Mike Burrows’ final lap.

It’s brilliant. It shows Mike in all his glory, and failings too.

<3

Oh :( like many others I was always fond of the couple of words shared when I'd bump into him around Norwich, a strange mix of being star-struck and proud of a local person. I always hoped he didn't mind random cyclists greeting him when he was out and about, think I most recently saw him birdwatching at Whitlingham, very sad to know that was the last time.

A photo I took at the Olympic museum in Lausanne in 2016. It is displayed alongside some of the most iconic pieces of memorabilia from across sporting history and always had a crowd round it.

What an impact on the sport!

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"Oh yes, I invented in-line adjusters" amazing stuff.

if i can't make the fastest bike in the world, perhaps i can have another go at making the slowest bike in the world

what a genius, i fancy one of those easy B town recumbents or perhaps a rat catcher..

Mike, thank you for your vision, talent and wizardry to bring us such a wonderful collection of cycling machines..

Sad to hear! Remembering collecting my speedy nr 12 in 1983 . A few races in the eighties and nineties where always very adventurous. Loved the meetings at the races with Mike then. The amazing windcheetah changed my life. Still got a life changing speedy from 1983. Thanks Mike for Your skills, racing thrills, more than excellent bike design and interessting talks.
wim van den assum

Very sad to head the news about Mike. I absolutely love this video too, what a great guy.

Well, bear in mind this was just a random shooting the breeze type conversation between strangers and was more than 20 years ago … however, as I recall he argued that the use of grease in bearings relied on the bearing turning fast enough to generate enough heat to melt the grease and only then would the resultant fluid actually lubricate the bearings. Therefore he thought that on a bike, where the bearings did not turn fast enough to generate the requisite heat it was more logical to use oil and not grease.

The fork question turned on whether the curve of the fork actually provided any material suspension effect, he (and I) thought that it did not and that the tyre provided sufficient suspension (for a road bike).

Chris Boardman confirms he's passed away.

https://twitter.com/Chris_Boardman/status/1559171917449502720?t=MeO3iFCpEgP2Yxyt9fHxDQ&s=19

I just got a call from Andy Pegg. Mike passed away this morning, at 7.30am, peacefully in his sleep.

I knew it was coming but even so I’m absolutely heartbroken by this.

Rest in peace, my friend. You’ll be remembered by us all.

He did, for the Giant TCR. Sadly Giant forgot to patent them and so Mike never saw a penny.

Absolutely gutted today. I knew Mike well, mostly as he had to keep sending me replacement bits to keep our yellow 8 Freights going.

I had been meaning to get in touch with him for ages - I owed him some cash for a hydraulic kickstand prop but it was always a bugger to pay him, as he only accepted cheques or hard cash..lol.

Having had a daughter a couple of years back and been waylaid by this and lockdown I had no idea he was ill. After all, this is the man who broke his tibia in his mid seventies and was back on a bike in a matter of weeks!

Would anybody be up for a Burrows Memorial ride? It would be rad seeing Ratcatchers, Windcheetahs, 8F's, TCR's and everything in between!

I used to see him twiddling up the hill past my old house every morning on his 8F and would wonder what rules, conventions or envelopes he’d be stretching in his mind, on the way to his workshop.
Ride well fella.

just saw that on the Bikefix facebook. Amazing

His sidekick Andy Pegg and I are looking to organise something. His funeral is going to be extremely private (not his doing; his family are a tad eccentric, shall we say) and so we want to have a memorial event of some sort. We have to clear his workshop out, catalogue everything and list a load of stuff for auction, which is going to be incredibly hard to to do, but it’s what he wanted. Then we’ll see how best to celebrate him. I’ll keep people informed.

Sounds good to me - best of luck with the workshop clear out though. That's going to be a hell of a task all right. I know there's a Teesdale built 1988 Fisher Mt Tam hanging in the rafters that I would be happy to rehome ;)

I'm up to my neck in stuff ATM (kids, trying to setup a business etc.) but shoot me a PM if you want and I'll see if I can help with anything as well.

Heh. The Mt Tam was originally owned by Richard Ballantyne, who swapped it for a faired Windcheetah. Mike rode it a few times, got into mountainbikes, crashed and broke his arm and declared that mountain bikes were stupid and dangerous and never rode one again. That bike is coming home with me, being good friends with both RB and Mike, that bike is as close to sacred to me as it comes. And I’ll make sure it gets ridden by as many people as possible. There is one more of Mike’s bikes that I want too, but the rest will go to auction.

What’s going to be hard is all the bits and pieces. There’s are literally boxes of stuff that are recognisable to me and other aficionados, as in “Jeez, that’s a prototype casting from a Windcheetah Mk5” which is useless to anyone but holds such memories. Hubs, castings, experimental bits. All useless but sentimentally they’re priceless.

His massive Milwaukee milling machine - it’s ancient but he used to build nearly all of his bikes. It should be preserved but Mike told me a couple of weeks ago “sod that, it should be used to make things!” It’s going to be auctioned off with the proviso that it’ll carry on working and not be sold for scrap. His family just want the place sold off and aren’t at all sentimental so it’ll all go.

I’ll message you. If you’re a local you may well know Andy P and we can go from there.