike Burrows, has spent more than 40 years driving forward the evolution of bike design. From his pioneer | dG1fakhJZ1dDbWszcG8
Transcript
00:00 Mike Burrows, a maverick engineer, who spent more than 40 years driving forward the evolution
00:11 of bike design.
00:12 It was that variety and originality of thought.
00:18 Mike's approach was purist and it worked.
00:22 I was born to be a mechanical engineer.
00:25 It just sort of happened that it was in my hands.
00:27 He changed the face of cycling as we know it.
00:34 Some of his bikes are as famous as the athletes who rode them.
00:48 And some were banned because they didn't look like bikes at all.
00:52 There's nothing marginal about one mile an hour that comes into the great big games category,
00:58 which is what I prefer.
01:01 One of the most important things that came out of Mike's involvement with Giant was his
01:06 compact road bike.
01:09 The industry were laughing.
01:11 They were joking.
01:12 This is not a bicycle, this is crazy, blah, blah, blah.
01:16 They wanted to ban it because of unequal advantage.
01:19 I'm going to get a rubber stamp made up to say banned by the UCI.
01:25 Mike's one of the most influential bike designers of the past half century.
01:30 Pioneer of carbon monocoque frame design in the early 80s, which provided the creative
01:35 spark for the legendary Lotus 108.
01:38 Now, 79 years old, Mike's showing no signs of stopping.
01:43 This is basically the nastiest bicycle I've ever ridden.
01:50 It really is an obsession for him.
01:52 All right, Mike?
01:53 Not really, no.
01:54 I think it's gone almost beyond enjoyment.
01:56 Have you ever found a bleaker spot to ride a bicycle?
01:59 I know.
02:00 Look at it.
02:01 It looks so ominous down there.
02:02 Oh, ****.
02:03 Oh, ****.
02:12 Oh, ****.
02:21 Oh, ****.
02:26 Oh, ****.
02:27 Oh, ****.
02:27 (dramatic music)
02:29 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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